Best way of removing petrol from hdi :(

nick · Post by **nick** » 03 Jun 2007, 22:12

Peter.N. wrote:The older IDI engines suffer very little with quite a high proportion of petrol, in fact, in the days of waxing fuel and cold winters, I would often pour a gallon of petrol in to keep going.

The handbook for my '89 BX 1.9 D actually suggested doing this in very cold weather. They recommended only using 2 Star for some reason. I suppose you could just about still buy leaded 2 * in 1989.

jmd · Post by **jmd** » 04 Jun 2007, 00:48

You can get in to the tank (circular lid under the rear seat) If you know somebody who has a boat, you can probably borrow a Marine Pump and get it all pumped out of the tank. Alternatively such a pump can be purchased for under £40-00, useful afterwards for emptying your LHM tank, amongst other things

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 04 Jun 2007, 06:57

My local B & Q Despot sells a bulb type pump which bears a considerable resemblance to a ZX diesel priming pump. Its about £10 and is used for priming central heating systems.

Post by **CitroJim** » 04 Jun 2007, 07:05

jeremy wrote:My local B & Q Despot.

Was that a spelling error or interntional Jeremy

Xac and I pumped nearly a whole tank out the other day using the priming bulb. Surprisingly quickly as well considering...

weety · Post by **weety** » 04 Jun 2007, 07:29

if you look on flea bay you can get priming pump bulbs for about £4 (cant get on to e bay at work

.... cant think why)

one of those with some hose and you can undercut B&Q

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 04 Jun 2007, 08:30

Jim - its was 'inteRntional'

Slyman · Post by **Slyman** » 04 Jun 2007, 08:58

I have a ZX thats off the road at the moment so I could rob the bulb from that, or use the M.G petrol pump that I have in the shed on a spare battery. I will have to be careful of sparks so will use long hoses and wires to keep it all safe.
Where can I get rid of 40lts of fuel once its out ?
Thanks for your help
Simon

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 04 Jun 2007, 12:18

Slyman wrote:Where can I get rid of 40lts of fuel once its out ?

Why not fill it into another car ?

Set up a simple sign :
'Free 40L of fuel'

- and within 10mins you have visitors parking all over

nick · Post by **nick** » 04 Jun 2007, 12:52

If you're anywhere near Lincolnshire my parents would gladly take it off your hands. They have a variety of elderly mowers, strimmers, & tractors that run on just about anything vaguely oily.
My mum seems to manage to put petrol into her diesel Corsa every couple of months so they are well versed in how to use petrol/diesel mixed in various proportions

Slyman · Post by **Slyman** » 04 Jun 2007, 14:54

Job done

The in-tank pump screw on ring was a tough cookie to get off and on, but managed to take the pump out and remove all the petrol. The supply pipes cleared themselves when I took the filter out and she started 3rd try.
Took her for a run and all seems fine, just have to wait and see if the pumps/injector live a long and happy life.
A friend with lawnmowers/strimmers was glad of the fuel.
Thanks Simon

steelcityuk · Post by **steelcityuk** » 04 Jun 2007, 15:20

If it was mine then I'd either the replace the lift pump immediately or fit an extra filter to catch all the brass bits when the lift pump fails. Sounds drastic but it's said that wrong fuelling is what causes the lift pump to disintegrate which then wrecks everything else and if it does expect an extremely large bill - 000s!

Steve.

nick · Post by **nick** » 04 Jun 2007, 15:39

I've heard of petrol being blamed for these lift pumps failing, but when I enquired into getting a spare pump for my Xsara I was told that some petrol engined Xsara's use exactly the same lift pump anyway!
Can anyone confirm or deny this?! I keep meaning to ask a Citroen dealer or check on the service.citroen.com site but haven't got round to it yet.

Edit: Well I've done a search on few Citroen/Peugeot parts sites and the part numbers for the petrol and diesel versions are different, so it must not be an identical pump.

howiedean · Post by **howiedean** » 04 Jun 2007, 18:27

Slyman wrote:Well im just about to discover so ill let you know

I'd try and empty the tank as much as you can but before you try and run the engine empty the fuel filter housing as well.
When you reconnect everything, switch on and off the ignition (lift pump working) to prime the system again.

Good luck.

Slyman · Post by **Slyman** » 04 Jun 2007, 20:13

"If it was mine then I'd either the replace the lift pump immediately or fit an extra filter to catch all the brass bits when the lift pump fails"

Why wouldn't the normal filter catch the bits ?

steelcityuk · Post by **steelcityuk** » 04 Jun 2007, 20:23

It's been posted elsewhere and linked to from here but the gist is this, the filter housing is the same as used on later 405s (Xantias as well I presume) but it wasn't designed to be pressurised to such an extent as happens with a HDi lift pump. So when the lift pump runs up to pressure the whole housing bulges and any junk in the fuel gets past the filter. That's why if the lift pump fails by disintegrating it wrecks the high pressure pump. Magnets won't work because the metal particles are brass. If you take a look at the filter for a VW TDI you'll see just how sturdy that is by comparison. A real nasty oversight. Apparently the filter housing can be seen to bulge when the pump runs.

Steve.