CharlieB
Junior Walker and the Allstars
- Location
- Therivermeadowatthepileofstones
What exactly does sugar do, please?
Well, what has he put in his tank
- Thread starter ianrauk
- Start date
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What exactly does sugar do, please?
Ranger
New Member
- Location
- Fife borders
I managed to fill a tractor with petrol, around £100 before I realised 
walker
New Member
- Location
- Bromley, Kent
or he's over filled the oil tank, and that's the result of the escess oil burning off.
Well well well! We have a doubting Thomas do we? Best I can do, then, is relate the full story.
Sugar does not dissolve in petrol. It remains as a load of solid granules which can wreck just about everything.
As I recall it (bear in mind this all happened when I was a child, some 50 years ago), it was my Mum driving the car, she'd taken us kids for a day out at Kew Gardens. On the way back she filled up with petrol. In those days most petrol pumps were attendant service. The man came to the driver's window and said "I'm afraid someone's done the dirty on you Madam". He then asked her to get out and look, indeed there was an incrustation of what looked like sugar around the filler tube (no locking caps in those days). He even tasted it (ugh!) and said it was definitely sugar. My Mum was in a tizzy, she didn't know what to do: I think she phoned my Dad and he said, come home anyway but take care and drive slowly. Then he (who was a passionate car mechanic: he loved nothing better than to spend weekends covered in grease under the car) got to work. First he drained the tank and flushed it out carefully. Then he took off all the fuel pipes and cleaned those out. He took off the fuel pump and had a good clean-out of that (or maybe bought a new one) and decided: he'd caught it in time, job done.
He was wrong. A few weeks later the car started coughing and spluttering, was obviously not a happy bunny. Back to the workshop. This time he took the cap off the carburettor, and I recall him calling me and showing me what he'd found. There was a thick sludge of sugar crystals lining the inside of the carburettor. New carb, and for good measure he took off the cylinder head and replaced the piston rings (and valves perhaps), and did his best to swab it all clean. Now he decided he was in the clear.
All was well for a few weeks. But then (on a German autobahn, as it happened), car juddered to a halt with terrible clunking sound. Big end bearing failure. Had to call out the recovery service, and get back to UK by train. This time he went for a complete replacement engine. One of those 'Gold Seal' refurb jobs I think it was called.
End of story? Well, yes and no. A few months later he wrote off the entire car in a prang. He was gutted
. But that's a separate story.
I don't buy sugar int he petrol tank causing big end failure. Possibley some sort of valve or bore issue but not a big end problem. That was just coincidental (IMO).
A little petrol in the diesel of a diesel engine will do it no harm whatsoever. This is a dodge used to coax an elderly diesel engine through an emmisions test.
A little petrol in the diesel of a diesel engine will do it no harm whatsoever. This is a dodge used to coax an elderly diesel engine through an emmisions test.
I was wondering how the sugar could have got near the crank shaft.
bonk man
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Malvernshire
depends how much petrol you put into a diesel tank and probably depends on the make of injector pump, it relies on the fuel to lubricate it, petrol is not a good lube 
.... the pump might not seize or then again it might, if it seizes solid your valves will stop going up and down if the cam belt stops going round, not good as the pistons will mash them up nicely. If the pump just stops working you will grind to a halt and need a pump [ expensive but not terminal ] .
Years ago a mate of mine used to hire out his Mk3 Cortina estate to another mate who used it to get to gigs, one day the car started smoking like the one in the picture so the owner decided the engine was knackered to got another lump from the breakers and fitted himself........... yeah you guessed it, it still smoked because it had diesel in the tank
.... the pump might not seize or then again it might, if it seizes solid your valves will stop going up and down if the cam belt stops going round, not good as the pistons will mash them up nicely. If the pump just stops working you will grind to a halt and need a pump [ expensive but not terminal ] .Years ago a mate of mine used to hire out his Mk3 Cortina estate to another mate who used it to get to gigs, one day the car started smoking like the one in the picture so the owner decided the engine was knackered to got another lump from the breakers and fitted himself........... yeah you guessed it, it still smoked because it had diesel in the tank
I don't recall, now, what my father's assessment was. Maybe he never said. I do remember that he was less and less communicative or convivial as disaster piled upon disaster. So towards the end he was someone to avoid! But you may be right, the big-end may have been coincidental. Though I suppose some sugar might have wormed its way into the cylinder head, down past a piston and into the crankshaft...
Anyway, we have much to be thankful for in the development of the locking fuel cap. If it really is thief-proof, that is. A colleague, some years ago, had his car stolen. The police found it abandoned, and stuck a POLICE AWARE sticker on it but left it for recovery later. That same night it was stolen again. The police found it a second time, but now all the petrol had been siphoned out. The police apprehended the culprits trying to board a train. How did they know it was them? Because the youths were apparently drenched in petrol, so much so that the police had to cordon off the area and call out the Fire Brigade - there was serious danger of a major blaze. As I said, bring on the really secure fuel cap...!
Anyway, we have much to be thankful for in the development of the locking fuel cap. If it really is thief-proof, that is. A colleague, some years ago, had his car stolen. The police found it abandoned, and stuck a POLICE AWARE sticker on it but left it for recovery later. That same night it was stolen again. The police found it a second time, but now all the petrol had been siphoned out. The police apprehended the culprits trying to board a train. How did they know it was them? Because the youths were apparently drenched in petrol, so much so that the police had to cordon off the area and call out the Fire Brigade - there was serious danger of a major blaze. As I said, bring on the really secure fuel cap...!
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
bonk man
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Malvernshire
I have witnessed a generator engine fail due to sugar in a diesel tank, maybe diesels are susceptible to this.... I guess it clogged the injectors. By the way, the owner of the geny deserved it.
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
Interruption of the fuel flow is the most likely explanation of the failure. Diesel is no better a solvent for sugar than petrol and the Snopes article indicated that the solubility of sugar in petrol is about one teaspoonful per full tank of petrol.
Well all I can say is: Snopes may be correct in respect of modern cars, but my story relates to fifty years ago. Cars were a lot different then. As I said, no lock on the fuel cap; probably no fuel filter; no 'sock' on the filler tube; and most cars had carburettor aspiration: fuel injectors were only used on the top-of-the range sports models if that. And I definitely saw with my own eyes the carburettor clogged up with sugar - so it definitely got that far.
A dirty carburettor will cause running issues and probably stop the engine completely but will not harm the crankshaft.
The only possible scenario would be overfuelling to such an extent that it washes down the bores and seriously dilutes the engine oil but the excess fuel would drown the spark plugs and stop before any harm is done. A simple oil change and rectifing the problem with the carburettor would prevent any harm being done. But dirt is unlikely to cause a carburettor to overfuel to this extent. It would need a hole in the float.
The only possible scenario would be overfuelling to such an extent that it washes down the bores and seriously dilutes the engine oil but the excess fuel would drown the spark plugs and stop before any harm is done. A simple oil change and rectifing the problem with the carburettor would prevent any harm being done. But dirt is unlikely to cause a carburettor to overfuel to this extent. It would need a hole in the float.
