Did something stupid, please advise

[threpwood]

Clogged fuel line.

Sorry about your mis-hap. It's too bad you got faulty advice from an "expert" here. Personally I find this forum a nice resource, but the longer I'm here, the more evident that a fair amount of misinformation is floating around. I suppose this is to be expected, and that's what forums like this are for... At least I hope so.




It's posts like yours that makes the forum. Your follow up is what it's all about! You rock!!

Wow, pretty amazing.

[RandallNeighbour]

Now I know what to do if I mistakenly put the wrong thing in my fuel tank. Thanks for your willingness to share your experience, even if it was an embarassing.

[threpwood]

Thanks for the sympathy and compliment, but I didn't mean to discredit anyone that gave me advices in the first place. I value advices including opinions a lot as they helped me in many situations. I was the one that made the final decision so I took full responsiblity.

It took about 9 months for the coolant additive to clog the engine, so I bet it got into the fuel lines little by little and eventually fully clogged the fuel lines.

I believe if the car is a corvette or a hot rod V8, this problem probably wouldn't occur in the first place. Boxster's engine is 'delicate' I mean look at those fuel lines, they are so tiny!

Originally Posted by boxsterz

Sorry about your mis-hap. It's too bad you got faulty advice from an "expert" here. Personally I find this forum a nice resource, but the longer I'm here, the more evident that a fair amount of misinformation is floating around. I suppose this is to be expected, and that's what forums like this are for... At least I hope so.




It's posts like yours that makes the forum. Your follow up is what it's all about! You rock!!

[FrayAdjacent]

Lesson:

Be DAMN sure of what you're putting in the gas tank of your $60,000 car!!

[threpwood]

I agree

Just wanted to add that the porche mechanic told me that there was another similar case in Japan, which involved a caramel in the fuel lines. Apparently someone's kid found a way to put a caramel candy in the gas tank and the caramel melted clogging the fuel line

Originally Posted by FrayAdjacent

Lesson:

Be DAMN sure of what you're putting in the gas tank of your $60,000 car!!

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

I'm skeptical that the WW was the cause of your issues. For 9 mos. to pass is too long for an issue to manifest itself and there could be too many intervening possibilities in this rather long time interval.

There is only 1 ingredient in Water Wetter which could pose any kind of issue at all - Tolyltriazole, a PolySiloxane Polymer used for corrosion inhibitance.

The other ingredients are either alcohols (DiIsoPropyl Alcohol Ether and TriIsopropyl Alcohol Diether) used as surfactants, or are additives (Sodium Molybdate) actually used by petroleum refiners in Gasoline and Jet Fuel to reduce gasoline's natural tendency to swell and gel - the exact opposite of what you are inferring.

Tolyltriazole makes up only 1% of WW composition (source: Redline WW MSDS) and if you only added 60ml, that would mean no more than .6ml, a very small amount when stacked against 9 mos. volume of Fuel.

This chemical is not soluable in gasoline, but will precipitate out of solution into a white powder with a Specific Gravity higher than the Fuel meaning that it would drop to the bottom of the Tank. Should it be picked up, as a particulate, it should get trapped by the Fuel Filter and not flow past it - it could in sufficient quantities clog the Filter, but that's about it. The storage and distribution methods for gasoline will introduce a much greater volume of other particulates (oxides, waxes, parafins, etc.) than that over a 9 mo. period.

The total volume of these 4 chemicals does not total 16% of WW. I suspect that either you added considerably more WW than you stated or, more likely, that you got some contaminated Fuel in the interim. The chemistry involved simply does not validate a lot of cause and effect here.

In any event, be sure that you are also replacing the Fuel Filter and flushing the Fuel Tank to insure that no remnants of the suspect material remains. Glad you got it all sorted out...

Happy Motoring!... Jim

[Tool Pants]

The pictures are so small it is hard to see anything in detail. Looks like the fuel rail was taken off.

Originally Posted by MNBoxster

Hi,

I'm skeptical that the WW was the cause of your issues. For 9 mos. to pass is too long for an issue to manifest itself and there could be too many intervening possibilities in this rather long time interval.

There is only 1 ingredient in Water Wetter which could pose any kind of issue at all - Tolyltriazole, a PolySiloxane Polymer used for corrosion inhibitance.

The other ingredients are either alcohols (DiIsoPropyl Alcohol Ether and TriIsopropyl Alcohol Diether) used as surfactants, or are additives (Sodium Molybdate) actually used by petroleum refiners in Gasoline and Jet Fuel to reduce gasoline's natural tendency to swell and gel - the exact opposite of what you are inferring.

Tolyltriazole makes up only 1% of WW composition (source: Redline WW MSDS) and if you only added 60ml, that would mean no more than .6ml, a very small amount when stacked against 9 mos. volume of Fuel.

This chemical is not soluable in gasoline, but will precipitate out of solution into a white powder with a Specific Gravity higher than the Fuel meaning that it would drop to the bottom of the Tank. Should it be picked up, as a particulate, it should get trapped by the Fuel Filter and not flow past it - it could in sufficient quantities clog the Filter, but that's about it. The storage and distribution methods for gasoline will introduce a much greater volume of other particulates (oxides, waxes, parafins, etc.) than that over a 9 mo. period.

The total volume of these 4 chemicals does not total 16% of WW. I suspect that either you added considerably more WW than you stated or, more likely, that you got some contaminated Fuel in the interim. The chemistry involved simply does not validate a lot of cause and effect here.

In any event, be sure that you are also replacing the Fuel Filter and flushing the Fuel Tank to insure that no remnants of the suspect material remains. Glad you got it all sorted out...

Happy Motoring!... Jim

Jim, I know you mean well, and feel you have a lot to offer. But it's technical half speak like this that could've saved him $3K. There is no doubt about it in my mind, the water wetter was the culprit. He had the gunk analyzed. What more do you want? Can't you admit you were wrong I mean everyone is from time to time.


Cyanide will kill a human being in the minutest concentrations. The small concentrations point is invalid. 60ml was meant to treat several gallons of water/coolant. WW is obviously soluble in water, as it was engineered as an additive for water and water based coolant. Water and gas don't mix. I saw with my own eyes old gas drained out of a jalopy many many years ago. I shook the hell out of that glass jar too, and still the water stayed on the bottom and coalesced back into larger drops of water. So I can imagine how WW will not dissolve into gas. Also the fuel filter is only effective against particulates in the micron range, where liquids are much smaller.


Gasoline can be a delicate fuel, starting up my lawnmower with 3 month or older gas demonstrates that. Put fresh gas in, it starts right up on the 1st pull. I do realize however that gas can tolerate some moisture, and I also know there are fuel additives such as "Heet" designed to absorb excess moisture. How much moisture can be miscible I don't know.


I'm no chemist, and it's too bad none were available on this forum. It wouldn've been cheap to contact Redline or Porsche and get some REAL expert advice. Instead, threpwood was dissuaded from that course, which is a shame.