[Vwdiesel] re: runaways and CO2

[Val Christian]

> On my first (and only) runaway (1.6TD), I was dumb enough to try restarting after a
> few minutes, and it immediately took off and pegged the tach within 2 seconds of a
> restart with no throttle. Dumping the clutch/holding brakes killed it though.

A static car is different from a rolling car.  kinetic energy will be
1/2 (mass) velocity**2 .   Besides, the static friction of the brakes
is greater than the kinetic friction (dunno about the clutch, but it's
pretty big).  You did the right thing.

It's hard on the clutch, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Loren is right in that most runaways tend to occur at higher RPMs.  You example
is one of it occuring at idle.  The runaway is the ingestion of crankcase
oil in the intake manifold/air filter box.  It can really happen at any time.

For a 79 I had, they had a recall for a hose which presumably dumped valve
cover oil mist into the lower crankcase.  The problem is that it's like a
hurricane inside any recip engine at speed, and oil just doesn't want to
precipiate out.  A centrifical filter between the VC and the intake
manifold, dumping the oil back to the crankcase might work, but I never
tried it.  Having an unexpected runaway was more fun.

Val