What if we put petrol in a Diesel car and vice versa??

Introduction

By now we all have learned about the working of any automobile.

Fuel is the key component of any automobile for the production of power by ultimately combusting the fuel along with the air in proper amount also called stoichiometric ratios that differ in both petrol and diesel engines.

Petrol-powered cars are mainly used for personal use and generally used in low to medium load-carrying capacities, while on the other hand diesel cars are generally used in high load carrying capacities and so differs in engine designing and other modifications.

But what if we mistakenly add petrol into a diesel engine or vice versa??

Basically Petrol engines are spark-ignition engines (SI), whereas Diesel engines are Compression Ignition engines (CI).

Petrol engines have carburetors properly mix the air-fuel mixture and then sprayed in atomized form. The air helps the fuel to burn.

The air-fuel mixture is let inside the cylinder, where it is burned by introducing a spark by means of the spark plug. Thus they get the name Spark Ignition or SI engines.

On the other hand, the Diesel engines don’t have carburetors, instead, they have fuel injectors. Fuel Injectors inject fuel and supply it directly into the cylinder where burning occurs.

Diesel Engines don’t have spark plugs. The compression ratio of the diesel engines is more and also the autoignition temperature of diesel is less than that of petrol.

So, due to the compression, high pressure and temperature are created which ultimately burns the fuel.

This is the principle of working of diesel engines and hence they have got the name Compression Ignition or CI engines.

Petrol has higher auto-ignition temperature and it won’t burn at the temperature increased by only compressing the air without external help. So, the engine won’t be able to run.

Whereas when you use diesel in the petrol engine, it’s dangerous. the ignition temperature of diesel is less than the petrol so it will burn more with volatility which may damage the entire engine and its components.

Originally published at https://www.carengineered.com on May 26, 2020.