Stopped a Runaway . . .

[DKasper]

As I was motoring along in my trusty '93 W350, I rounded a corner on I-80 near Coalville, Utah only to see a semi parked on the side of road with gray smoke billowing from it's stacks at least 25 feet in the air. It looked like a huge smokebomb! I pulled over to see if there was something I could help with -- the driver said he turned the key off but the engine kept going -- and it was really roaring. Poor guy had no clue what was happening. I remembered from my TDR reading that a board over the air intake should do the trick. I didn't have a board, but grabbed the pad for my sleeping bag.

The engine was spinning so fast that I'll admit I had visions of being impaled by a thrown rod! We got the hood open and fortunately the air intake was right there. I stuck the pad over the intake and it took about 15 seconds for it to die down. Whew!! I explained to the driver what was going on and suggested we pull the dipstick to see how much oil was left. No reading at all, and he said he just topped off the oil half an hour ago. I don't know how many gallons it burned, but it was a lot!

Thanks to TDR, at least they should be able to rebuild the engine instead of having a pile of scrap.

BTW, my rig got 19mpg @ 70mph with 2k of hay in the bed! Fuel was cheapest in Wyoming - $1.81, and most expensive in Utah -- $1.96.

Dave