Small amount of gasoline in diesel fuel?

[mikeneal]

I have a home heating fuel oil furnace that uses #2 fuel oil and since I live in a very moderate climate (SW Florida) I only use it several days of the year. Since local fuel companies have fairly large minimum delivery requirements I typically purchase ~20 gallons of diesel a year and add it to the tank. Recently a friend of mine inadvertently purchased 20 gallons of diesel for his boat and had to dispose of it so he gave it too me. I added it to the oil tank and afterwords he told me it might have had small traces of gasoline in one of the 5 gallon jugs. (~1 gallon). I Googled it and it appears some people say small traces is OK, but might harm the injector pumps etc. in a typical diesel engine
My question is, will that amount cause issues /safety fire hazard for my furnace. Would hate to kill my family and burn down house for some free fuel. Should I drain/dispose of the entire tank? I will measure the tank tonight but I believe there is about 40 gallons of diesel total.

 

[rmw]

Does your burner recirculate to your fuel tank. If it does you would have to worry about the fuel in the tank heating up and vaporizing the gasoline in it as it got low in the tank. If not then this is not a worry. If so, then you could burn the fuel and keep topping up (manually) to keep the tank fuel full and ever so slowly use up the offending fuel. Is your fuel tank within the "breating air" envelope of the residence? If outside, I wouldn't sweat it. If inside, I would consider it carefully.

rmw

 

[MortenA]

Two suggestions that may already have thought of yourself:

1) Talk to the company where you buy diesel normally - They may have heard about a similar situation

2) Talk to the local repairshop where you would go if the burner broke down, needed cleaning etc.

Best regards

Morten

 

[mikeneal]

The system does not have any type of recirculation, it is has a fairly straight forward positive displacement pump that supplies fuel oil to burner. The tank is located outside and considerable distance from anything.
I typically purchase the diesel at local stations (no real help and/or knowledge) and perhaps I could find a heating repair place outside Florida to discuss options with, once before several years back when thermostat failed actually had somewhat difficult time finding anyone that worked on oil furnaces locally since they are typically old school and not much need for them in my region.

 

[dcasto]

the gasoline will vaporize over time and be vented until it is in equalibrium. there is nothing to worry about.

 

[mikeneal]

Good too hear dcasto. I wondered since the tank is vented (not a sealed container) if the gasoline would evaporate.
I was not looking forward to trying to figure out what to do with all that tainted deisel.

 

[rmw]

It sounds like you might have the problem of storing diesel for prolonged periods because you never go through a full tank during your severe winters. (see tongue in cheek) The gasoline will actually help you while it is in the process of vaporizing and dissapating. It will raise the vapor pressure above the liquid level displacing air that would bring in moisture. I would think that your principal problem is moisture collection in your tank. Be sure to keep your tank full at all times (search this site for several threads on that topic). Remember that when the gasoline all vaporizes, you will have to replace its volume to keep your tank topped right up. In fact, that should be your 'test case' of what dcasto has told you will happen; when all the gasoline is gone, the level will drop by some amount.

rmw

 

[rmw]

And, if the gasoline has the typical amount of ethanol in it, the ethanol will pick up any water that is in your tank and it will move toward the burner when you run the unit. If you have a filter that might be plugged by that water, you might watch that too. Ditto with your burner orifices if no filter. I don't expect a big issue here, but still, be mindful of the possibilities

rmw

 

[mikeneal]

I wondered about the moister absorption during storage because I use so very little fuel oil. I would actually prefer to have a smaller tank so I could store ~what my annual usage was and reduce air space in the tank. I only use 20-30 gal/year and the tank is about 150 gallons so it always has a significant air space. I do add some fuel diesel fuel condition occasionally to hopefully remove some water. Far as I know there is only a crude screen on the inlet of the burner pump inlet so I also added cartridge fuel filter @ the tank so hopefully collect some water that condensates and debris that surely exists in the tank/system.

 

[IFRs]

I know of one diesel engine that ran away and caused a near disaterous explosion by sucking in gas fumes. They are not intended to run on gas. If your fuel pump sucks from the top surface of the liquid I would be careful. You were given a 5 gallon can with 1 gallon of gas, which you mixed into a 20 gallon tank so you have 1 gallon of gas in 19 gallons of diesel. That is a bit more than 5% gas. Cause for concern if you ask me (but I tend towards the conservative side of things).

 

[mikeneal]

I measured the exact depth and I have about 38 gallons of fuel and have about 1 gallon of gas mixed in.

 

[BigInch]

The vapor pressure of gasoline is about 10 times that of diesel, which says any vapor above the liquid will have 10 times as much gasoline vapor as diesel. Do not allow it to vent into the house. If you have a lot of vapor space above the liquid and/or can get some (diurnal) ventilation going to a safe place, gasoline will tend to work its way out.

I don't see where you say how much oil you've got in there. Besides too much gasoline in the diesel, you also need to be worrying about running diesel in that oil burner.

If I were you, I'd work on getting that smaller tank and stop this refinery blending operation in your house. In any case, you do know your insurance company won't pay... if you do manage to get yourself and family out of the house .... with all their skin still attached.

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