today, my son's 240 D ran away. I think it was sucking the engine oil but eventually stalled itself out. I tried vice grips on the fuel line, opening the fuel line to let air into the system, disconnecting the battery, and blocking off the intake. Starving the intake, I thought would do it, but did not shut down the engine, because the previous owner has some mods done on the plumbing and must have been letting in air.

this is a 1985 Euro 240 D with no shutdown lever on the linkage!
If anyone has or can take some digi shots of the vacuum lines above the oil filter, I'd appreciate it if they em them to me or post them here.

This all started when my son said he had low oil pressure the other day. We've come to think that the valve cover is leaking a minimum amount of oil, and he's just not checked it at all since I did his last oil change. So, he was about 2.5 quarts low!!!!. He topped it up, and went out. When he came home, he mentioned that his oil pressure was low. I thought Low-
No oil pressure. What I found out he meant was the pressure gauge was at 2 bar vs the normal 3 bar., and it goes to 3 under accelleration.

thinking that the sender was bad, I proceeded to check that item. It appears that he's got a mechanical gauge. I removed oil filter and put a new filter in, but first put some engine oil in the filter housing. About 2". And some of it went down into the engine or oil lines. I"m guessing that this was the cause of the runaway. We put the filter back together, topped up the crankcase, but actually when we check the dip stick, we were at the top notch. I'm guessing that this full situation helped the engine to start sucking up the crankcase oil.

So, here I am again, asking for help. First, I'd like to know if I can retro fit
some kind of shut down gizmo to kill the engine. Also wondering if a shot of CO2 would harm the lump and would it shut it down? And lastly trying to get a few digi pix of the vaccuum lines coming through the firewall above the oil filter. I've got an octopus there with lots of plugged ends, and on the top of the injection pump is a plastic unit with 2 vaccuum ends which appear to be open.

your turn....

Run away diesel, why does it happen?
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=101404









Have a great day.

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1985 300SD
1983 300D
2003 Volvo V70

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did it eventually stop, as in how did you stop it from blowing apart

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

hunter: thanks for the link
turbo: yes it stopped by itself sort of.

My search feature isn't working. I had previously read that link before and was searching for it. I was glad I had read it. I ended up putting a bottle of brake fluid into the intake which starved the air a bit, but as previously stated, the intake was leaking from other areas and the engine kept running.

I believe that we took the oil level down to about 1/2 between the notches on the dip stick, and that I caused the runaway by overfilling the crankcase a bit.

I'll start a new post, but would like to get 2 things sorted on this engine.
1. an emergency shut down device like I have on the throttle of my 300d turbo.
2. some photos showing the vaccuum line plumbing as it exits the fire wall into the engine compartment. I've got a mess of spaghetti there from previous owner. Lots of disconnected vaccuum lines.

thanks in advance.
Mike

On a side note, and assuming the origional plumbing (for the air intake) is present, would it be good preventative mantainance to install some sort of air shutoff valve under the cleaner assembly? That way, if this were to happen, one could just shutoff the air, starving the engine? Experienced users please comment.

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1989 300E 144K

Matt,
there appears to be some kind of diaphram connected to the front side of the intake. This is got another pipe coming out of the lower side of the diaphram housing that has been soldered closed. Leaking all around I'm sure. I'm gonna remove the intake and have a buddy mig the intake closed where the diaphram is plumbed in. Unless there's a factory cap or I can get a blanked off intake for the 240. This of course all depends on whether I locate a shutdown lever. A pic was posted on another thread I started. I don't think my son's car has that shutdown lever. I'm hesitant to restart the lump thinking next time the engine might self destruct. It did not overheat! Just used up the "overfill" crankcase oil that I had mistakenly put into the oilfilter housing when swapping out a new filter.

On a side note: I'll probably get a co2 tank for the next time I try to restart the lump just to make sure I can shut it down. I think I have one from a soda machine. Just need to figure out how to plumb it to a nozzle.

Mike

I don't believe MB would have produced a diesel without an emergency stop lever. It's either disconnected or hidden, like the one in Forced's picture.
I had a 409d with the short lever that Forced pictured but it was under the doghouse which took a long while to remove. In experimenting with quicker ways to shut off the engine, I found that holding a garbage bag over the intake was quite effective. If you have a leak somewhere, hold a plastic bag over it as well as the intake.
I did not try my method at full throttle when vacuum would have been at its highest but I always carried a garbage bag to use in case I had to.

On another note, it surprises me that the engine would run away on crankcase oil with that little amount of overfill. I'm curious as to what other forum members think about that. Are you sure it was running on engine oil? If so, from whence came the oil? If it was coming via the crankcase vent hose, removing that hose should shut down the engine. Was it running at wide open throttle? It doesn't sound like it because there doesn't seem to be enough panic in your posts. I'd investigate to determine whether the problem was elsewhere. It almost sounds to me as if you simply accidentally disconnected the vacuum line to the shut off valve when working at the oil filter and the engine just kept on running when you turned off the key. If this is what happened, it's not the same thing as a runaway.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Yes,
Quite possible we dropped a vaccuum line. There is a purple line that got dislodged which I replaced in the same port, but to no avail there. I check my son's car after seeing the pic that is posted on the other thread I started. No shut off visable. I'll try to post a series of pics on the other thread.

You can't do much more damage to the engine that letting it throw a rod, so engine damage is a moot issue.

Yes, if you can replace enough O2 with an inert gas, such as CO2, then it will die. You can do a bunch of rigging yourself, but an ordinary CO2 fire extinguisher shoudl do the trick. If you want a permanently installed, onboard solution, try looking into race car fire extinguisher systems -- probably easier to adapt to snuff the engine too.

It sounds like someone disconnected your shutoff valve. That wouldn't make it run away, so much as not shut off.

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Broadband: more lies faster.

I have a Euro 85 240D and the shut down lever is right on the IP below the shut down valve. Its much smaller than the one on the non euro IPs. There should be a brown vacuum line to the shut down valve. Sorry, I have no digital camera, my wife has it at school. It doesn't sound reasonable too me that you could have a 'run away' situation due to having the oil level at the top noch, no insult intended but, could your dip stick be too short?

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

On mine the vacuum line going to the shut off valve is small and brown with a blue tracer. From the main vacuum line (big black one going to the brake booster) theres a small brown vacuum line going through the fire wall (to the ignition sw, I believe) Then theres a yellow line (locks etc..) and a yellow with a blue tracer going to the vacuum storage tanks. Theres a purple line going fwd to the adjusting head lights. If your car is a auto trans there would be more lines associated with that. Your dip stick should be 20 5/16 "s long, (thats the metal) of course its unlikely you have the wrong dip stick but its worth checking.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"