clorox bleach in diesel

Try this in a clear glass container. Put some fuel in the container. Add small amount of chlorine and see where it goes. If it settles to the bottom add some water. They should combine and dilute the chlorine. If this happens as expected, I would add water to my fuel tank,wait awhile and then drain this mixture from the bottom of the tank either from a drain plug or using a siphon or small pump. Talk about your two cents worth!

hr, glad everything is OK, I would have been worried also and took the route of better safe than sorry and drained it as you did! Now it is time to add the fabric softener :)

Sully2 wrote:
Household bleach s only about a 6% solution...so what you basically did was dump a pint of WATER in your fuel.....your water separator will remove it

If you are so sure of that, please dump a pint of bleach in YOUR fuel tank and prove it!

Will this is what I did!
I pump out the tank and then I leveled the motor home and drained the sump dry, I then went back to the fuel water separator and blew the line out that went back to the tank, the drain plug was still out. I changed the fuel filter and the water separator filter, I put a 32oz bottle of power service in the tank and started to put fresh fuel back in until I had 20gal in it I started it and drove to the fuel station and filed up then I drove about 6 or 7 miles and no sign of any thing wrong. Since then I have not been able to drive it but I did start it 3 different times and let it run for a hour still seems to be all right.The 300 plus in fuel I gave to a friend with a oil furnace I thought the cost of the fuel and filters was better than a fuel pump or something else.I hope I am right.

Capnqball,Sully2; No..... I did this to see if an even greater concentration of bleach would cause damage to an engine. If you are worried about what to do with the diesel, look in the yellow pages for a fuel supplier, and ask them what they thing, and what they would do. I believe that any fuel treatment for diesel, will fix the perceived problem. And YES, I too think that any bleach that gets pumped will end up in the bottom of the separate. If I had done this, I too would have an Oh My God moment. But in reality, as others have said, this is a non problem, I believe.

Look for a "fuel polishing service" It is a company that specializes in fuel filtering/cleaning, used commonly in the marine industry. I hope this helps, Bill

capnqball wrote:
Wildman,
But does your lawnmower engine have a fuel/water separator like the DP. I would think the bleach would most likely end up in the bottom of the separator.

BINGO!!!

Wildman,
But does your lawnmower engine have a fuel/water separator like the DP. I would think the bleach would most likely end up in the bottom of the separator.

JohnnyT,
Well I did a little experiment with my lawn-mower. It holds 24 ounces of gas, to keep the ratios right, just a fume of bleach would be needed to match the ratio of bleach to fuel. I instead, added once of bleach to the tank, and filled it. Started the mower and started to mow. It stalled, of course, the bleach did not mix with the gas, and went right to the carb. Left it overnight, added 5 ounces of rubbing alcohol and tried to started it, I got tired of pulling the rope and used the starter, after a few seconds of cranking it sputtered to life, and then ran fine. I pulled the carb bowl to check for any damage, and found none. It was very clean, which I expected since I ran alcohol through it. I know, this is not an injected engine, or diesel, but to duplicate the same circumstances, would be very hard and time consuming, not that what I did was not time consuming. Considering the very high-end B&S engine and high class carb, I really do not thing there is anything to worry about.

Happy Jim wrote:
It doesn't seem to hurt my washing machine parts and hoses Just a thought.

Thats a good point Jim.