Well, I did the unthinkable, while unthinking. Maybe it was a senior moment. Anyway, VERY LATE last Thursday night on my way home with an empty tank I stopped to fill up my diesel tank. Went inside to pay, then back to the pump and filled my tank with RUG (regular unleaded gas).

It drove home fine (only 1/2 mile), but Friday Morning when I tried to start it, it ran VERY rough and would die if I shifted into gear. I used another car for the day and looked at it Sat, with same results. Finally Sunday morning I had this horrable thought that maybe I got the wrong fuel, so I found the receipt and sure enough, it was RUG (just so you don't think I am completely incompetent and unworthy of owning a MBZ diesel (1985 300SD), I just bought this about 1.5 months ago and it is my first diesel vehicle, and this is my 4th tank of fuel - 3 out of 4 is not that bad in baseball, actually I am batting 750, lol).

Back to my problem - I'm thinking that I should syphon out as much as possible from the return hose under the hood, then try to add diesel through the supply line (both have hose clamp). I hope 5 gal is enough diesel to add to get it running so I can go back to the gas station to fill-up again - this time with #2 diesel.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Please remember that I already have a wife that is more than willing to point out the error of my ways, so any jokes, putdowns, etc. are ok, just add something positive also. She was not able to do the latter.

Thanks to all, and I hope all the rest of you that have done this will learn from my lesson, even tho you were not brave enough to post and ask for help. Actually, tho, some of you may have, but I did not find your thread when I tried to search.

I think I would siphon by putting a hose down the tank filler and burn everything from that in my gas vehicles. Then I would fill the tank back up over time using portable (like 5-gallon) fuel cans. When the tank has a good supply, I would pop the primary filter and "bleed" the supply line. This would also empty the primary filter. Then I would take off the secondary filter and fill it with fresh diesel. Then crank until the car starts.

But this process takes time to accomplish. I have a stable of cars to drive and can easily park one for several years if necessary.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

none of us MB Diesel owners EVER make this mistake... Um you belive me right?
anyway, usually the help is posted similar to what you posted. like "help I put in the wrong fuel" or "HELP QUICKLY" or something similar...
anyway, yeah, siphon out as much as possible, put in the 5 Gallons you have into the tank, it is probably best to remove the fuel filters empty them, fill the spin on with diesel, or tranny fluid, siphon out a quart of gas from the supply line ( the one hooked to the clear in line filter) and crank it until it runs smooth. then go fill up.
it would be best if you had 10 gallons of diesel to put into the tank, for two reasons, first the gas will set tons of gunk free from the bottom of your tank, and the second is you can't get all the gas out, so mixing with as much diesel as possible would be best.
John

Don't be so hard on yourself this happens. As for your wife, cars don't talk back...have a good 4th

How much gasoline was actually added to the tank? and how much remaining fuel do you think you had before you filled up?

This will kind of determine what you will need to do to add lubrication and cetane rating to what you have. This can be done with diesel, veg. oil, or clean motor oil.

If it was nearly a full tank of gasoline, you may have to do some major draining. The best way to do this is to jack up the rear and disconnect the flexible fuel hose at the bottom of the fuel tank. You will need several 5 gal. cans, vise grips, or similar, to pinch the hose with, and a section of clear tubing to attach to the end of the flex hose with a barbed union. (Fortunately, all of these items are inexpensive and come in handy for future projects.) Pinch the flex-hose with the vise grips to prevent fuel from going everywhere when you disconnect it from the hard fuel line going forward under the car. Attach your union to the end of the fuel line and to the clear tubing which is fed to your 5 gal. cans. Release the vise grips and "wala" no fuss no muss. When one can is full, pinch the line at the can with the vise grips and go to the next one.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

You are very fortunate that you did not blow up the engine. That mistake is really easy to do, even experienced diesel people have done that, but would not admit to it.

There was a guy here at work that did that to his new F250. That powerstroke ended up with a couple of holes in the block (Happened on the Interstate going 75 mph, he felt some hesitation, mashed the pedal, BOOM!). RUG and compression engines just do not mix.

While you do your system bleed, also change your filters.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone.

Gage was on E and I filled it up with 16.996 gal (I could have said 17, couldn't I).

Thread title changed.

Vehicle should appear in post........in signature.......or in profile.

Make sure you change the secondary filter and fill the canister with fresh diesel fuel before attempting to start it.

There is a primer pump on the driver's side of the engine, down low near the fuel pump. Pump this at least 50 times after replacing the secondary filter.

You should also remove the hard lines from the injectors and crank the engine with your right foot on the floor to force fresh fuel through the IP and out those hard lines to displace the RUG. It will have a difficult time starting on RUG, and, as mentioned, serious consequences will occur if it does.

After the RUG passes through the IP and you get fuel out of the hard lines, reconnect them to the injectors and start the engine.

If you were stuck in the wilds of Afghanistan with only a jug of water, a gallon of oil and a loaf of bread, I would say to dump the gallon of oil into the tank and try to carefully drive it and burn the mix. Since your situation is not so dire I would agree with the advice to remove the gas from your tank.

Since you tried to run it you need to drain all the fuel from the lines all the way to the injectors. Once you drain your tank and refill with diesel, you could probably disconnect a fuel line near the primer pump and use that to suck good fuel through the lines. Then replace both fuel filters and, crack the injector lines and crank until diesel gets up there.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200