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A Little Bit of Diesel does you Good!?

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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:38 AM
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Question A Little Bit of Diesel does you Good!?

A few years ago, maybe 15 or 20, I read somewhere that it was actually considered prudent for petrol cars to have a couple of litres of diesel run through them annually.

Not sure if anyone here remembers anything like that?

I guess it goes in the same box as the annual change of the MAF Sensor, CrankSensor disconnect Oil Change and other such bollox ............ but, is there some crumb of truth in it somewhere along the line??

I 'think' the idea was some kind of upper cylinder lubrication ......... ??

Pete
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:42 AM
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heard of diesel owners putting petrol in when its freezing in winter
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:42 AM
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maybe ok for 15-20 year old cars without the technology of today!
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:58 AM
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Up to 30% petrol in diesel acts as a winter anti wax big time, not so sure about diesel in petrol now days. It probably acted as an upper cylinder / valve lube years ago.
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 10:05 AM
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my dads a diesel engineer, bn working with engines for 55 yrs never heard of it being good for a petrol car to put diesel in tank, it has a much higher flash point etc etc than petrol, I would add this one to your bollocks pile
He did say though as long as it was only a couple of litres of diesel the car would run but wouldnt like it too much and you would be way down in power.

Graeme
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 10:26 AM
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I did nearly fill mine with it first time I took the car out ! stopped at the pumps, saw two green and one black pump, remembered I needed to put super unleaded in, checked it was the middle ( green ) pump, and still managed to pick up the wrong one - was just about to put the nozzle in when I noticed....

Please feel free to call me a muppet
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 10:31 AM
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Originally Posted by MikeCardiff

Please feel free to call me a muppet
Maybe in about 5000 posts' time.
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 10:39 AM
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I'm pretty sure diesel would cause severe detonation, and your cocklink would light up like a Christmas tree
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 11:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Dick Cheese
I'm pretty sure diesel would cause severe detonation, and your cocklink would light up like a Christmas tree
Bloody Hell, never thought of that!!

Would I need to wear some 'DickCans' on my head too??!!

Also, I would need some spotty, hippy geek next to me with a Laptop - doing a Rolling Re-Map??

Pete
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 11:58 AM
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Originally Posted by mid_life_crisis
Up to 30% petrol in diesel acts as a winter anti wax big time, not so sure about diesel in petrol now days. It probably acted as an upper cylinder / valve lube years ago.
It does, but it will cause the fuel to burn far hotter and will f*ck your engine. You can use a 20% mix if youre trying to get an old diesel through its emmissions test though, but do it on an empty tank and fill up afterwards.


Simon
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 01:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Dick Cheese
I'm pretty sure diesel would cause severe detonation, and your cocklink would light up like a Christmas tree
Wouldn't it actually increase the RON rating? Like putting anything else non-flammable (or less flammable in the case of diesel) water, octane booster etc?
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 03:04 PM
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Not sure if its measured the same way, but if it is what would the RON rating of standard diesel be?


Sorry if its a silly question
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 03:08 PM
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Not it wouldnt add to the knock resistance; if it were that easy we'd all be adding 20% H2o to our fuel tanks.....
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 05:48 PM
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Originally Posted by GC8
Not it wouldnt add to the knock resistance; if it were that easy we'd all be adding 20% H2o to our fuel tanks.....
Well, I didn't mean it quite that way - not to imply you could get better performance as such, just less knock. And you wouldn't put water in the tank though spraying a fine mist in with fuel air mix works apparently
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 06:56 PM
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I understood you perfectly well.
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 08:20 PM
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I used to run my nissan sunny off petrol diesel mixes...syphoned out the tanks of all the numpties who put the wrong fuel in their car. (free fuel )

anything more than approx 33% diesel in the mix and the thing would be a bit of a pig to start on a cold day and stalled easily when cold. But when it was warm was fine.

Just the trail of smoke everytime you gunned it was pretty bad, very handy at getting people up your **** to back off though - also helped stop the foglamp fanatics from dazzling me in the mirrors too And high-mid/revs+light throttle caused mild pinking (until I disconnected the vacuum advance on the dizzy ).

It ran with 9:1 compression and was tuned with timing set at 3 degrees BTDC as stock for 90Ron fuel - which would explain why it wasn't fussy about running on crap fuel
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 08:26 PM
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Originally Posted by cookstar
Not sure if its measured the same way, but if it is what would the RON rating of standard diesel be?


Sorry if its a silly question
anyone?
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:05 PM
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It cant be measured; resistance to knocking is measured using a special single cylinder spark ignition engine and you cant light diesel with a spark... Consider also that youre suggesting attempting to measure resistance to the very action necessary for a diesel engine to function.....

Simon
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Old Jul 9, 2005 | 09:23 PM
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http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdieselvsgas.html

What happens when you use gasoline in a diesel engine? Either something expensive or something very expensive.
lol

Some old-timers and shade-tree mechanics will add small amounts of diesel fuel to the gasoline in their cars in the belief that it will lubricate the valves, in the same way that people will add such items as "Marvel Mystery Oil" and automatic transmission fluid to their gas tank. I can find no reputable studies that show any merit to adding diesel fuel to gasoline. While small amounts of these items aren't likely to kill the engine or cause permanent damage, their use is not recommended.
I don't think I'll be trying it
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Old Jul 10, 2005 | 10:13 AM
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Originally Posted by cookstar
anyone?
IIRC, diesel is measured in cetane and not Octane
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Old Jul 10, 2005 | 11:37 PM
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Man thats the craziest thing i heard in ages, i just wouldnt want to try that at all.
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Old Jul 11, 2005 | 10:48 AM
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Many years ago was given aviation gas instead of petrol. It was dark and we were in a hurry (waiting for the Russiansto invade Western Europe)put it in a 4.2 litre straight six Jaguar equipped recce vehicle by mistake. Went like **** for a while. Best exercise I ever did!!!!
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