Everybody makes silly mistakes sometimes, like pouring engine oil into your petrol tank. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes because there will always be a way to fix it.
A Twitter user @AidFawzal, shared a DM (Direct Message) of someone asking for his help. The person had accidentally put engine oil in their petrol tank and asked @AidFawzal if there is any way to fix it.
Luckily for him, Dr Aid Fawzal, who has a PhD in Automotive & Motorsports Cooling System, said there is a way to fix the mistake and you can even do it at home! Here is a step-by-step on how.
What you need to know first is that petrol and engine oil have different densities. The density of petrol is roughly 750kg/m³ and the density of engine oil 10w-40w is roughly 855kg/m³.
What this means is that the lighter density (petrol) will rise to the top while the heavy density (engine oil) will settle to the bottom.
So when we put engine oil inside the petrol tank, the engine oil will settle at the bottom whilst the petrol will rise to the top. This is similar to when we put cooking oil and water together. The cooking oil will float to the top because the density is lower than water.
Even so, petrol has the properties of a solvent which will melt and dissolve the engine oil.
With that in mind, the first thing that you will need to clean is the petrol tank and the fuel cock. Dr Aid Fawzal shows where you can find the fuel cock.
Since the engine oil is under the tank, it will be easily sucked into the channel to the carburettor. When entering the carburettor, the mixture of engine oil and petrol will fill the carburettor bowl.
So the next thing that you will have to do is open and clean the carburettor bowl. Only soak the other parts of the carburettor in water. The image by Dr Aid Fawzal can help you find out how.
So that’s all! Easy right? You can follow Dr Aid Fawzal on his Twitter and Facebook to gain more information on automotive.
Sources: @AidFawzal