Backwards safety feature on vehicles…

[AJMD429]

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Most of the time they manage to design cartridges so that you can’t chamber one in a different-chambered gun that would have a smaller bore diameter, but sometimes you can chamber a cartridge in a gun the other way around.

When it comes to vehicles, I had a patient many years ago whose ‘last straw’ divorce-event was accidentally putting diesel fuel in her husband’s vintage Mustang.

A couple weeks ago a patient told me their neighbor got burned when the engine on their tractor exploded, evidently because the son had fueled up the diesel tractor with gasoline.

I have not made either type of mistake, but when fooling around with gasoline and diesel, it sure seems like gasoline is a lot more explosive. I think the vapor point of gasoline is below freezing, whereas the vapor point of diesel fuel is above the boiling point of water. I know if I throw a lot match at a coffee can full of gasoline underneath a burn pile, the match will often ignite, just hitting the cloud of vapor above the can, but if I do the same thing with diesel, the match will go out, even if it lands in the can.

Back to the comparison with safe design of firearms, it occurs to me that modern cars have that smaller aperture at the entrance to the gas tank that probably wouldn’t even allow you to put a normal diesel spigot into it, but if that’s the case, then I’m assuming you could put a normal gasoline spigot into a diesel vehicles tank. If that’s the case, it seems like it would be more dangerous to put gasoline in a diesel vehicle them to put diesel in a gasoline vehicle, so they should’ve done it the other way around.

But then I only know of those two instances of people making the wrong-fuel mistake, so I may be very misinformed as to the consequences.

[GunnyMack]

I know a guy that mistakenly put diesel in his motorcycle, wasn't paying attention at the gas station. Needless to say it spit & sputtered and hardly got him the few blocks to work. At lunch he drained the tank and refilled with gasoline.
Yup, he got a new nickname - Power stroke Peterson.

Put either into the wrong engine and things go south.

[Lassiter]

My Dad was a truck driver most of my life. He told a story of being parked at a rest stop one night to get some sleep and waking up to someone messing with his truck. He looked out the window and saw a couple of kids with a hose getting fuel out of the tank. I asked if he ran them off, he just laughed and said nope... I just went back to sleep

[jeepnik]

At some point it just becomes the responsibility of the human to be smart enough to do things correctly.

I’ve witnessed a few wrong fuel incidents. Both involved “experts”. On one a crane service company employee put gasoline in a diesel Grove crane. The crane engine overdoes, blew and burned the crane to the ground. Company bought the refinery a new crane and employee was terminated.

The other was a POL troop going out to fuel a P-3 Orion. Even though his paperwork said JP-5 he saw props, went back and got the avgas truck. When the aircrew started the first engine it blew. Impressive fire but the timing was fortuitous.

After roll call each morning the first thing we did was check the vehicles. We were doing that when the engine blew. Fire was out in less than a two minutes. USAF bought the USN a be wing and engines of that wing. The troop was apparently assigned to every stuff job for the remainder of his enlistment.

[marlinman93]

My dad was born in 1904, and said during times when money was tight they often mixed in some diesel into their gas fill ups to make their money go further. The difference between gas and diesel back then was more significant, and every penny counted. He said they eventually figured out how much diesel to gas mix worked well enough to not make their cars run poorly, or foul plugs. Then just kept the same ratio every time they filled up.

[GunnyMack]

Herr Diesel died penniless. Some say he jumped ship committing suicide. His body found on a French beach where a couple people rifled through his belongings and left him there to rot. He couldn't sell his invention that ran on peanut oil !

[Rockrat]

I remember a spate of aircraft being fueled with jet fuel instead of avgas. IIRC, the new delivery people put jet fuel in the avgas tanks. Refinery bought some aircraft engines. At another airport, the line boys saw props, so filled with avgas. Those were expensive lessions
Friend had thieves hitting his fuel tanks at his farm. He moved the tanks and put the diesel tank where the gas tank had been. Came out one morning to find the fuel hose laying on the ground and a puddle of fuel. Didn't take long to find out who had been taking the fuel. Heard a car start up, in the nearby neighborhood, and boy, it sounded terrible and didn't run for long. Guy jumped on his motorcycle since the car was out of service, but he didn't make it a block before it siezed up. Didn't have any problems with fuel thieves afterwards.

[Gunstore Commando]

One of the most experienced guys I know did this. Decades of experience with EMS and Fire.

Anyone can space out and go on autopilot. Only takes one time.

[piller]

Sister had a diesel VW. She was extremely tired one day. Put gasoline in the tank. Started it and immediately shut it off. No harm done. She called the dealership. Cost her a drain and flush. If she would have pressed the foot feed, it would have been serious.

[AJMD429]

One of the most experienced guys I know did this. Decades of experience with EMS and Fire.

Anyone can space out and go on autopilot. Only takes one time.

Maybe the various diesel, gasoline, and kerosene spigots should be like the kid's toy with the round and square and star and triangle shapes you have to put through the holes in the box...