What Is A Diesel Engine Runaway? *EXPLAINED* 

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[leeadams]

Years ago, around early 70s, I worked for Ryder Trucks in Atlanta. We were working on a Detroit Diesel in one of the bays, the mechanil had the hood and shut off disasembled while he was working on it, for some reason he started it without the shut off plate installed...long story short, it ran away, about twenty guys unassed the shop and the shop manager tried to stop it by dropping an Atlanta Phone book over the intake, back then Atlanta phone books were four or five inches thick, it sucked the phone bood down like it ate it to no avail, when it came apart it sent shrapnel into every concrete wall and most of the trucks parked around it. The fire was put out by the mechanics but the damage was complete. Back then Detroits were famous for running away, which is why they had a metal plate you could drop to close off the air intake...unfortunately, this one was disconnected for maintaince..a lesson I have remembered my entire life.

[bat__bat]

This was the main ignition of the Deep water Horizon disaster. Natural gas was leaking out the busted well and got sucked into the generators. The generators went max RPM. First, all the electricity infrastructure, motors, lighting, and computers exploded or caught fire, then the engines on the generators blew up.

[TheNutshaq]

I’ve read that one way to stop a runaway is to use a fire extinguisher to blow C02 into the turbo and thus into the engine

[chrispyw]

About 15 years ago at my first job as an apprentice auto tech, we had a diesel van run away. All the staff panicked and as a result the respray booth got utterly destroyed because the engine just went until it blew. I knew nothing so just stood and watched in disbelief. One of the most terrifying things that can happen in a garage if you don't know how to stop it!

[lcazier]

I had a duramax run away. It had the air filter get plugged with snow and sucked oil from the turbo and ran away. Oil burned so hot it melted the injectors and glow plugs. Cylinders had some scoring and crank was weakened. Got it running again with glow plugs and injectors. Then two weeks later crank broke.

[Tigrou]

Most modern diesel engines (<10 years) have a shudder valve installed near the air intake manifold. If the ECU detect higher RPM than expected it will automatically activate it.

[martiniusetihw]

I'm not a truck guy, but I am a car enthusiast. The title of this video caught my eye. I have to ask the question, especially if this was an issue that was worse in the past, why is it the intake shut off device wasn't standard on all diesel trucks? Brother this video was top notch!! Thank you for your knowledge!! Hopefully one day I can use it to help somebody! Keep being awesome

[eekthecat]

Positive air shutoffs are mandatory in my field of work . Oil and gas .

[ktm]

Had a very high mileage turbo diesel Mercedes that i made the choice to get rid of because the maintenance to keep it going safely was going to be too much. I stuck my fingers in the turbo and could wobble the impeller with ease. How it wasn't leaking already was a mystery, but i loved that car. It didn't start running, really running, until about 65 mph.

[jaromirandel]

When runaway occurs, you have to choke or stall the engine. Set the highest gear, press brake and release clutch. You can also try to clog the exhaust. No air out = no air in.

[megsley]

I wanna say this was a factor in the Texas City BP Oil Refinery explosion - there was a large fuel leak on site and a huge gas cloud spread across the site. it finally encountered a diesel engine pick up truck that had been left idling. witnesses stated they tried to shut off the truck but the huge gas cloud surrounding the truck kept feeding the engine leading to runaway. US Chem Safety Board investigators believe this was most likely the ignition source that caused the explosion. scary stuff but really interesting video and thank you for explaining!

[ralphllivrah]

Biggest problem for Cummins owners is keeping the truck body in shape long enough to wear out the motor. Lol

[sailingmariposa]

All suggestions were good, the key is to be ready for it. Any time I’ve done pump or governor work I have someone standing by with a heavy duty clipboard and the inlet off the turbo. If you can catch it before it really revs out they are pretty easy to shut down, if you have to go find a clip board then it’s probably already too late. 2 stroke Detroit’s would suck up their own oil if they started running too fast, I think that’s why they were so notorious for runaway. I like the air shutdown valve, seems sensible for any performance engine, I believe they are required for a few kinds of racing.😅

[Smallmike]

I experienced a newer Detroit Diesel runaway. Driver stated unit was hard to start every morning, and they were sparaying ether in the intake. We found a broken oring on the fuel filter module cap. Replaced the oring and primed system. Once the truck fired up, there was so much residual ether in the system that the engine started running backwards and blowing black smoke out the intake housing.

[joelyons]

I drive a Mack cement truck, and this happened to another driver at our company last year. I saw it happen in real time, smoke everywhere, couldn’t shut the engine off. I knew we had to cut the fuel supply but I didn’t want to risk it. Fire department came and everything. I asked our mechanic later, and he said it was the turbo.

[charlescoates]

Last month I had a situation where my Ram kept running after key off. It was not a runaway like you are talking about, it was a TIPM problem that bridged the on/off circut. I just took a pair of pliers and pinched the fuel line.

[cr]

My grandfather told me about this. When he was a Ford mechanic he said they always had a Co2 extinguisher close to the inlet of the turbo just in case.

[KylerBroviak]

My dad was driving the DHD truck on the dyno when it exploded and ran away, we put air knifes on our race trucks and fuel shut offs. The DHD truck only stopped running away because it ran out of fuel. Basically the turbo exploded and cut the high pressure fuel line and put a hole in the intake so all of the high pressure fuel was spraying directly into the intake.

[nathanweidner]

Thank you foreal for making this video I’ll be buying both fuel cut off and the air cut off switch when I rebuild my 7.3 appreciate the videos and how you explain everything cause I’m new to the game !!

[MeltingRubberZ]

Interesting discussion. I have an 85 F350 with the 6.9 IDI. It's naturally aspirated so I don't have to worry the turbo. It is also manual transmission so your idea of trying to stall the engine from a super high load (it is only a 4 speed so putting it in fourth and stomping on the brake could work).