Runaway Diesel !!!

[gruntus]

Guys,

Just something I thought I would share the and see if anyone else has experienced anything similar and a possible pointer for people having a similar problem.

The following didn't happen recently (about two and half years ago) but I know when it did it left my brother feeling a bit desperate.

My brother bought a 200TDi Disco which in good nick (to look at) and thought he had picked up a bargain (yeah I wonder why? )

He had to replace the radiator on it fairly quickly as it ran a bit hot and truth be told he did drive it quite hard.

One day approaching home from a trip down south (after sitting on the motorway for a few hours) he noticed a lot of smoke erupt from the exhaust and the engine runaway at a frightening pace.

He pulled over and switched off but the engine but it kept going luckily he had the presence of mind to put it in a high gear and stall the engine however it ranaway again as soon as he started it up again after 5 minutes.

After being towed back to my old mans place they discovered hardly any oil in the sump and most of it laying in the induction manifold.

He quickly spoke to someone in the know who told him that the turbo oils seals were away and that the oil was being drawn/blown into the induction system and hence the runaway engine.

So......new turbo purchased, in for a penny in for a pound he also pulled the head off to check for any problems, found none but ralso eplaced the rings and bottom end beariings for good measure having stripped the engine this far.

Now a happy camper all was good and well............until

....about a few weeks later the same thing happened again after another long trip.

This time and welll pi***d off duly upset he was absolutely stumped as what to do next.

After lots of ringing around he eventually spoke to one of the dealerships in Kent who told him to change the cyclone seperator (located on the drivers side of the cam cover) could be faulty.

£30 later (a bit cheaper than a new turbo) he fitted the new seperator and ever since then no problems.

The sad part was that he was so disillusioned with the money he had spent and lack of reliability he ended up buying another motor and leaving the disco at my old mans.

6 months later he offered me the disco at a very good price and (touch wood) two years later no major problems.

Anyone else experienced the same thing? How lucky was he that it happened to him and not his missus?

Cheers

Grant

[Happyoldgit]

Yup, more than once. The one that sticks in my mind was many years ago on a for sale Series III that I was looking at.

[white90]

Sherpa Diesel van at work did that the user got out and beat a hasty retreat

until a bang and the conrod broke free from the block looking to make an escape I guess.

impressive so I'm told

[pugwash]

it's not an uncommon problem with older diseasels- i had an old horse box that did it once- luckily i got it out of gear- stalling it isn't a bad idea, but sticking your hand over the intake also works (modified to add: hand really isn't a good idea though- as other have suggested a stout jumper or piece of card would probably be better!)

[sheeppimp]

yup on an old sherpa van borrowed for the weekend from work for me too, wouldn't stall but managed to suffocate it just as it started smoking. Started it up and (carefully) drove it back to the the yard. Never did it again though and was still chugging away two year later when i left

[Lewis]

Seems pretty common on the sherpa/prima diesel engines. My prima powered Series 2a did it regularly when i first got it, changing the turbo didnt help, but taking the oil breather off the airbox and venting it to a catch tank cured it. I suspect worn rings are causing massive back pressure, I cant be bothered to fix it so a half litre of ATF/EP90/5W40/Fully synth goes in it every week (thankyou work for the free oil )

Lewis

worth noting - dont put your hand over the intake to stall it, using something else - socks/cardboard - whatever is to hand. A friend at work has a Perkins intake sized scar on the palm of his right hand where a runaway industrial diesel decided it wanted his skin too

[najw]

Happened to my 2.25 diesel lightweight many years ago. Scared the sh*t out of me.

Managed to stall it.

New head gasket but it happened again so complete engine rebuild cured it.

As Lewis says - don't put your hand over the intake to stop it, it could be very nasty!!!

[BogMonster]

Yes, turbo seals or a blocked crank breather will both do that. We had a brand new 110 Tdi in for a pre delivery inspection a couple of years ago and it was chuffing out clouds of oil smoke from the exhaust. Turned out that some tit in the factory had put a big kink in the breather pipe so the crankcase was massively pressurising and forcing oil up past the rings on the intake stroke.

[Buzz]

The cyclone seperator has a diaphram inside it, and if this splits it can allow the engine to suck the oil out of the sump. Apparently this can also happen if you refill a tdi too fast after an oil change.

My 90 sucked a litre of oil out of the sump, on two seperate occassions, and deposited it in the intercooler allowing it to run on the oil and smoke loads. Fortunately it didn't runaway too much, mainly it held its revs during gear changes. On both occasions the engine had just been started form cold and I'd driven less than a mile, the oil was thick and cold, and yet the engine still managed to suck it out of the sump!

After the first instance I checked all the breather system, including the seperator, then covered 3500miles till it happened again. On advice of my local land rover specialist, I've now replaced the cyclone seperator, the engines had a thrashing since and so far its behaving its self.

So it may look fine and not be blocked, but you can't tell if the diaphrams split, so if in doubt replace it, its much cheaper than a turbo!

Buzz.

[v8bertha]

Mate of mine is a service engineer for a well known truck manufacturer... big artic units with big old diseasel engines. He told me about the time this happened in their workshop... basically all the mechanics leg it and wait for the truck to disintigrate!!

[muddy]

Has anyone seen the scrapheap challenge where the mad farmers trying to tweak there 16 litre roll's royce lose the govener screw and it runs away? pulling the fuel tube results in oil burning and some lovely streams of black smoke looked and sounded s*%t hot although i did destroy most of its valve gear and rods! shame they wern't driving it bet it would have gone like a rocket!

[JimAttrill]

I have a long memory....

Someone else a long time ago said that his 200tdi Disco 'ran away' for a while after each oil change. What changed with the 300tdi, I wonder, because it does not do this no matter how fast you put the oil in. Must be bigger holes for the oil to get to the sump.

I still think my suggestion at the time is the best. Connect the outlet of the cyclonic thingy to the chassis. Then any oil will condense in there and do wonders for the life of (one side) of your chassis. But the engine will not be able to run on its own oil.

Doubtless this is against some sort of environmental regulation. Ho Hum.

[LR90]

I still think my suggestion at the time is the best. Connect the outlet of the cyclonic thingy to the chassis. Then any oil will condense in there and do wonders for the life of (one side) of your chassis. But the engine will not be able to run on its own oil.

I like that idea (ran my dying 200TDi like that for a while) but what happens if you go wading? Is there a non return valve in their or will I end up with a sump full of water.