1HDT Diesel Runaway!!! need help.

[mpreston73]

Has anyone have a 1HDT Turbo Diesel runaway on them?

I had that happen yesterday. I was driving along and all the sudden I heard a little noise and then I had 0 PSI boost and a big lack of power. so we pulled over and let the truck cool down. nothing that we could see was leaking or broken. The rest of the drive was mostly down hill or flat. so I started it back up again and started to slowly limp it home. 5 mins from my house is when s*** hit the fan. I smelt something not right so i right away pulled over and turned the truck off... but it just kept run and revving out of control. we right away cut the fuel line and that did nothing. so then we put a bag over the snorkel witch cut the air. After doing that the engine finally turned off.

I have not got the turbo apart yet, but from the research we have done it sounds like the turbo went so oil from the turbo was fuelling the engine.
The truck was running out of control for 2-3 mins. Engine has a Intercooler.

So my main question is,
Do you think i did more damage to the engine then just the turbo.
Has this thing happened to anyone els?
Any help would be GREAT.

Thanks

 

[ForealBoreal]

Yup your turbo seals probably went and it was essentially running off the oil in your engine. Not good.

 

[Chris Wilcox]

I always enjoy watching youtube videos of this sort of thing, however I bet it is really nerve wracking when it is your own engine. You did the right thing smothering it.

 

[mpreston73]

Yup your turbo seals probably went and it was essentially running off the oil in your engine. Not good.

yup.

We took the intercooler off and the air filer/intake air hose of and everything had oil in it.
Im hoping i didn't do any other damage.

 

[mpreston73]

I always enjoy watching youtube videos of this sort of thing, however I bet it is really nerve wracking when it is your own engine. You did the right thing smothering it.

Ya.
It kinda whats me to get a positive air shutoff. But a garbage bag it alot cheaper.

 

[ForealBoreal]

How did you choke it out of curiosity

 

[mpreston73]

How did you choke it out of curiosity

I put a garbage bag over the snorkel to stop the air flow to the engine.

 

[gerg]

So after reading this I'm going to have a little inservice with my wife on how to snuff the engine via plastic bag over snorkel in the event of a runaway. I could see most folks just watching until it siezed and punched a hole out the block. Im hoping your bearings are ok, but even if they are marred at least you didn't have a catastrophic failure. good catch.
g

 

[duncanrm]

I put a garbage bag over the snorkel to stop the air flow to the engine.

Its a pity that small CO2 extinguishers aren't cheaper.. they are by far the most effective way of snuffing out a runaway diesel.

 

[CycloSteve]

So after reading this I'm going to have a little inservice with my wife on how to snuff the engine via plastic bag over snorkel in the event of a runaway.

I plan on doing the same here. One bag in the glove box is cheap and easy solution. I think doing a few dry-run tests together to ensure that she knows what to do is a great idea. And to those who think a snorkel is just a useless ornament, this is one benefit which the OE air intake setup buried in the fender does not provide.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I'd suggest a towel or jacket might also work well and more likely to be on hand.


For the OP I had one start to run away after blowing a turbo, managed to stall it before it really took off. Sounds like your turbo is dead.

Later had the same engine run away after an IP failure. The RPM went off the clock. A 1hdt at 6500 plus RPM is a scary beast.
I barely managed to stall mine with ig in 5th gear, it took both feet on the brake. It was still pushing forward! And I'm not a small dude.
I sold mine after the second incident, could not see it escaping damage after running to such insane RPM , didn't feel I could trust it to be reliable.

 

[ozcrusier]

You need something solid over the induction as this could have been reving well 6000 RPM. Most mechanics would run when this happens as there could be Pieces off engine flying everywhere if it comes apart.
Fingers crossed your engine is OK

 

[dousty]

Is there any oil left in the sump? That will confirm your smothering stopped it or if it actually ran out of oil to burn. Off the back of that you'll know if it had lubricating oil whilst it was revving or not. (I think smothering did the trick)


Conrod bolts don't like to forces put on them by pistons changing direction far quicker (revving its tits off) than they were designed to and they will stretch. If not replaced you risk them coming loose and "spinning" a big end bearing. With that note made, at a minimum I would inspect all bigend bearings for damage and replace all conrod bolts. When an engine suffers from lack of lubrication, it can be first seen in the bigend bearings due to the load they are exposed to.
If the bigend bearings are ok then it's logical to assume the main bearings are too as the mains receive lubricating oil before the bigends do. Based on what you find there you'll know if you have got away with it or not.

Don't forget to clean all that oil out of your intercooler!

 

[Jan-78FJ40]

Another possibility for a runaway engine, besides turbo seals blowing out, is the injection pump front seal leaking diesel into the crank case and overfilling it (mudgudgeon might have referred to that). So as dusty said, check your oil. If it is thin and the volume is higher than expected, you have a bigger problem than the turbo seal.

 

[kowalski]

Why not just put it in gear and put the breaks on? If you have a manual transmission this will stall the motor...

saves you a ton of time hunting for a plastic bag

 

[mpreston73]

Why not just put it in gear and put the breaks on? If you have a manual transmission this will stall the motor...

saves you a ton of time hunting for a plastic bag

That doesn't work on a Automatic.
having a little garbage bag in the drivers door panel at all times it not hard.

 

[mpreston73]

Is there any oil left in the sump? That will confirm your smothering stopped it or if it actually ran out of oil to burn. Off the back of that you'll know if it had lubricating oil whilst it was revving or not. (I think smothering did the trick)


Conrod bolts don't like to forces put on them by pistons changing direction far quicker (revving its tits off) than they were designed to and they will stretch. If not replaced you risk them coming loose and "spinning" a big end bearing. With that note made, at a minimum I would inspect all bigend bearings for damage and replace all conrod bolts. When an engine suffers from lack of lubrication, it can be first seen in the bigend bearings due to the load they are exposed to.
If the bigend bearings are ok then it's logical to assume the main bearings are too as the mains receive lubricating oil before the bigends do. Based on what you find there you'll know if you have got away with it or not.

Don't forget to clean all that oil out of your intercooler!

Thanks for the input.

The turbo and intercooler was covered in oil. I just drained what was left of the oil. There was about 3L left. I do believe that smothering it did shut it down. ( I will alway have a little garbage bag in my door panel.) Having 3L of oil is much better then having no oil. this is a good sign for me i think. the next thing Im going to do is finish taking the turbo out and then ill drop the oil pan and take a look at the BEB's.

Do you think it would be worth doing a compression test?

Is there anything els i could check ?

thanks again.

 

[mpreston73]

Another possibility for a runaway engine, besides turbo seals blowing out, is the injection pump front seal leaking diesel into the crank case and overfilling it (mudgudgeon might have referred to that). So as dusty said, check your oil. If it is thin and the volume is higher than expected, you have a bigger problem than the turbo seal.

Thanks for the input.

I just drained the oil and i have about 3L left. And the oil that did come looked pretty normal to me. And there was alot of oil in the intercooler.
So im pretty sure it was just the turdo oil seal.

Thanks again.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Why not just put it in gear and put the breaks on? If you have a manual transmission this will stall the motor...

saves you a ton of time hunting for a plastic bag

Yeah, stalling it sounds easy. This is what I faced.

Driving at 100km/hr in 5th gear. The car accelerated like I'd dropped it back a couple of gears and floored it. With a car not far in front, I had little room to move. Managed to pull off the road with the engine screaming.
I'd recently built and installed a hybrid turbo and assumed seals had failed and that the engine was burning oil.

In fifth gear, I had both feet on the brake, braced against the seat and steering wheel to try and stop the car and stall the engine.
With both feet on the brake, the brakes barely held it, the car was still driving forward in 5th gear.
Eventually I stopped it, and stalled the engine. The clutch was totally toasted, the car full of clutch smoke.
Fxxxing scary having kids in the car, and having the car drive through the brakes in fifth gear on 35s, and knowing the clutch was failing fast!

There's no way your average woman would have been strong enough to stop it by stalling it.

Ironically, I think I could have just shut off the ignition, and the fuel cut solenoid should have stopped it. But in the heat of the moment I assumed it was burning oil.
Later investigated the cause with a diesel mechanic and we came to the conclusion something had failed in the pump and fuel delivery was un-governed

 

[kowalski]

Yeah, stalling it sounds easy. This is what I faced.

Driving at 100km/hr in 5th gear. The car accelerated like I'd dropped it back a couple of gears and floored it. With a car not far in front, I had little room to move. Managed to pull off the road with the engine screaming.
I'd recently built and installed a hybrid turbo and assumed seals had failed and that the engine was burning oil.

In fifth gear, I had both feet on the brake, braced against the seat and steering wheel to try and stop the car and stall the engine.
With both feet on the brake, the brakes barely held it, the car was still driving forward in 5th gear.
Eventually I stopped it, and stalled the engine. The clutch was totally toasted, the car full of clutch smoke.
****ing scary having kids in the car, and having the car drive through the brakes in fifth gear on 35s, and knowing the clutch was failing fast!

There's no way your average woman would have been strong enough to stop it by stalling it.

Ironically, I think I could have just shut off the ignition, and the fuel cut solenoid should have stopped it. But in the heat of the moment I assumed it was burning oil.
Later investigated the cause with a diesel mechanic and we came to the conclusion something had failed in the pump and fuel delivery was un-governed

That doesn't work on a Automatic.
having a little garbage bag in the drivers door panel at all times it not hard.

fair enough!

perhaps installing a butterfly valve in the intake is a good idea. I have thought about doing it on mine... the vw tdi's have it from the factory to prevent runaway.