Diesel fuel for st1300

Hey. Any of your STs run on diesel? No? Well neither does my 2005 S1300! After 45 years of riding I finally put diesel in my tank. All of six gallons! It was at a Shell station in Leavenworth Kansas on my way home to Michigan. I pulled up to the pump and saw 87, 91 and expected 93 to be the next. Without even thinking I grabbed the 93 (diesel) and filled my tank. Boy was suppressed when it fired up and DIED. So. HOUrs later with a hefty tow bill and 2.7 hours at hind I was back on the road. If anyone is in the Kansas City area and needs service I would recommend Shawnee Honda to service your bike. Mike Everhart was able to fit me in and get me back on the road. I learned that I just had another Senior moment.

Wow,
How far out of the gas station did you get on diesel.

the diesel is always a different colored handle and separate from the gas (usually green but sometimes maybe yellow) I bet it smoked a bit

Been there, almost did it. My local Shell station has new pumps with 3 grades of gas on the right side of the unit and then a similar looking hose on the left with diesel. Twice now I've done the credit card validation thing and then carelessly selected the diesel pump but, thankfully, realised my error before I starting pumping.

Did the dealer have to do anything to get the ST running again besides drain all the diesel and replace it with gasoline?

I don't feel so bad now as I did that once in an MG I owned. I caught the smell after a couple gallons of diesel then put about 8 or 10 gallons of gas on top of the bunker oil. It smoked bad and fouled the plugs but I got away with it.

Now that is just a pain in the backside doing that. That is something that I pay attention to very closely owning a diesel pickup truck and gasoline powered cars and motorcycles. I always talk to myself when fueling, what am I driving today?? And then pick the right fuel for the vehicle I am driving. At work we had one of our Engineers fill the diesel fire truck up with regular! You want to talk about what to do with 65 gallons of contaminated fuel!!:banghead:

Glad you got the contaminated fuel drained and gasoline back in the ST, I bet it started to smoke when you got it running again with all that oil in diesel. :burnout

jonjonboo said:

the diesel is always a different colored handle and separate from the gas (usually green but sometimes maybe yellow) I bet it smoked a bit

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You still have to pay attention.. some BP handles are green.. and you have to do a double-take a few times before you feel confident using it.. LOL

Mellow said:

You still have to pay attention.. some BP handles are green.. and you have to do a double-take a few times before you feel confident using it.. LOL

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Good one,
We have a few stations like that, the world is going green so consumers think it's a better product if the item has green on it.
I stick to one or 2 brands in town, easy to recognize the handle colour, when I go out of town, I stick with the lowest fuel price, so it's a quick check on the fuel cost readout. Unless I'm in the mountains, I'll bump up to premium.

If you accidentally fill your tank or even a partial fill the diesel goes directly to the bottom. That's where the fuel draw is taken from. My ST ran for three seconds before it flooded and would not run. Both tanks had be cleaned including fuel system. Dealer said sometimes fuel injected models need full cleaning and new plugs. I was lucky in that I did not try to restart many times.

Garydi said:

If you accidentally fill your tank or even a partial fill the diesel goes directly to the bottom. That's where the fuel draw is taken from. My ST ran for three seconds before it flooded and would not run. Both tanks had be cleaned including fuel system. Dealer said sometimes fuel injected models need full cleaning and new plugs. I was lucky in that I did not try to restart many times.

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With the ST you were doomed for two reasons. First the relative isolation of the lower tank which had a very rich mix of diesel with gasoline and secondly you completely filled up with diesel.

Oil does mix completely with gas, or at least my 2 stroke fuels do in 25:1 and 40:1 mixtures, and by pumping a large ratio of gas into a tank with a pressure nozzle mixing it up with a small amount of diesel the resulting mixture can lean enough on fuel oil to burn albeit smokingly.

My HD riding friend put diesel in his once ... It actually still ran (poorly)! Once he realized why it was running so bad, he shut it down and we drained it.

While the diesel was going into the HD, on another pump the other rider with us on his ST11 overflowed his fuel tank with gas, pouring a couple gallons down into the hot engine and exhaust pipes while distracted by 'the scenery'.

I was sitting off to the side on my bike as both events unfolded.

I have since been much more careful about the fuel spigot.

;-)

I had a Jetta diesel for a little over 10 years and always feared that I would pump gas into it, never happened. A few things the diesel pump has a bigger nossle and usually a different colour than the others and then there is that unique smell.

Gerhard

Dang, glad it wasn't worse and it all worked out for you. I've seen that diesel nozzle right there with the other nozzles. Too easy to grab without noticing. Maybe there should be a confirmation button at the pump before it allows dispensing?

Al Gully said:

Good one,
Unless I'm in the mountains, I'll bump up to premium.

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May I ask why?

Higher altitudes require lower octane.

I haven't had an issue but I normally go to pumps that don't have diesel. I can see this happening if/when I do get to a station that has both at each pump. I would like to think I would notice but you know how it goes...

STurgisSTeele said:

Maybe there should be a confirmation button at the pump before it allows dispensing?

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Please don't even suggest such a thing... Like we nee more "control" on how we do thing or even what we can do...

I almost did the opposite. I put the gas nozzle in my diesel truck, but I kept getting an error when I pushed the diesel button. Stupid thing is it took me several tries before it dawned on me what I was doing. I guess I was elsewhere at the time.

An acquaintance gave me a "free" generator. He couldn't get the thing to run and didn't get it back to the store in 30 days to return it. So he bought a new one and gave me the "old" "no good" one. I drained the diesel, replaced it with gas, and what do you know, It ran fine.
jim

I've experienced both ways, diesel in gas and gas in diesel. Buddy of mine called up and said his Ford diesel wasn't running right. After he drove it to my house I then test drove it and said "it's pinging, I've never heard a diesel ping". A quick inspection of the fuel filter had a strong gas odor to it. I told him he put gas in it, he says "no my daughter borrowed it and filled it up for me". Drained tank and flushed it out, all was fine. Just shows older diesels will run on almost anything. Now for how long is another question all together.


Years ago when I was much younger, I was given some gas that supposedly only had a couple gallons of diesel mixed in it. Well the poor Ford Escort ran fine on it but smoked like it was mosquito abatement! I couldn't wait to burn that tank of fuel up!

My turn to be stupid and usediesel fuel in my ST1300. When riding in the rain last Sunday testing my new Olympia Ranger Vent Tech jacket, noticed I was low in fuel while in Brigden ON (20 miles from Sarnia). Bike would fire while holding the starter, but would not continue to run. I went in to complain about bad gas and the young lady said "you used the diesel pump". Bottom line is that it would still not start after draining both tanks, so I had to tow the bike home on my trailer.

First day that I could work on the problem was yesterday. I drained both tanks again and took the last drops of fuel out of the secondary tank using strips off an old T-shirt. With new plugs added and the bike back together, I held my breath and tried to start the bike again. No luck and I was bummed out, figuring there was a problem with the fuel injectors or the gas filter.

This morning in desperation, I sprayed ether into the air inlet above the radiator. After two or three repeats, it fired briefly. The next shot of ether got it running and it smoked for about a minute. Runs like new again! In my experience, ether will start almost anything.

Now I can attend OHstoc as planned.