Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon A.
At least some gas-powered cars can accommodate a diesel spout. I've heard of people filling their gas tank with diesel, one car being a late-model Crapolla. The owner was only able to drive a couple of blocks before the stuff got into the engine and wouldn't ignite. Once the diesel had been pumped out and the car was running again it was smoking like it had a bad head gasket.
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The other way around is potentially much worse - I had a girlfriend who filled her Dad's Diesel Jetta with gasoline, luckily the car figured it out and shut down before anything got damaged... he was furious at her! It had to be towed to VW, fuel tank drained, engine cleaned out.. I think he paid $400 to have it fixed. I am always careful not to do it with my Toyota, it would be a fast way to ruin the engine!
As for running carbureted cars on diesel.. never did that, but if you want to troubleshoot an exhaust leak on an old car without a catalytic converter, one thing you can do is put a vacuum hose into a cup of engine oil.. it sucks it right into the engine and makes the car smoke like crazy.. drawing attention to the exhaust leak. I think a modern car with sensors and stuff could be damaged by this practice, but it didn't seem to harm my old 69 ford.