Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite - View Single Post

WillWagner · 11-21-2009, 11:05

A set of Vise-Grips on the rack is good insurance for Detroits and a Co2 extinguisher will snuff out a runaway.

Been there, done that. 22 years at work, had 2 do it. Both times, the customer drove the vehicle in. I got in them to move them around to the shop, got one of them up to the shop and I heard a litle "odd noise" and pulled the engine cover...it was a front engine shuttle bus, so the engine was under the floor to the right of the drivers seat. I gave it a bit of throttle cause the little "tic" happened at around 1000 - 1200 RPM, next thing you know, the RPM is climbing, like RIGHT now, faster than I have ever heard a "B" throttle up. The guys standing in the door took off running, I was trapped in the drivers seat with a 359 CID engine spinning fast enough to bury the needle on a 4000 RPM tach, 18 inches from my body parts...they get real quiet up at that RPM! Everyone said my eyes were as big as coke bottle bottoms. I couldn't go out the window 'cause it was only big enough for my head...ask me how I know. I REALLY didn't wanna exit over the 4000 RPM + engine for fear that a pushrod would exit through the valve cover at that exact moment, if you get my meaning

. I ended up jumping over the engine to exit and by the time I got back with an extinguisher, the engine had started to die on it's own...outa fuel and lube! The turbo had failed and decided to fully let go as I was looking at it. That was about 10 years ago.

The latest, about 6 months ago, was a USC bus...guess I like busses! NOT! It was running on 100% bio and the customer was complaining of intermittant smoke. I went out to the bus that the customer just drove in, the customer was standing there and the engine was running and it started to smoke a few little puffs of white/grey smoke, just like they were complaining of, then the idle went up a bit, by itself, to around 1000 RPM. The guy that brought it in, a "maintenence" guy from USC, looked at me with an expression i'll not soon forget as I returned the same look to him, and I knew what was about to happen. I ran the 40 feet to the front, turned it off and had the key in hand when the RPM just kept on goin'! The USC guy was running around in circles at the rear of the bus, flappin his arms like he was trying to fly away! I ran into the shop and got a Co2 extinguisher and was able to snuff it out without the engine destroying itself. This was also caused by a failed turbo putting oil into the intake...an uncontrolled fuel source.

Two events I will NEVER forget!