Posted by Denis on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 at 8:38PM :
In Reply to: Runaway Cummins posted by David N. Lundstrom on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 10:36PM :
Had a bad experience on a ship with a 12 cylinder Alco medium speed diesel used for an auxillary generator. Engine began to over speed and fuel rack tripped which tripped breaker on generator. This removed the load from the engine and it started to speed up more. Was an 900 rpm machine and speed climbed to 1200 before it stopped. Luckily oiler was nearby and threw a bail of rags into intake plenum. Ruined turbo charger but saved engine and no one got hurt. Turned out the problem was a ruptured lube oil line inside the turbo charger. The fuel rack was off and no fuel was going through injectors but the lube oil was getting into the cylinders with the air and with no load on the engine was enough to accelerate it destruction - almost.