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I want to know.

 

Who out there has seen this or experienced it.

 

Personally I haven't. But we did have one take off in our parking lot. It was a farmers truck, 6.0L, and it had been tipped onto it's side in a ditch, or something along those lines. They failed to mention that during the write up. Customer just stated that the truck wouldn't start (because it didnt after they put it back on its own four feet). This was when I worked at my dealers other branch and there were other diesel techs there at the time. The tech who took the job, went out and the truck started fine. Ran a little rough but started. Little did he know the CAC was full of oil. So he went to leave the lot and see how it would go down the road. As he came to stop, she ran away, and just before he was about to pull out into traffic! The brakes werent long holding. He ended up throwing it in neutral and bailed out. The engine finally siezed but didn't blow or anything spectacular. When it was all said and done there was a small burn out and a whole pile of soot in the trees on the edge of the lot. All that excitement and I missed it!

 

 

So lets hear the stories.

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I am finishing up one right now. The turbo had failed and filled up the charge air cooler. By the looks of most of the glow plugs it has been sipping that oil for a while. The engine finally ran away on the customer killing three cylinders in the process.

 

In the past I had one take off in the parking lot which scared the crap out of me. The engine started right back up, ran fine and has never returned.

 

An ex co-worker also had one run away back in 2005. You should have seen the look on his face!

 

Posted ImagePosted Image

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Had one at my dealer before I worked here, picture this, we're right next door to a hotel, and right off the I-80 freeway, there's some sort of fire fighter conference going on at the hotel, and one runs away in the back lot, smokes out the freeway and everything, bunches of firemen come over to see what's going on, turns out some guy from the EPA was on the freeway, so he came over to see what was going on, he tells my manager "you need to shut that thing down" manager tossed him the keys to it and said "here's the keys, you shut it down" I guess it finally grenaded!

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Worked on a money truck a few years back with a cummins engine. Was to pick it up and bring to shop. Complaint of oil consumption. Picked it up and half way across town she ran away finally stopped after no oil left in crankcase connecting rods through the block, plastic melting, hoses burst. Personally wouldn't mind if i never saw another one

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TDI with a million miles with worn out valve seals. Ran away after the oil was changed. I guess they were bad enough to allow the new oil to bleed passed the seal(s) and into the cylinders, it wasn't as bad as I thought, nothing catastrophic.

 

When I first started in the trade at an Independent, a fellow tech decided to remove the oil residue from the cac boots by spraying copious amounts of brake clean into the cac. The RPM went pretty high for a short burst, but that's all.

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The other diesel tech here had just put and EGR cooler in an E350 cuve van to cure a losing coolant concern. Hotline told him to start with the cooler and go from there. Well, nobody told the tech that they kept driving it until it wouldn't go ant further. Anyhow, turns out there was a hole in one of the pistons and the injector in that cylinder filled the crankcase with fuel. Lots of smoke and noise, but nothing too dramatic when it just finally quit. The same tech had one grenade at his previous dealer and it filled the dealer's lot with smoke. Lots of noise on that one too. Posted Image

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turns out some guy from the EPA was on the freeway, so he came over to see what was going on, he tells my manager "you need to shut that thing down" manager tossed him the keys to it and said "here's the keys, you shut it down"

Haha, what are the odds. I would have loved to see that guys face, watching the environment deteriate before his very eyes.

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One universal disease...it appears that very few people check the oil level unless the manual tells them to (kinda like looking at the radiator to see if airflow is restricted)...

 

Seen a very few runaways... none of the gut wrenching run for you life kinda things, but enough alternate fuel to keep a motor kinda running when it shouldn't.

 

God made CO2 fire extinguishers for a reason. We have them mounted in easy reach for all of our diesel techs.

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I have not had a diesel run away on me personally but the dealer I work in now had one take off on them about 10 years ago. They installed a reman long block 3406b. The tech somehow got the fuel line and air/fuel ratio lines mixed up. Needless to say with a -4 fuel line right in the intake. It made a lot of noise and spun very fast. It never threw a rod, but the bearings were toast and the customer got a new engine. It is just a good thing that they did not put the air piping on the turbo before they started it.It just took a while to find something sturdy enough to cut the air off. Now when pump work is done there is a 1/2" thick plywood paddle in the tool room that must be in arms reach before start up.

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In college, the instructor had an old 8V-92 that he would make us run the rack, and of course he would tamper with it to make it runaway on someone to keep us on our toes to kill it quick... My first shop out of college, I was working on another 8V-92 and had it damn near runaway on me, ended up grabbing a 36" pipe wrench nearby and knocking the secondary fuel filter off breaking the fuel lines to kill that one.

 

And of course, back in college again, the instructor also loved to wire the Cummins PT pumps WOT with the solenoid screw turned out so we couldn't kill it with the keyswitch, or he would stand next to the engine and hold the throttles open while the students would start them to scare them into thinking runaway engines..

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I recall that many old 6-71s and 8V71s came with a fuel shut off and an Emergency ShutOff (just a flapper valve that acted as a PAS). More features that succumbed either to advancing technology or bean counters wishes.

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Ive had one due to a turbo taking a crap, was in for something unrelated and took it out back and it ran off. I had it in park thank god. I got out and watched it blow itself up. I was hoping for something cool to launch out the hood but never happened. It has some mean looking smoke comeing from the tailpipe and set the glow plug harness on fire. needless to say that was a huge pita after the fact

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Well this one I am currently finishing had twp quarts int he charge air cooler so I wonder how much it had before it took off. The left side exhaust manifold was also full of fuel. Half of the glow pugs were melted - the only carnage I got to see and I kept them. Truck runs good now but I cant release it until it stops smoking. Right now I drive to the end of the dead end street we are on and you cannot see anything on the return trip. I have never had one this loaded up.

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Here's a little diesel running away.

I'd have gotten out a bit faster, since you sit on the motor in a Previa.

 

 

Here's another on a dyno, sounds like it spun way up and well...

 

 

I only had 1 6.0 that almost ran away. Guy bought one of the very first ones, and it got towed for engine noise and smoke.

 

I went out to the lot, and it had a bit less than 20k on the odo. Started it, it rattled LOUD with a fuel knock, then stalled. It cranked right back up and revved all the way to 4 grand, I shut the key, and got away from it. It ran like that for about 10 seconds and shut off.

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I havent had one run away on me yet but I've thought about what I would do if it happenned, not sure I'd want to go running up to lift the hood and choke it out. I'd be afraid it would blow with my big head in the way.

 

Keith you mentioned C02 extinguisher. Do you just spray it into the intake duct from outside the front grill? Does that kill it fast?

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