Stopping a runaway diesel

There’s been a few instances where a failed turbo oil seal has resulted in a Diesel engine running happily to destruction on its own lub oil.

How would you stop it, safely?

Stall in gear if a manual.
Cut turbo hose if auto.

starve the engine of oxygen or stall the engine in the gears

Happened to me on a SIII 2.25 diesel when a piston cracked. Instant smoke screen, inside the cab and out.
I immediately pulled over and tried to stop it with decompression - no joy, happily running burning oil on one cylinder. As stated above selected 4th and stalled it.

Rebuild turned out to be fairly straightforward and gave me the chance to replace all 4 pistons and rings, decoke and grind in the valves and replace the big end bearings. Ran beautifully after that, shame the chassis was rusty.

a CO2 fire extinguisher aimed at the air intake is a good one, especially if you can get the air filter off
ball up a rag, shirt or similar and stuff that down the intake to cut off the air supply.
if you've got a rubber floormat, that should make a pretty good seal too

if the exhaust is upwind, then you probably won't be able to see the engine and you probably shouldn't be breathing it in - call for help

kermit_rr said:

a CO2 fire extinguisher aimed at the air intake is a good one, especially if you can get the air filter off
ball up a rag, shirt or similar and stuff that down the intake to cut off the air supply.
if you've got a rubber floormat, that should make a pretty good seal too

Click to expand...

I like the rubber floormat at idea. Could try it over the intake grill (Freelander).

kermit_rr said:

if the exhaust is upwind, then you probably won't be able to see the engine and you probably shouldn't be breathing it in - call for help[/i]

Click to expand...

Like dial 999 and ask for the fire brigade.

Prob couldn't stall it, my vote also is for pulling intercooler pipe off or cutting it

Many years ago (when the world was still black and white lol) I was told by my lecturer at Gateshead Technical College, "When a diesel runs away...you run away!" But he was talking about the really big stuff in commercial vehicles and had suffered a very near miss when a red hot big end shell flew past his ear after a bus engine let go.

I have come across cars of different makes that has run away (mainly due to oil overfill) and if you are very lucky you can stall them out in gear (presuming it's manual transmission). Otherwise choking off the air intake has worked for me. If the inlet hose is soft enough, clamping it will cause it to vacuum quickly and starve the motor.

Some of the previous comments are very ingenuous...I'd have never thought of a CO2 extinguisher. I'm sure it would work...good thinking.

Chris

It would suggest to me that a "T-piece" in the turbo's air intake with a Co2 cannister on a pull-pin would be a good thing to have to protect against a fatal runaway?

there is a system like that, but its a bit overkill IMO.
If you know the above in the video you know it, if you don't you don't. Now that you do, you can deal with a runaway diesel easily.

A parts Tray over the inlet did it for me.

VM 425 Rover SD1!

Ran away almost instantly after a 20yr slumber, kicked over and went mental lol