Diesel Runaway? Anyone had it happen?

Just wondering if and how people get this happening to their lannie.

I've seen one comment on Youtube claiming a landrover engine withstood it buy draining the sump dry.

Do people carry expanding foam / fire extinguisher to block off the intake?
Which Fire extinguisher is best to use?

I'd not even heard about this until a few hours ago...

Put it into gear and stall it yes had it happen on a few customers cars.. luckily they wasnt auto's

or you could stall it

what can you do if its an auto??

i got my first doozil now

ive been driving diesels of one sort or another for 40 odd years and never had it happen to me , not something that id worry about.. only ever heard of it in the last couple of years.... guess it mostly happens when turbo seals go...which have only really got common this century. i gather blocking the air intake with your balled up shirt is a handy way to stop it if it does happen.

So what is it? never heardf of it!

Ive had it happen on me a few times when carrying out the smoke test on the MOT. You can usually tell when its gonna happen as you get diesel knock first. If i hear the knock i abandon the test and dont rev it no more. Scares the life outa me!

Dartmore its basically the engine running on its own oil. It will rev past the limiter and you cant turn it off til you stall it or it blows

Had it happen on a Volvo truck.
Turbo blew, but pulled into side of road and stopped. Volvo mechanic came out, checked dipstick and oil was low but still there. (oil was bypassing turbo seals). So, new turbo fitted, engine started, (cab still raised) and all seemed ok. But revs started increasing slowly, then rapidly, and followed by a loud bang with a cloud of steam & smoke!
The engine was running on engine oil that had been spat into the intercooler when the turbo failed. Couldn`t stall it as cab was raised. Didn`t think of it at the time, but a jacket or summat to block the air intake should have choked it off.
The garage doing the repair had to foot a big bill, after a lot of arguing, as they should have cleaned out the intercooler first.
Any of you with smoky engines due to worn turbo seals beware! The oil getting past the turbo seals will drop the level in the sump and also risk run-on. Not a common outcome, but a very expensive one if it does happen!

so if you drain the sump oil while its doing it does it stop it or knacker your engine?

fett said:

so if you drain the sump oil while its doing it does it stop it or knacker your engine?

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what does ya think???

fett said:

so if you drain the sump oil while its doing it does it stop it or knacker your engine?

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I dont think you'd have time...plus...running with no oil would probably be insane.

I heard that if you use sea water in the fuel system it will cool the engine down enough for it to run on the sump oil,also you get over 100 mpg ....is it true ?

yes

there is a good vid on tube of a kiwi people carrier running on its sump oil. it took about 15 mins to die

Series71 said:

I heard that if you use sea water in the fuel system it will cool the engine down enough for it to run on the sump oil,also you get over 100 mpg ....is it true ?

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The seawater would knacker the seals and rubber eh?

Best thing to do is stand back and wait for the bang!


If you watch this you'll understand



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zx3qKX_Pno&feature=youtube_gdata_player]Runaway Diesel Defender 200 TDI - YouTube[/ame]

Probably need a head-skim doing

A diesel engine will run on the oil in the air filter from the breather pipe on a worn engine have to keep it clean. had a few runaways on chieftain tanks when the bellow seals go have to drop the seat close the hatch and wait till all the noise goes then see if anybody got killed.

co2 extinguisher into the air intake would surely stop it as there would be no oxygen (as seen on scrapheap challenge I think)

yeah but it didnt work on scrapheap challenge did it!

if you take the oil out lets hope it runs outta fuel before it chews itself to bits!