diesel run away tonight while going down the road

[warhog]

if i knew how

 

[79jasper]

Oh man it's pretty simple. It'll cost you a bit unless you can rent a diesel rated compression tester. You remove all glowplugs, then screw it into one glowplug hole at a time, remove fss wire, crank engine, read compression, move to next.

 

[homelessduck]

Yikes! Were the tips retrieved?

 

[warhog]

Of course not, there's no telling WHEN it happened. For a few weeks now it hasn't wanted to start below 45 degrees.

 

[osokusmc]

This is the thread I was looking for. I have a 1985 F250 4x4 Diesel four speed. I changed the oil when I got it last summer about 1800 miles ago. A couple weeks ago I noticed the engine temp light slowly coming on, the gauge read fine and there were no signs under the hood that it was getting hot. One day while driving to town, the engine suddenly started to get louder, kind of a diesel knock kind of a sound, and then the RPMs took off to the moon. I stabbed the throttle a couple times and it returned to normal sound and RPMs but it didn't seem that pumping the throttle is what fixed it. I got home and parked it for several days and kind of forgot about it. One day I needed it for some chores and to check cattle. I'd had it running for about an hour and as I was driving back to the shop, it ran away twice more. Neither time was bad but it's obvious something is wrong. When I got to the yard, I popped the hood and pulled the dipstick, it was way overfull, all the way over the twists in the dipstick. I know that when I did the oil change it was left about a half a quart over full because I stopped short on oil and put a little Lucas in it. After reading everything here it looks like I'm leaking fuel into the crankcase and it got full enough to push it up past the rings and start a runaway. Does this sound accurate? Is it likely that I have a problem injection pump that is filling up my crankcase? What kind of money are we talking for an injection pump? This pickup does have CC that doesn't seem to work but I haven't been under the hood to disconnect that from causing future problems, it's about eight degrees out and the wind is blowing 30, I think I'll wait for better weather. I have an '86, same configuration, that's plugged in and ready to go for chores in the morning. I like these older diesels, but I do keep spare pickups around for occasions like this.

I changed my lift pump last winter, along with oil/filter change. I don't use this pickup much, but drove it some this summer. I pulled the dipstick the other day and the oil is full of fuel again. Any other suggestions?

 

[homelessduck]

Sounds like a ruptured lift pump. When the diaphragm blows it will pump diesel straight in to the crank case.

 

[79jasper]

Only guaranteed way to fix the fuel pump diaphragm from rupturing, is e-fuel.

 

[texcl]

Man, bet there is some piston top damage or scoring. Your shop needs to pay for a new engine. I wouldn't trust them to take the heads of to look. Man I feel real bad for you after making that big investment but you shouldn't have to pay. If you had a run away that long (caused by I/P malfunction no less) wonder if it wasn't what caused it

 

[osokusmc]

Do you think there is a chance the new pump is bad already? I probably have less than a thousand miles on it. Is there any way an injector pump or injector problem could wash down a cylinder to the point it would raise the oil pan level?

 

[osokusmc]

Man, bet there is some piston top damage or scoring. Your shop needs to pay for a new engine. I wouldn't trust them to take the heads of to look. Man I feel real bad for you after making that big investment but you shouldn't have to pay. If you had a run away that long (caused by I/P malfunction no less) wonder if it wasn't what caused it

I hijacked warhog's thread because his problem was so similar to mine. He was the one with the violent runaway, mine was mild compared to his (so far).

 

[japar]

here's why you do not let the truck trans go into neutral. with the truck still in gear, you have a chance in hell to regain control of the motor which he did. you're fighting it the whole way but you still have a chance in hell. Once you stuff in the clutch and take it out of gear and into neutral, you no longer have the ability to stop the motor by putting a load against it. other than shoving a rag down the intake, you are now a bystander along for the ride.
check out this thread.....
http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?40064-parts-with-a-bipolar-disorder

My idi turbo ran away on me when I was fixing a fuel leak on the injection pump shoveing a rag in the turbo didn't kill. Now I always have a CO2 FE on hand

 

[DaytonaBill]

I just got sticker shock when I was checking prices for CO2 FE's...

 

[warhog]

I hijacked warhog's thread because his problem was so similar to mine. He was the one with the violent runaway, mine was mild compared to his (so far).

Hope ya get it worked out! Mine has been running healthy for the most part up until I locked the rear end up.

 

[osokusmc]

Hope ya get it worked out! Mine has been running healthy for the most part up until I locked the rear end up.

My plan was to pull injectors and IP to send off and have gone through, but I'm worried about how many times I can flood the bottom end with fuel before I ruin the engine. And I'm not sure new IP and injectors will solve my problem. I put a new mechanical pump in because it was the simplest fix at the time, and I didn't have the time to start upgrading including learning about the best options, etc. I'm wondering if I could have leaky injectors that could be dribbling fuel into the cylinders after I shut off the engine and after so many starts and stops, it starts to show on the dipstick. I really need some success with this pickup, it's too good to park in the scrap line, but not nice enough to justify thousands of dollars worth of repair.

 

[osokusmc]

Continuation of a thread I hijacked last summer. I finally got around to ordering my pump and injectors. The truck hasn't been started all winter and while I had the pump and hard lines out of the way, I decided to check compression before I remove the old injectors. I didn't think of it until I was done, but did I cause myself any trouble by turning the engine over with the injection pump removed?

I'm changing out my glow plugs as well, so removed all of them before compression testing. All cylinders measured between 330 and 350 as guestimated by the position of the needle, my gauge is only numbered to 300. When I did #6, however, it made a funny sound that I don't want to call chuffing, but I'm afraid it is. I tested it three different times, and it was the only cylinder that made the noise, and it was coming through the intake screen. The first test of #6 was just over 300lbs but the second two tests put it with #7 and #4 at about 330lbs. This was of course on a cold engine, that hasn't even been turned over in months. The order I tested in was 5,6,7,8,4,3,2,1. I don't know if it matters or not, but maybe after cranking through the testing of all cylinders something would seal up a little. The sound never went away, however, but the compression was better on that cylinder on the second and third test. When I was using this pickup last summer, I never heard anything funny while it was running. The only reason I'm digging into it is to replace pump, injectors, return lines, and glow plugs. I'm trying to get to the bottom of my crankcase filling with diesel, and the injection pump was the old style with no weep hole.

I'm thinking of completing the job and running the engine to see if I can detect any odd noises. Are my findings even legitimate since I'm on a cold engine that has been sitting a while?