Diesel Engine Destruction

[Ken in NJ]

A very weird question for anyone who knows diesel engine or even gas engines.

My question is : Does anyone know a surefire way to destroy an engine ? My drunken neighbor was over a while ago and asked me ( I dont know why ) if I knew of a way someone could ruin his diesel engine in his truck. It was running great .. then a week or so ago .. he got into a fight with a fellow worker. He thinks the guy tried to get even with him by adding something to his oil. He leaves his truck at his job and is on the road all day. One day when he came back .. the hood was not closed all the way.

I told him that I was no expert .. but I would think if someone added a few tubes of valve grinding compound to his oil .. it would surely kill his
motor. I cant think of anything else that would ruin a motor in short order.

I know this is a weird subject... but I am bored and figured I would post this .. to see if anyone else has an idea.

He was told he needs a new motor .. that his is needs to many replacement parts to make it rite.

:trink40:

[dirtybernie]

my 1st thought would be a few handfulls of sand. that would do some quick damage.

[HydroHarold]

Back when I was turning wrenches I found I'd rather be stroked than bored...

On the job we had a John Deere 310A FEL/BH that blew up on the job. It started knocking real bad and ran a bit too long before being shut down. I hauled it to the JD center and they rebuilt the motor. When I brought it back I backed it off the trailer right into the garage bay and shut it down. Next morning the operator started it up and it blew diesel fuel out of every orifice but the tire valves so he shut it down again.

Boss looked puzzled. I told him the primary fuel pump had most likely failed and fuel fed through the diaphragm in the pump into the crankcase... and that slowly diluted oil had probably killed the engine in the first place a month ago... Deere crap hit the fan and THEY had to come down and get it and fix it. Yup, bad fuel pump! One for Inspector Hydro!

Moral of this tale... dilute the crankcase oil with fuel oil and run it... that'll kill it for sure! And nobody is any the wiser until the engine surgeon checks it out.

[Mickey]

While abrasives seem like a very good first guess, oil typ goes through the filter first and would be trapped unless it was something no more than a few microns in size. Could the abrasives have destroyed the oil pump? Hum!

If something was added, something that would destroy the oil's ability to lube the engine would be a good guess.

[cadurning]

Muriatic Acid would do the job quite nicely.

[Ken in NJ]

Muriatic Acid would do the job quite nicely.


Does the acid break down the oil ?? Or eat the metal ??

[BrianM1a]

I don't know if it is true but I have heard that boiled linseed oil in the gas tank will do bad bad things to an internal combustion engine.

[HydroHarold]

Maybe the detonator was defective and it didn't go off when he started his truck... Just explorin' possibles. :D

[Kbeitz]

I was told sugar would do an engine in...

[AEGT5000]

Let my wife drive it for a 1/2 hour

[Mark / Ohio]

Water or antifreeze in the oil will burn bearings fairly quick I've heard.

[cadurning]

Does the acid break down the oil ?? Or eat the metal ??

Acid eats away the soft metals.

[cadurning]

Water or antifreeze in the oil will burn bearings fairly quick I've heard.

Not so much the water but anti freeze will ruin the bearings.

[Mongoh53e]

what exactly happen to his engine.

[Ohioplowboy]

Water or antifreeze in the oil will burn bearings fairly quick I've heard.

You bet! I just lived through that experience on a 3406B CAT motor due to a failed oil cooler. pulling the torque on those mains was sure fun! 190 ft lbs + 2 flats.