Help! Diesel put in snowblower.

[DJ in WA]

Caretaker from work called and said snowblower was smoking after he put fuel in it. I deduced that he put diesel in it after a guy failed to label the container.

Caretaker drained tank, put gas in, but can't get it started, despite pouring alittle gas in carburetor.

So, what to do? Permanent damage? Fouled plug? Take carburetor apart?

Will be a mess there tomorrow after our snowstorm if we don't get it going.

[sugarbush]

fill with gas and change the plug, might take some starting fluid to get it going again and burn the diesel out, but no serious damage has occured. Diesel is just oil.

[DJ in WA]

Thanks. Found out he added diesel when still some gas in it, and it never started. So I think it has other issues.

[sugarbush]

If he put diesel into it I am betting its the diesel that is causing it not to start. If this is the first time this season you are using it the gas that was in it was probably old. I would pull the plug and then crank the engine over a bit to get the cylinder as dry as possable, then clean and replace plug and attempt to start with fresh gas and some ether sprayed into the air intake.

[foxtrapper]

Diesel in a gasoline engine will not hurt anything. There is no mechanical damage done to the snow blower.

Diesel fuel in a gasoline engine will not run. You've got to get it completely out of the fuel system. With a carburetor, it's quite likely you've got a bowl full there, and it will not start on this. Drain the bowl as well.