Ever have a diesel runaway?

[Roadhouse]

Mine did !

Had a 85 Ford LTL 9000 with a cummins and 13 over

Was in a hard pull, WOT 3 gear, 81,000 lbs up steep hill. The nut came off the turbo shaft, got sucked in the turbo, destroyed the turbo,

stupid me kicked in in neutral, open the hood to look, unscrewed the fuel filter, tried to block the air inlet.



Split 2 pistons, bent 2 rods, broke the crank, cracked the block.

Cost me $10K and 3 weeks lost revenue.



SHudda just stomped on the brakes, eh?

 

[Motorhead]

Run Dasher Run

I drove a '80 VW Dasher Diesel wagon for 19 years. The origional engine, a 1. 5ltr had blowby problems due to oil control ring problems and the vent passage thru the head was too small. When this thing would go off, it felt like it gained 4 more cylinders of power, and left a smoke screen that any attacking military force would be proud of! The only thing you could do is put on the brakes to slow it down. To clutch it would be disasterious as its only governor now is valve float and engine termination!! I later installed a 1. 6ltr and never had this problem again... even when it started using alot of oil. Chris

 

[Skydiver]

Dexter Diesel

About 2 months ago on some hunting land. The land owners early 50 model Dexter 3 cyl tractor had gotten water in the fuel tank. I went over to try and help get the fuel system flushed. In a last attempt to try to get it to fire we started holding a gas soaked rag over the intake. It almost started. Well we started squeezing the gas rag. The 50 year diesel showed even more signs of life. After 8 or 9 gas soaked rags were squeezed out in the air intake. Katy BAR the Door. She must of reved to over 5K.

Y'all see all that gas was collecting up in a little pocket and when she caught,the air velocity started pulling it in.



Scared me real bad.

Anyhow I"ve got me some real good hunting land out of that deal. We use my tractor to plant the green fields.

Tim

 

[Speedo]

Runaway diesels

As noted if a diesel gets fuel from an uncontrolled source, usually

crankcase oil into the intake air stream it will run away. However

in my experience the most common runaways were the two stroke Detroits with the older 2 screw racks. The injectors have a

rack that controls fuel in the injector and all the injectors are tied together by the rack control tubes. If the rack on just one injector

sticks in the full fuel position then all of the injectors remain in the

full fuel position the only way to shut the engine down is to shut off the fuel with a valve or close off the air supply. This is the reason that Detroits came with an air flap in the air horn mounted

on the blower. Later models came with spring loaded rack control

levers that would allow all but the stuck injector to return to idle or no fuel position. Another cause for runaways on Detroits was an improper tune-up procedure and I've witnessed all of the above situations.

 

[R.ebel]

Runaways

There is nothing like a runaway engine to get your heart ponding



I once had a Honda CR250 dirt bike turn into a diesel and runaway. As a young man in search of more power, I decided to run the dirt bike on alcohol and was in the process of sorting out the jetting and timing when it happend. Kick started the moter and it instantly went to what sounded like 15000 rpm, I'm pushing the kill button and nothing... still screaming, in desperation I pull the plug wire... still screaming Hesitantly thought about putting it in gear and dropping the clutch with the brakes locked and realized that the drive chain was still soaking in solvent to be cleaned. At this point I'm in a complete panic, my heart is pounding, to remove the air cleaner is about a 5 minute job and I'm too scared to be next to the motor that is still screaming fearing its going to blow, so I turned off the fuel and literaly hid around the corner and waited for the inevitable. Fortunatley it ran out of fuel before it scattered itself in the garage. Man I was shaking like a queer in a wiener factory, took a good 1/2 hour for me to stop shaking. This whole episode lasted about 4 minutes. I had to rebuild the motor, the piston was in the process of melting when it ran out of fuel.

 

[Champane Flight]

Blows your mind

I was driving an old 8-71 Detroit and had to pull an old boy out of a ditch. The old KW grunted a little and died. I just put in the clutch and went to hit the starter. That is when I heard,he11 it was still running "Backwards". Thats right exhausting through the air cleaners. Turned it off and it wouldn't shut off,even when I pulled the emergency shutdown. Finally just dumped the clutch and killed it. It started again and was fine. The runaway flap goes only one way(like a check valve) and is spring loaded.