A bit of smoke

[pompei]

Blimey, I never knew this could happen ...

 

 

[Shep Shepherd]

I once saw a mark 2 Transit fitted with (I think) a "York" normally-aspirated diesel engine do that. It was painful to watch and listen to

[dollywobbler]

Oh yes! Lots of diesels can do it - not overfilled oil, they kill themselves. Land Rover Td5, Isuzu Trooper 3.0D and Renault dCi are the worst offenders. In the Isuzu, I think it was turbo seals failing and drawing engine oil into the engine. It then revs itself to death. On the Land Rover, there's a fuelling fault that basically fills the engine oilways with fuel. This eventually overflows into the EGR system (I think) and is similarly drawn into the engine which then revs itself to death. Must be terrifying!

 

In a manual, you can bravely stand on the brakes, select your highest gear and dump the clutch. In an automatic, you can run away...

 

They run until something breaks, usually catastrophically.

[Shep Shepherd]

Sometimes, a CO2 fire extinguisher emptied into the air intake can stop a diesel engine when it's running away. If you have one to hand, that is!

[warren t claim]

I saw a Laguna II do this and bring the southbound M6 to a halt.

[Jozza]

On the Land Rover, there's a fuelling fault that basically fills the engine oilways with fuel. This eventually overflows into the EGR system (I think) and is similarly drawn into the engine which then revs itself to death. Must be terrifying!.

 

The Td5's habit is that a unit injector or a union on the common rail (both of which are inside the rocker cover) leaks and diesel gets into the oil until you have a nice mixture of fuel, oil and diesel vapour circulating around inside the engine. LR's particular star in this respect is the old Diesel Turbo unit which has its breather hose plumbed into the 'dirty' side of the air filter so any oil mist (of which there will either be 'some' if the engine is in good nick or 'epic amounts' if it's slightly worn) builds up in the air cleaner casing and then gets drawn into the turbo. Helped even more so if the turbo spindle seals are worn or the engine has done the usual thing and cracked its pistons.

 

Runaway can happen in any diesel but those with breather systems that lack a cyclonic seperator to remove excess oil are especially vulnerable. A lot of 2-stroke diesels (which are more prone to it by design) have a strangler in the intake manifold which cuts off the air supply if they overspeed.

[Albert Ross]

Land Rover? Smoke? Oh.... you mean this.