diesel in a 6.0l vortec now it wont start

jjordan83 · December 6, 2020

One of our work trucks( 2019 2500 HD WT 4x4 CCSB) had diesel put in the tank and driven long enough it was running very rough when it was handed to me. I dropped the tank, drained the fuel first thing. disconnected the supply line from the fuel rail and blew all the diesel out of the line. I pulled the fuel rail and injectors, drained and cleaned all of it and reinstalled. I pulled the plugs, cleared the cylinders one by one. It was driven long enough that there was fuel reside in the exhaust even. I also pulled the O2 sensors from the exhaust and cleaned them up as well. even after all of this, the truck will turn over fine, tried starting a couple times, very roughly, and now will not even try and fire. I pulled each plug and verified spark. I pulled the fuel rails and injectors as a unit and cycled the ignition. All eight injectors are spraying and cycling with the firing order. have tried starting fluid in the intake, no luck. Its like its not getting spark but i know that it is. Is there a sensor i should be looking into, a timing issue, a reset of the system possibly? any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

CamGTP · December 6, 2020

Nothing should need to be reset on a truck like this.

You could verify that certain things are still working on a scan tool. Like intake temps, coolant temp, the key on engine off MAP kpa should be around 100kpa at sea level and less at elevation.

I would probably replace all the spark plugs if you didn't. Even if there is spark outside the cylinder it may not be strong enough with compression in the cylinder.

garagerog · December 6, 2020

Do a compression check to verify that a head gasket didn't give up the ghost with the engine running on diesel.

redwngr · December 8, 2020

Catalytic converter plugged/restricting flow?

16SilveradoWY · February 2, 2021

Did you check or change your oil? Strangely enough this happened to me in a 2002 Pontiac van; the fuel supplier put diesel in the wrong tank. It obviously ran like crap, but another side-affect was that the diesel that didn't burn pushed past the rings and filled the oil pan. I drained 7 quarts out of a 4 quart pan. Worth a try...

redwngr · February 8, 2021

It happens.

Station in British Columbia.

Fuel tanker driver dropped on compartment of diesel into the underground gas tank, and one compartment of gasoline into the underground diesel tank.

Station sold fuel for about 4 hours before the problem was identified.

Probably not quite as severe as filling an empty vehicle tank with the wrong fuel, but another example that it's not always the vehicle owner that causes the mixup.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/osoyoos-gas-station-diesel-gasoline-car-repairs-1.5901792

British Columbia

B.C. gas station owner comes clean about accidentally selling diesel-gas mixture

He's covering repair costs for motorists who filled their tanks with damaging blend in Osoyoos

· CBC News · Posted: Feb 04, 2021 6:05 PM PT | Last Updated: February 4

An estimated 4,500 litres of mixed gasoline and diesel fuel was sold at the Osoyoos Shell station in January before the error was discovered, according to owner Gagandeep Singh Atwal. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

An Osoyoos, B.C., gas station owner is coming clean about a mistake that created a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline in the station's tanks and was sold to customers for a period of about four hours last month.

On Wednesday, Gagandeep Singh Atwal, co-owner of the Shell station in Osoyoos, wrote on a local Facebook page about the mix-up, which happened on the afternoon of Jan. 30.

"The fuel delivery driver erroneously dumped one compartment of regular gas in the diesel tank and one compartment of diesel in the regular gas tank," Atwal wrote.

"We stopped selling both regular gas and diesel to customers when we got to know about the driver's error."

Motorists who filled up with either regular gasoline or diesel between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. may have been affected by the fuel mix-up, he wrote, explaining that two customers had already been identified and reimbursed for repairs to their vehicles.

'Purely human error'

"This is purely a human error made by the delivery driver," he wrote.

"We are committed to stand by our customers and will take care of their repair costs incurred due to this error."

Gas station's fuel mix-up proving costly for customers

In an interview with CBC News, Atwal estimated 4,500 litres of mixed fuel was sold before he became aware of the situation and shut down the pumps.

Dozens to more than 100 motorists may have filled their tanks with the diesel-gasoline mixture, he said.

Since he wrote the post, Atwal said more than a dozen other motorists have contacted him.

"There are lots of invoices that have shown up," he said. "We are paying them out of our pocket and then we will deal with the insurance at our end."

More than 100 damage claims filed to ICBC after maintenance mishap turns road into sticky mess

Repair costs to drain fuel mixture

One of the motorists who filled up with the fuel mixture showed up at Osoyoos Mechanics after their vehicle broke down, according to shop owner Lukas Gedminas.

His mechanic had to remove the fuel tank and the fuel pump in order to siphon the fuel mixture out of the tank and worked on the car for more than two and a half hours to get it running again, he said.

"The fuel pump should be alright," Gedminas said. "The catalytic converter will probably be the main concern. Potentially, it could plug up prematurely," he said.

Worse, Gedminas said, is putting gasoline in a diesel engine.

"Gasoline is somewhat abrasive, so that would just not work well with any diesel engine parts, especially injectors."

'People have been really supportive'

Gedmisas praised the gas station for taking responsibility for the mistake. And he wasn't the only one.

By Thursday afternoon more than 100 people had commented on Atwal's social media post with the vast majority commending the gas station for being forthcoming about the situation and promising to do right by his customers.