Runaway diesel??? holy crap that's a lot of smoke!

I have a buddy who tells a story from when he was going to school to become a mechanic on heavy equipment. A fellow student didn't assemble something correctly on a very large diesel engine that was in the schools diesel shop. It ran away with no one but the clueless student nearby. By the time anyone else realized what was happening it was going full bore. He said that someone threw a book or manual of some sort on top to cut off the air. He said that is started sucking the pages through the motor. He said at that point guys started taking cover. When it finally let go it took the shop wall out and injured a few of the students. When he told the story it had been several years since it had happened, but I did recall hearing news reports of something blowing a wall out in a building there.

 

I had a friend whose D9 broke something in the rack or pump, couldn't shut it off and it sat there for several minutes running at what he estimated was around 5 grand. It really grenaded when it let go.

 

Well! Lets say it this way.
I won´t do it again.
By the way, Diesels don´t use ignition, so it´s quite difficult to turn of the spark.

 

Rudolph Diesel was nearly killed when one of his first engines blew. The first runaway??

 

Also had a Terex TS-24, which has a pair of Detroits in it, one in front and one in the back.....well, the rear engine took off and before we could kill it, it spit a rod and piston right out the side.....landed right on the ground @ 15 ft from the machine!

 

It is highly possible on the 2 strokes for the air box to become fouled and still run after the fuel has been shut off. The worst thing you can do is remove the load.

 

What you likely saw was lose of Scav air pressure. They will run like that but I do not know for how long. Ofcourse it depends on the engines loading condition.

I had this happen on a EMD 645 E-6 the cause was blower drive failure.

 

At the university I went to, they had a diesel mechanic and an auto mechanic program (bachelors degree, amazingly enough). Every spring, they would have a 'blow-off' competition. They auto guys would build up their best small block (all donated engines) and the diesel guys would bring theirs, to see which engine would last the longest at full throttle, no governors, just setting on an engine stand.

It was absolute mayhem. The most impressive display was a huge Detroit diesel, in "runaway" mode. The stack was shooting exhaust into a massive, massive mushroom cloud of black smoke that looked like an umbrella over the whole campus, and part of the town. I can't describe how crazy it was before it blew. We were sectioned off for safety, but the huge crowd started backing up slowly....like we might get killed by this thing...haha

 

Let any diesel have an artificial fuel source into the intake air stream and it will run away. It could be as simple as WD40 on the air filter.
Old Detroit Diesel two strokes can run backwards easily. But for some reason, they won't build oil pressure. You have to kill the truck by putting it into high gear.

 

no shit guys...it was a joke. i am a fucking mechanic, dammit LOL

 

last summer I had a volvo blow a turbo oil went in the intercooler and muffler .
seating in the shop at idle . Engine went screaming smoked like a train shop look like really bad tire fire in seconds. It was cool blew a rod out on to frame

 

How did the customer take the news that his Volvo had decided to commit suicide?? Must have been a grim moment...

 

It was a Volvo. How sad could he have been?

 

when this happens could you put the tranny in the highest gear and ease off the clutch.(holding the brakes) or would the clutch slip or would it just take off? never dealt with anything like this...

 

Its all depending on how good your clutch is, your brakes, how much the vehicles weighs, etc. Many time you cannot get the trans in gear, thats why one of the rules of thumb is that when you are driving a truck the transmission is never in neutral. Unless you are parked. In most cases when it starts to go you have a very small window to save it beyond that, it a crap shoot if the engine is savable.

The biggest factor if you can stop it is the size of your balls. When the shit starts flying most people make a run for it. Take a motor that is designed to spin at 2800-3200 RPM max and spin it up to 5000, see how many people are standing near that bomb waiting to go off.

 

sounds cool. too bad you didnt get any pics or video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-pxsViKF88

 

No oil pressure cause the oil pump is going backwards. Also the fuel pump is going the wrong way, so if you leave it run it will stop and lose the prime. and smoke out of the air intake.

It really doesn't hurt them, I worked for a fleet that had 140 buses and we used to get them to do it by shutting the engine off and turning it back on just as the engine stopped. 50% of the time it would work. Sometimes we were bored.

 

My Dodge 12-valve Cummins dumps clouds of black soot out the pipe. Of course, it's not stock and I have it set up that way, plus, it's controllable and only smokes when I want it to. It sure is fun to watch people swerve around the coal cloud though. I don't stomp on the throttle as often as I used to since Diesel is at $4.10 a gallon.

 

All oilfield diesel trucks are required to have positive air shut offs just in case a fugitive cloud of natual gas happens to drift by.

Never seen one take off, and hope I never do!