Diesel in Your Scooter, how to fix it !!

Ok ladys and gents , if like me you made the fatal mistake of putting the wrong fuel in your scooter and you need to know how to fix the problem please read on.



first off we need to get the fuel out of the petrol tank. the most simple way i found as a hand pump fishtank cleaner, it drains water out of fish tanks via you pumping a little rubber valve, cheap versions cost around £7 from your local pets at home and other pet stores.
BLACK FUEL CAN if you can pump the fuel into a black fuel can, you can tell if its petrol by popping a finger into the fuel and looking at your digit, diesel is an oil based fuel so it looks oily on your finger and unlike petrol it does not evapourate away very quick at all. so pump the fuel from the tank.
You will have a very tiny amount left in the bottom of the fuel tank what the pump cannot remove, do not worry its fine. just recap your tank .....

once the tank is empty we need to clear the carb out, on the bottom of your carb is a little pipe and a small screw ( right at the bottom on the float bowl ) we need to unscrew the screw and let the fuel out of the carb and into a container ...... NOW with the ignition TURNED OFF we need to empty the fuel pump so kickstart your bike a good few times, as you do this the float bowl will fill back up but do not worry we can empty it again. just kickstart the bike a good while to drain all the fuel from the fuel pump into the carb and then into your container ......

check list should be : fuel tank empty as much as possible - carb float bowl emptied a couple times - fuel pump cleared. so lets go grab some decent fuel , purchase 1 gallon ( five liters) of regular fuel unleaded or super unleaded. at the same time remove spark plug and give it a good wipe off with a lint free rag, a clean rag at that ....

FILL YOUR TANK with the fresh correct fuel once filled cap the tank and give it a little rock back and fourth to swill the tank this is going to water down the rest of the diesel in the tank , with igniton off kickstart your bike to prime the pump and the carb ( if your bike is electric start only ignition on and give the starter a few taps to prime up carb and pump). all good the new fresh fuel should now have filled your carb and your fuel pump. BUT now is the hard part .............

Its not going to start up first time or second time, so be ready to kickstart/ electric start your bike until it does, when the bike FIRST FIRES UP there is going to be a lot of smoke, DO NOT WORRY the smoke is diesel burning off. Your bike may stall so just restart it or keep kicking it over till it starts again. This could take a while as the fuel works its way round the motor.

when the bike finaly starts up and idles its going to be rough , DO NOT try to throttle bike it will stall Just let it idle over while it bellows thick smoke, again do not worry this smoke is good its the old diesel being burned off....... after 5 mins idle add a little throttle you should notice the thick smoke starting to thin out......... GO GET YOUR GEAR ON ....... your now going to go for a ride. stay very close to home and ride your bike you need to get up high into the rpm to help flush the rest of the bad fuel out so ride around the local neighbour hood keeping close to home, your bike WILL BE sluggish for a while and wont feel the same power wise its natural but stick with it, you have 5 liters of tainted fuel that needs to be burned away, its going to take a couple of full tanks before your bikes fully back to being fine again ........


FOURSTROKE OWNERS !!!! ........ YOU MUST DO AN OIL CHANGE when you fill the tank with correct fuel so change the oil out, get it started run that first tainted tanks worth of fuel through then fill tank again, when you fill for the second time DO ANOTHER OIL CHANGE !!!! . you MUST do an oil change a couple times so your not left with diesel in your engine oil !!!

 

Read this with the biggest grin on my face....................

I guess it working again properly now TC?

 

Yes steve its a bit stinky lol smells like a duramax diesel but sounds like a twostroker lol hahahaha


I gotta also say Thanks to SteveP for the helpful tips that got me beack on the road, and if you stumble onto this post due to you to making the same mistake i did, dont worry, just follow the steps above set aside a full day and you will be back to the road again

 

done that in my cub twice then my car not content with that I managed to fill my diesel van with petrol
must admit never knew to change the engine oil

 

Yes with a fourstroke even though you dont mix the oil is drawn to the cylinder and rings , any excess flows back into the sump, but its always a given thing to replace oil in the motor if its a fourstroke and you miss-fueled .

Side note for TWOSTROKES :

Diesel is a blooming good cleaner, if you guys ask us about cleaning a dirty chain 9-10 times we will advise you give it a good soak in diesel , then dry it off and give it a bloody good oiling, BUT for a twostroke this is NOT GOOD when its in your engine, the diesel has surfactants in it and they tend to make your twostoke oil work a little less better than it should , the problem is they break down the twostoke oil a lot quicker than inside the engine or premixed with your petrol so you run the added risk of running a little hot until all the diesel has been washed from the cranks casing - fuel lines - fuel tank - fuel pump and the carb.

So dont go superballs out and pin that throttle 24/7 just go easy and dont run really hard ...... yes do run the scooter/bike upto full rpm but just dont pin it at those high rpms for extended periods .

 

Diesel panic attack.
Drain tank, hoses and carb and you are done, and fourstrokes don't need oil change unless there is major evidence of fuel in crank case.
And saying there is surfactant in diesel is like saying it mixes well with water, last time i checked it still went for the bottom

 

Looking for a little advice, my son has put diesel in his YN50 scooter. We have drained the tank, changed the spark plug but it will not start. We have been told to drain the carburettor but cant for the life of us find the plug to do this. Could you possibly point us in the right direction?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone

 

Some carbs don't have a drain plug on the bowl, you just have to remove them and take the bowl off.

 

Some yamaha scoots (most) have that quick drain thing, where you just push up and get it all over your hand..