The most common challenge leading to the failure of diesel engines is the mixture of water with diesel fuel. Some of the most common ways water can get into your fuel system include; Condensation of water in your fuel tank. This can be caused by inefficiencies during transportation or storage of the fuel.

COMMON DIESEL ENGINE PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRE REPAIR

1. Diesel Won’t Start.
2. Hard To Start Diesel Engine.
3. Diesel Runs Rough At Lower RPMs.
4. Lack of Diesel Engine Power.
5. Diesel Engine Knocking or Pinging.
6. Black Smoke.
7. White Smoke.
8. Blue Smoke.

The fuel and air mixture in diesel engines typically do not mix as thoroughly as they do in gasoline engines. This creates fuel-dense pockets that produce soot when ignited. While the majority of soot easily escapes through the exhaust, some gets past the piston rings and ends up in the oil.

Review EngineTech’s list below for five mistakes that can seize up or destroy a diesel engine.

1. WATER CONTAMINATION.
2. CARBON BUILD-UP.
3. WINTER NEGLIGENCE.
4. DILUTED FUEL.
5. COOLANT SEEPAGE.

If your car, truck, or SUV is powered by a diesel engine, you’ll want to only use a diesel engine flush. This type of engine flush is specifically engineered to flush out the harmful carbon deposits, gunk, and sludge that build up in diesel engines over time.

What Happens when you put Diesel in a Gas Vehicle? Since diesel fuel is thicker and denser than gasoline, the fuel pump will struggle to move the diesel/gasoline mixture through the system. Also, the diesel will not be able to easily pass through the fuel filter. Instead, it will clog up the fuel filter.

Once the excess gas in the fuel lines is used up, though, your engine can shut off, and you’ll be stranded. That’s because gasoline engines cannot easily combust diesel fuel. Since diesel fuel is very low in octane, depending on the amount of contamination, the engine may run rough or start knocking.

Diesel in a gasoline engine will cause problems with the injection system and generally requires draining the tank, though just one gallon in an entire tank may not do any lasting damage. gasoline’s octane rating describes its resistance to detonation (or knocking, dieseling) prior to spark ignition.

Specifically for a diesel, however, excess oil in the crankcase can cause it to be forced up past the piston rings and into the combustion chamber. In a SI engine, this simply generates, smoke and might foul the spark plugs. In a diesel, however, this oil becomes an uncontrolled auxiliary fuel supply.

Diesel oils have to put up with much higher engine temperatures, higher oxidation rates, sulfur deposits, fuel soot, acids and other deposits and conditions not usually found in automobile engines. It’s because diesel oils fail in one critical area when used in gasoline engines.

The problem is the fuel system. Once the oil is in the cylinders, it will burn. It actually happened with old diesels, that engine oil leaked into the combustion chamber either through the middle seal of the turbocharger or through the valve stem sealing, and caused uncontrolled acceleration.

Meaning, adding 2-stroke oil to diesel doesn’t improve the lubricity of the diesel. According to the tests by SASOL the practice of adding 2-stroke into diesel at 200:1 dilution doesn’t tangibly improve the lubrication quality of diesel and in one test, actually decreased the lubricity.