Doug and Patty wrote:

Going cross country in a chevy 1 ton 454ci  we had to fight detonation . A
kid at the pumps said add a little diesel when you fill up . Seemed to work
as we had no more problems even with continued mountain pulls and heat.

Bill Freeman wrote:

Sounds backwards.  Diesel has a cetane rating which is a
requirement to detonate reliably, since this is how the fire
gets lit in a diesel.  I would expect that adding diesel to gasoline
would substantially lower the octane rating and therefore
make detonation worse.  High octane gasoline would run
not at all or badly in a diesel since the high octane means
a resistance to self ignition under heat and pressure.  A high
cetane rating means a propensity to easily self ignite under
heat and pressure.

There may be something else going on here,  some sort of
chemical interaction that actually may increase the octane,
so I'll reserve final judgement, but it doesn't pass my first
cut BS filter.  Also, most "kids at the pump" are not experts
at anything except maybe finding sources of illicit beer -
altho I worked the pumps as a third year engineering
student, so there are exceptions.  :-)

No offense intended.

Bill

 
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