Measures to combat a runaway diesel engine

Combustion needs 3 things, Fuel, Oxygen, Heat .

In a runaway diesel you can't take away the fuel or heat so you are left with Oxygen . Putting your hanky over the intake won't work but replace the Oxygen with Carbon Dioxide or Carbon monoxide will work, emptying a load of co2 from a fire extinguisher into the intake will stop it.


I used to weld fuel tanks by running a car exhaust into them, Carbon Monoxide stopped the bang !!

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Originally Posted by uninformed

surely this thread is a joke, I mean look at the date it was started......and while there are many wives tales of this mythical run away, how is it ever possible for a good, healthy perfectly sound engine to run away.....I mean, come on!

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Exactly, every listed cause of runaway boils down to neglect and poor maintenance - over filling with oil, worn turbo seals, and injector failure. Seems like there is a huge amount of effort going into avoiding the consequences of running a vehicle into the ground. :wasntme:

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Originally Posted by Landy110

Dougal, it happened.
The fuel was cut off because the engine had been switched off but the thing was absolutely screaming, the plume looked like burning oil, it smelled like burning oil, it was burning oil.

I don't care what anyone thinks can and can't happen, I saw it and no amount of theorising by anyone who wasn't there and can't understand it is ever going to convince me it didn't or can't happen.

Uninformed - you are !

Fridgy - Your name indicates you are a tradie. You will have seen stuff that shouldn't happen but did.

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Don't stress, quite a few here really only have interweb and theoretical experience;)

The thing is with a diesel running on, is it's ungoverned in rpm and will spin a he'll of alot faster than normal

In my own personal actually truly real experience in real life:eek: after rolling a hzj78 up the bush, we winched it on it's wheels, had trouble cranking it then it ran, anyhow told the dude not to rev it, winching with another car it starts running on, what an awesome sound, with the clutch being dropped in all gears it just slipped each time eventually after a few attempts it seemed to catch, but I'm thinking it was drinking all the oil and was getting down on power, anyhow, few bent rods after that

I had an old VW Golf with a worn NA diesel that used to run away in spurts at highway speed until it had consumed the oil build-up from the crankcase breather.

hey Landy110, clearly you didnt get my joke....maybe you should go read my thread....it has only had 11,000 views so far :D

Landy, yes your right I have seen way too many things happen that shouldn't, in my younger days I spent 10 odd years involved with drag racing and saw some interesting engine blow ups that were quite strange. Also in my trade, espeacially these days with so called fridgies not understanding what happens with refrigerant when heated or introduced to naked flame. I possibly should have added a grinning icon or such to my earlier post, I had just finished reading "Uninformeds" thread on his runaway and was following on with his humorous reply....... But I will say this, I have only recently joined the site as i am intending to buy a Disco or P38 later this year and reading the various threads have put my mind at ease that it is the right decision so will be hanging around for a while yet :-). As for the runaway diesel, a mate has seen it first hand too, maybe not as severe as some have said here but did happen.

Oh and as for the clutch not grabbing..... I have had brand new High performance button clutches slip before..... in particular if you have too higher RPM and drop in too higher gear at standstill it will slip easy as.... spinning mass/high torque/high HP and good brakes will do it

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Originally Posted by Kev the Fridgy

As for the runaway diesel, a mate has seen it first hand too, maybe not as severe as some have said here but did happen.

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That's nice. But what actually caused it? As already mentioned here by many posters, it takes some quite disruptive events to cause a diesel runaway and they can all be prevented.

BTW, big difference between a clutch slipping and a clutch not slowing an engine down at all.

Maybe I am not in the best of humour at he moment, got laid off 3 weeks ago and have been searching for work ever since, it gets to a bloke. But yes, if you are having a laugh it always pays to include the laughing icon as simple text does nothing to convey humour.

Dougal and others, yes, maintenance SHOULD prevent this from happening however, how often do you pull your turbo off and inspect it ?

Lets face it, things can let go at any time, even new!

The thing I have not mentioned is that the engine was being revved fairly well climbing out of a muddy creek crossing when the turbo let go so the turbo was revving fast and had been driven for a while so was fairly hot as turbos get. When the seal let go the oil MUST have been vapourised, this is the only explanation for the way it just screamed away.

And yes, the owner was not big on preventative maintenance.

hey you guys know that you can buy shutdown flaps commercially off the shelf right? they're normally fitted up on diesels that go into refuelling areas and gas works.

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