20 litres of diesel? Free? What to do!

fredrussell said:
For goodness sake, just poor the bloody stuff in your tank. I can’t believe the amount of stuffed shirts on this forum! No wonder so few young people are getting into sailing.
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What a good idea! But the OP chose to post a story and ask if he/she/they should use it. I, on the other hand, can't believe the amount (sic) of snowflakes.
 
I think it's maybe worth reporting, because it might have gone AWOL as a result of a theft or vandalism?
If there's suddenly loads of things appearing in the sea, the local HM might be grateful for knowing.
An email doesn't cost much.
 
You never know how the forum will go..... I posted for entertainment and genuinely if people felt the fuel was likely to be safe to use. Sounds like most would use it. I'm certainly not handing it in as I don't want the hassle (sorry folks!). If it was unusable then I would be happy to take to the tip be responsibly dealt with. Funnily enough I completed the Chichester harbour user questionnaire on microplastics before the weekend, and that tipped me in my decision making process to turn around and retrieve. Fortunately being a shallow bilge keeler I have a bit of room for error with the depth where it was.
 
Little Grebe said:
Could turn out to be an expensive mistake if it turns out the fuel is contaminated in any way...
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Exactly why I used "Free?" in the thread title........

PS What a great blast back from Cowes! And then a glorious sunset as we headed down Itchenor reach. We anchored off Old Park woods (Opp Chichester Marina) rather than spend the night on the Medina which I thought might feel a bit exposed to the breeze
 
Little Grebe said:
Sounds like you were about an hour behind us so it must have 'hung around' a fair bit.

In a bout of total apathy we just used the jib and were still doing more than 7 knots over ground for a lot of the journey.
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Yes, that would have been a good option. We wanted to get to Old Park woods before dark so I pushed it a bit..... I was experimenting with poled out genoa and preventer on the main for the last bit for the run towards West pole, despite quite rolly conditions it felt good (and safe).
 
Poor is what you'll be if you "poor"(sic) it into your tank and it turns out not to be pure diesel.
After all, how can you tell exactly what it is?
I've got 30 litres of what smells and looks extraordianrily like pure petrol in my garage but there's enough diesel in it (despite the Land Rover tank being almost on fumes when I filled it up) that even a Briggs and Stratton chokes on it...

I'd let caution override greed here, the risk isn't worth if for the sake of a few bucks-worth of gas.
 
Slowboat35 said:
Poor is what you'll be if you "poor"(sic) it into your tank and it turns out not to be pure diesel.
After all, how can you tell exactly what it is?
I've got 30 litres of what smells and looks extraordianrily like pure petrol in my garage but there's enough diesel in it (despite the Land Rover tank being almost on fumes when I filled it up) that even a Briggs and Stratton chokes on it...

I'd let caution override greed here, the risk isn't worth if for the sake of a few bucks-worth of gas.
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A diesel engine will still run OK if there is a fair amount of petrol present .... but the inverse is not true. I assume that's one reason why the diesel nozzle at the pumps is the larger of the two.

Richard
 
RichardS said:
A diesel engine will still run OK if there is a fair amount of petrol present .... but the inverse is not true. I assume that's one reason why the diesel nozzle at the pumps is the larger of the two.

Richard
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It depends what you mean by a fair amount. Diesel pumps and injectors are lubricated by the fuel passing through. Such are the machining tolerances in pumps ( 1/10th of a micron) that components are machined in sets, the pieces of which are not interchangeable.
 
awol said:
To avoid any accusation of theft take it the local police station and if it is not claimed within the statutory time it becomes yours. Otherwise you are no better than ........ choose your own description of a dishonest unscrupulous pokey.
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I bet that the Police will jump for joy at having to store a can of fuel in their lost property facility :)
 
Sybarite said:
It depends what you mean by a fair amount. Diesel pumps and injectors are lubricated by the fuel passing through. Such are the machining tolerances in pumps ( 1/10th of a micron) that components are machined in sets, the pieces of which are not interchangeable.
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For an old style, non-common rail high pressure diesel, like the boat engines under discussion, I would call 25% petrol/75% diesel a reasonable amount. For a modern diesel, I would probably only go as far as 10% petrol. I'll see if I can find some independent evidence as my figures are simply based on experience rather than science. :)

OK .... this might help. Obviously these guys are pushing it to the limit whereas I'm talking longer-term, but it gives you some idea of what these engines can tolerate.


Richard
 
FairweatherDave said:
You never know how the forum will go..... I posted for entertainment and genuinely if people felt the fuel was likely to be safe to use. Sounds like most would use it. I'm certainly not handing it in as I don't want the hassle (sorry folks!). If it was unusable then I would be happy to take to the tip be responsibly dealt with. Funnily enough I completed the Chichester harbour user questionnaire on microplastics before the weekend, and that tipped me in my decision making process to turn around and retrieve. Fortunately being a shallow bilge keeler I have a bit of room for error with the depth where it was.
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Only thing is that at present in Kent you have to book a forward appointment to visit the recycling centre ,limit one per month,and when you get there you are limited to leaving only 5L of oil.So faced with 30L of supect fuel to deal with I 'polished' it in the back garden using a gravity rig starting with an automotive 125 micron inline filter followed by a Racor 50 micron filter funnel,which apparently separates water .Lots of containers needed ( 5L water containers from Sainsbury are robust,transparent and economic,dry first) .Following the advice some years ago on here I then bought a new CAV filter body with priming bulb ( from SSL) and used this on the rig to pull all back through the rig a couple of times.All the dregs separated from each container during decanting ,leaving less than a manageeable 5L to recycle including all the crud from the flushed tank.The new CAV unit was then fitted on the boat in lieu of the old ,changing filters and purging air all the way through to the injectors was a delight and I had a clean tank.Also it had proved to be the fuel rather than air getting in to the system which I started by checking through.
So another successful mini project built around excellent detailed information found on here.
 
awol said:
Interesting ..... so at which point does the infantile "finders - keepers" philosophy turn into moral behaviour? A can of diesel is obviously below the threshold. I would assume an unmanned unattached Halberg-Rassy would be worth the paper-work and is above that line.
Would, for example, a floating dead body just be ignored to avoid the inevitable mound of paperwork?
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An almost perfect example of sophistry.
 
RichardS said:
A diesel engine will still run OK if there is a fair amount of petrol present .... but the inverse is not true. I assume that's one reason why the diesel nozzle at the pumps is the larger of the two.

Richard
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A mate of mine once put some diesel in a two stroke motorbike. It worked!
Obviously no catalytic converter to worry about.
It did go better as more petrol was added to dilute it.
 
FairweatherDave said:
Sailing into Chichester Saturday evening when I spotted a large jerry can afloat in a tangle of string weed. Thought to myself that looks a nice jerry can, should pick it up and stop plastic polution....good practice for boat handling, so I tacked. Meanwhile my wife very reasonably says that it is probably a fishermans float.....Well I will just drop it if it is attached......But hooked it out and it wasn't attached, it was a nice jerry can full of fuel. So double environmental bonus points!
Now what to do with the fuel? A cursory inspection makes me think the fuel is not contaminated, unscrewing the cap felt "normal" and sealed, and the outside of the jerry can looks very new, bright and shiny. My plan is to visually inspect the fuel via 5 litre clean/dry clear plastic water containers (see if there is water and whether it is red deisel or white).... and then ...use it?
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I did write a cursory inspection..........:):)
Proper scientific analysis using my nose and a test inspired by one of Richard's dodgy car videos lead me to start using "the fuel" in my outboard. Seems to go just fine! The thread title might have been misleading :oops:
 
I am not saying this is the same as the O.P's situation, where I think nobody is going to be particularly concerned about its loss, yes I would be annoyed at losing 20L of fuel and a container, but I would be more concerned that it didn't cause anyone else a problem.

The flip side is unbeknown to me I dropped my keys, car and house, whilst walking the dog three days before we were due to tow the boat up to the Clyde. Someone found them hung them on a fence and posted on a local Facebook site that they were there (Not what I would have done, I would have taken them home, posted on Facebook and informed the police that I had them, and dropped them off at the police station in due course).


It was only when I saw the photo that I realised I had lost them. It was very local, so easy for someone to operate the fob and find the car/house.

I did not see the post for 7 hours and by the time I went back they had gone. Monday morning I started the rigmarole of changing the locks on car and house. I had key insurance with the AA reliant on my having one of their tags on the keys, I didn't have a clue whether I did it not. As I was on the phone to them at 10 am to report the loss I got a call on my mobile from someone else at the AA saying they had been found and handed in at the police station.

I am eternally grateful to whoever handed them in and to the person on the desk who reported it so promptly. Unfortunately no name left, I would have liked to have bought them a meal, it saved me £100s and s lot of stress.
 
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