Completely OT, but a diesel question

"Steady white smoke; warm engine; any air temperature. This is bad news. The engine's coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber and creating a steady flow of steam. Caused by a leaking head gasket or a crack in a cylinder head, most commonly in the exhaust port area. Usually requires serious surgery on the engine.

Puff of white smoke dur> Twice in the last week I've encountered big rigs on the interstate

Usually that is when either: (a) The cylinder liner has an erosion hole in the side due to cavitation and silica buildup. (b) a crack in the liner by the head.(or possibly a head gasket) (c) A turbo has let go (d) an injector has screwed up bad.

"Mark Anders> Twice in the last week I've encountered big rigs on the interstate

Water in the fuel can blow the tip off an injector, IIRC. GM unit injectors are what I have in mind as that is what I had in the navy, so that's what interested me.

Karl

Jeff Rice wrote:

I'd guess turbo seals.

See, you learn something every day!

Mark

65 Cruiser Kunkel wrote:

.Is this the Kunkel from Colorado with the Taxi?

In the ultimate turbo failure scenario the engine sucks all of the oil from the crankcase via the failed turbo; since engine oil is a suitable fuel for diesels, the engine can't be shut off by the normal fuel cutoff and the engine will run away (exceeding the governor llimits) until it seizes or explodes from too many rpm.

If the transmission is standard the engine can usually be stopped by locking the brakes and engaging the clutch while in gear (and hope the clutch doesn't slip). If the engine is hooked to an automatic or the clutch slips, the only way to shut it off is to choke off the air supply (jackets, rags, blankets, etc. in the air intake and hope the air ducts aren't leaking)

During Basic Armor training in the tank driver simulators, we must have spent hours covering runaway diesel engines (Continental AdVS-1790D, 12 cylinder twin turbo diesels) and never saw one that ran away in 20+ years.

Hey, JP, who gave you permission to be down the hole? Were you a snipe at one time? Is that why you mved into electronics? Karl

When I joined up, they told me, you should be a ET according to my test scores, but I choose Engineman. Turned out they were right and I switched after two years. I was always in danger of getting my ass kicked as a snipe, they were a tad more conservative than me.

JP/Maryland Studebaker On the Net

My Ebay items: Daytona HT

63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk 63 R1 GT Hawk 63 GT Hawk 63 Avanti R1/AC 63 Avanti R2/4 speed 62 Lark 2 door 60 Hawk 51 Commander

I was changing a gate valve on the coolling system to the forward stand-by generator and dropped a bolt down the pipe. This job involved securing water to the ammo rooms, gun mounts and so on. I fixed it OK, but was way over my estimated time. My Chief didn't seem upset and said. "That's why I double any estimate of time to do a job. Steve (EO) will double the time I give him and the GO and CO will take it all with a grain of salt." Then he added, "In your case, I usually tripple the time estimate."

Karl (But I got 4.0 > When I joined up, they told me, you should be a ET according to my

And it's precisely for this reason that Diesel engines on drilling rigs are equipped with "motor kills", which are remotely-controlled valves that can instantly close the air intakes. Without that, the engines could run away in the event of a "kick" which releases large volumes of natural gas at surface. In turn, a runaway in such circumstances would likely lead to fire or explosion and loss of life.

The motor kills are routinely function-tested to ensure they are in good working order. Seriously-important safety gear.

Custom dictates that all engines on a drilling rig are known as motors, and the person with primary responsibility for them is the motor hand.

Gord Richmond (at a rig right now, but going home soon, woo-hoo!)

Detroit diesels with engine driven blowers (53, 71, 92 series) usually have a cable-operated door for such runaways.