Back in my Merchant Marine school days, during a diesel engine maintenance 
class a video was shown detailing what happens when a large displacement diesel 
engine runs away, uncontrolled by the governor as it fed on lube oil through 
the supercharger seals.  Just before it failed (exploded) you could see fire 
shooting out between the block and head.

When attempting to stop a runaway diesel do not place your hand over the air 
intake.  Use foulweather gear or similar sacrificial air blocking material that 
will conform around the air intake.  If you have a Halon (Calypso’s engine 
space has a 7.5lb auto-deploy Halon system in place) or a larger CO2 
extinguisher on board they may be used to slow the engine slightly to make the 
stopping easier.

This sort of failure is rare in small auxillary diesel engines, but more likely 
with turbocharged engines.  If a pleasure boater (power and sail) does basic 
maintenance (do not over fill the lube oil) and every few years calls in an 
expert to check the more complicated systems (especially the injection pump, 
head bolt torque, and turbo seals) the risk of runaway should continue to be 
small.

Martin
Calypso
1970 C&C 43
Seattle
________________________________
From: CnC-List [cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] on behalf of Josh Muckley 
[muckl...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 7:16 PM
To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
Subject: Re: Stus-List Fwd: Stopping a diesel


So let me get this straight:
Run away engine - gonna blow.  Decompress - gonna blow
Sounds like a dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

So don't decompress.  Good to know for the normal "non-emergency" shutdowns.  
I'm still gonna do it when shutting of the fuel and air don't kill the engine.

Thanks for checking me and the books,
Josh

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