I have an old Detroit 4-53 which has been sitting for a couple years. I ran it out of fuel before parked. Now when changing filters I realized there was water in system. I cleared water put new fuel in, Replaced all filters. filled bowls with fuel and it started. But it will not throttle up and stalls after about 5 min? Any help is greatly appreciated
Sounds like you don't have fuel pressure check pressure with a gauge should be at least 30 psi. also have you checked rack to make sure it is not sticking
Sorry I am new to this. Where would I set a pressure gauge ? And I am thinking I need to pull valve cover to check Rack? Thanks for reply
Be ready with 3 ways to shut that possible runaway engine down before you try to start it again.
Yes that is a good Idea Vetech63. Thanks I am going to check and see if rack is sticking tonight as I do not have pressure at secondary filter. Maybe air lock since I have had the tank run dry and fuel lines and filter bowls off.
Put a pair of vise grips on the fuel rack tube. Pull and push it back and forth looking at the individual injector rods and make dam sure they all move in unison. Then pull your fuel shutoffcable and make sure it goes into no fuel. See if yhere is a emergency kill flap on the blower inlet and that it actually works
The fuel shut off works and the emergency flap works also as it was off when I first tried to start. Thanks
I have read some (and seen videos) of runaway diesel engines. This statement in this thread "Be ready with 3 ways to shut that possible runaway engine down before you try to start it again." What does that mean? I have a CAT 320, working fine. If it started to "runaway" at wide open throttle, engine screaming, how would I shut it down?
Its more about Detroit engines that have sat for a period of time. The fuel rack and governor linkage can rust and create a bind. Your 320 is a different style engine altogether being a 4 stroke.....you would have to choke the air from the intake or cut a fuel line.
Apples and oranges. Totally different beast. You could put an emergency shut down on your 320, but I’d be more worried about getting struck by lightning, winning the lottery, getting struck by a door falling off a Boeing, or catching scurvy. The odds are better.
Excellent. I like those odds. I'll take that off my worry list of stuff about the excavator. Thanks for sharing the insight.
I had a runaway on a small 4 cylinder engine I am using to repower a 1974 26’ Tollycraft. I had just acquired the engine and knew this was a possibility as it had been sitting for a number of years: NOS takeout from damaged sailboat) Had a thick sheet of urethane ready to cover air intake….a bit shocking how aggressively that little engine picked up speed (it was on blocks for test). Governor housing/fuel rack was gummed up with tarlike oil. Neighbor asked what all the noise was about! We also have an old Euclid dozer that sits for long periods of time (6-71) it is in a dry mountaintop environment and has never given trouble. But always ready to block air intake…(prefer rather than risk emergency shut off)
Guess we have bad luck,had a 336 f I believe broke the turbo and run away,guys blew 2 extinguishers in it to shut it down. Cat fixed under warranty . But like you said very rare to happen.
I could see a scenario like that happening with a tier-4 engine. Dealing with high volume, high boost turbos. Failures are more common.