Here's what we did when we ran a service station and the attendent
accidently put gasoline in a Diesel...

First, with water, you have a bit of an advantage in that it's heavier
than Diesel and it's soluable in ethanol.

Get to the local FLAPS and get an electric fuel pump, the necessary hose
barbs and about 6' of fuel hose. Remove the fuel line at the injection
pump and attach to inlet of fuel pump. Place hose from pump outlet into
gas can and start the pump.  Run pump until tank is empty changing cans
as necessary. (If it's full, you'll need four 5 gallon cans.) Get to
pharmacy and purchase a couple gallons of ethanol. Add one gallon of
ethanol to tank and run electric pump until tank is empty. Repeat.

Replace fuel filter. Add five gallons of Diesel to fuel tank. Use
electric pump to prime the system. Loosen fuel lines at injectors and
crank engine until you have no bubbles and no sign of water. (You can
leave the electric pump in the system until you get it fired...)

I used WD-40 to fire the engine.  Have a helper crank the engine while
you give short bursts of WD-40 into the intake. (DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!
Too much WD-40 will cause a runaway.)

That should get you going again.

Jim
Arthur Sauerhaft wrote:
> I screwed up royally and got a significant amount of water(+/- 2-3 LITERS)
> in my tank. Of course I tried starting it till my battery almost went dead,
> I replaced 2 glow plugs (#1 and #4) also tired starting with straight ATF. I
> believe I siphoned off most or all of the water through the fuel lines. I
> also drained the filter  and I plan on replacing it when this all over. How
> do get my engine going again? Could I have done any serious damage?
> TIA
> Arthur
> '82 Vanagon Diesel (the Beast)
> A BioDiesel project
> Happily puttering along with a 1.9NA UNTIL THIS MORNING
>
> .
>