Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Has anyone here ever experienced a diesel runaway?

Had this happen to me last Friday, happened in the piece of equipment I was operating, interesting to say the least.

I pulled the engine today and found the #4 rod bearing spun and the crank pin ruined, looks like a total rebuild.

Here's a video of this happen to some one else.

[video:youtube]http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=Xf0eHtXTnDw[/video]

Yes. It is something you never forget. Happened to me about 20yrs ago. I was working at a John Deere dealer at the time. It was a 5000 series tractor with a bad injector pump. I pulled the pump and sent it in for rebuild at the customers request. Apparently the rebuild shop screwed up the rack position. When I started it at low idle it was balls to the wall and then some. My buddy in the station next to mine thought quickly and clamped the fuel line with a pair of vice grips. That shut it down. Serius pucker factor there.

This one was pretty impressive

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y7gKbk0jyyM[/video]

Yes.

I hate that chit

I worked as a diesel mechanic in the early sixties and heard of this happening with Detroit diesels but never saw it happen.

had it happen on an emergency generator on a Navy Destroyer.
We exited the space, closed the door and activated the co2 suppression system.
Twas a little scary!

Pumping some calcium chloride down a gas well in the area around FT.Stockton TX.
Had that Mack wound up pumping against a head of pressure when the well head steel ring gave up.gas was everywhere and even hitting the stop,it just kept running.

I last looked at the truck from about 30 ft.away when it went to pieces.
Seems that their monitor was found to be defective.
It cost the pulling rig an engine as well.

Yep, we had it happen with a Detroit Diesel 396 generator. Damned thing came off it's foundation.

Yep, around '86. Pumping a holding basin at a refinery.

The temp got high enough for the crude we were skimming to start fractionating. No LEL meters on the equipment back then.

We had 3 - 6v71 Detroits running 6x4 pumps.

I managed to wrap 1 intake with a rain coat that choked it off. The other 2 went hand grenade.

I've seen a couple of Detroit's run off after people had the governors apart. Both guys were self proclaimed Detroit experts.LOL

The rig engine was a Detroit.

Nope, but I've watched every video on Youtube that I could find.

I was a kid, working on one of my Dad's company's WW vintage LCIs, with a pretty screwy multiple 6-71 Detroit array.

While "servicing" the thing one of our Carib types decided to fire it up without the airbox re-installed, and that sucker just went to high gain.

We made a hasty exit, and once we were out of that awful crowded space I asked the main protagonist to go get a towel.

I tossed the towel into the blower intake, and that thing came apart like a $10.00 suit.

GTC

Bad rack adjustment can cause that as well as losing a seal on the turbocharger. The turbo starts sucking oil into the engine and the RPMs just keep going up until something goes bang. Had it happen once on a Detroit and we started stuffing what ever clothes, rags, and whatever else we could find down the air intake trying to kill before it killed us. In the old days my dad use to tell the story of the old farmers would be plowing up a hill and start to run out of power so they would carry liquid either with them and when they started losing power they would pour either in the either cups mounted over each cylinder. once in a while they would pour to much in and cause an overrun causing the motor to blow up.

That's what happened to this one, the seals on the turbo went, I would guess the rpms went somewhere between 6000 and 9000, pretty high on a little duetz engine designed to run at 2500.

The whole thing lasted for about 30 seconds before it locked up, I'm thinking that the #4 rod bearing getting spun saved it from grenading.

Funny thing is I suggested to the boss 3 weeks ago that we should service the turbo as the machine was smoking excessively on idle, after he towed me back to the shop I decided it would be a good idea not to bring it up.

Late 80's I had a cummins run away. Same thing as most, turbo.

About 5 years ago, I got a call from an operator that her machine wouldn't shut off. Went out and it wasn't running away but making a god awful noise and after we starved it at the intake, we dragged it back to the shop. Half of the impellers were gone in the turbo. We got lucky on that one. It was a deutz 6 cylinder.

Yes, the 71 series 2cycle Detroits would run once in awhile. The trucks I drove had a runaway switch which you pulled. This would release a damper over the air intake thus starving the engine and it would shut down. Those engines would run backwards too. Loud, hi pitched and narrow torque range. Much prefer Cat or Cummins.

Had it happen on a 6v53 in a M113A3 once, I hate working on those!

A little related anecdote, when I was in Iraq in 05-06, We were out at an outpost with a Iraqi battalion. We had a Iraqi SF team roll in in M113A3's, with I assume Blackwater guys driving them. Me being the Motor Sergeant, they called for me when they parked and I headed on down there. One of the drivers was telling me "I've been driving these for years, and I have a run away engine!" I hopped in, pushed in the hand throttle, and pulled the engine shutoff (one is right above the other).

I think just about any older two cycle, gasoline or diesel, would run backwards. Including dirt bikes.

I had a VW Rabbit diesel that would blow oil into the intake manifold /air cleaner system (too much crank case pressure), and when it would hit a certain level it would start sucking oil into the engine. Exciting.

Rebuilt it, and that fixed it.