I have been noticing what looks like some soot in the degas bottle. Not much, I have wiped a section off with a paper towel and it looks like black eraser shavings in my eye. Based on what I am reading, it may be time to do the injector cups. A couple of questions;

How bad does it look? How much time mileage/time do i have till I need to address this. Is it severe enough to worry about right now? I changed a water pump in the spring and did not complete a full flush.

The injectors have 195k. i was thinking of new injector orings, cups, glow plugs and maybe a coolant filter. The injectors sound healthy. I can distinguish a minor variation in the 2nd buzz of the buzz test. Start up, there is no smoke when it was warm out. I notice that the injectors sound louder or "cacklier" after the truck has been worked harder. Is it worth just putting new orings and re-torquing the injectors and let it be?

I have been really eyeing the FFD stage 1 injectors, having them "remanufacture" my injectors, but the $1200 is a tough pill to swallow. How much of an improvement in low end power am I looking at. I know 60 hp is about what is figured, but what is the torque lb
improvement?

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If that is soot, I would look at a head leak, not injector cups. No soot can get in there unless the injector is popped out in which case you would get some good blow by symptoms out your oil fill. lol. Get yourself a compression tester and look for a leak. try pressurizing you radiator too, listen for a leak in the head, and at least confirm there is a coolant leak. If no leak in the cooling system then its just gunk in there.

 

After you pressure test the coolant system and if pressure holds, first remove and clean your overflow tank with soapy water to see if the soot comes back. If you are not the original owner, you may be dealing with the residual of a problem that was already fixed. No sense spending money on a problem that's not there.

 

Actually, you can get this with a damaged/loose cup - yet the injector is down.




A compromised seal on the bottom of the cup will do this. I've heard stories of people pulling the injector out with the cup sticking to the injector - and that is clearly a bad seal. In my case, I had a bad bottom seal without knowing what I was looking at... until my injector misadventures.

 

Mr. Tugly is Spot On. I don't know that I would pressurize the system until the cups Injectors were removed and the cups liberally sprayed with a good soapy water in a Spray bottle. The chance, all be it small, the leak is bad enough to hydro lock a cylinder.

You could vacuum test the system to 25hg and see if it hold for 30 minutes.

As for how long you have to do the repair? That's up to you. Be aware, it only gets worse over time. And other than time, the cups are relatively inexpensive, The Tool however will set you back $350,00 - $600.00 and they are also available to rent.

I have, Rosewood, OTC, and Snap-On, and Freedom Racing. I prefer the Freedom Racing Tool over the others.

If you do end up doing this, beside the cups, do the O-Rings and Glow Plugs as well. It also wouldn't hurt to do a cranking Compression Test for a baseline for down the road.

 

Could that soot be mistaken for oil residue? Maybe a oil cooler?

 

If you do the cups I have a good tool from riffraff for pulling and putting them in. It works flawlessly. Well made tool. I can lend it to someone if they want it. Just cover the shipping.

 

Are you absolutely certain that it is not oil? What does your fuel filter look like? Black or golden colored?

Whether it is oil or not, when you pull the injectors to verify that it is not a cup you will need to replace the injector o-rings while you are in there. If it is a cup, do it asap.

A simple test for injector o-rings is the "Cody test" which is searchable on this forum.

Your injectors could still have a good bit of life at 195k. If you replace them, I'd hold out until I could afford new ones if that is an option. Even your own rebuilt ones will not be as crisp as new. Torque improvement depends a lot on tuning.

 

Is a golden colored fuel filter not good? I just changed oil cooler orings yesterday, and noticed this same residue in my brand new degas bottle that I installed along with the orings. Cups are on my list already, and I have them on hand, along with a Rosewood cup tool. I'll be following this thread closely. Good luck!!

 

yeah I'm quoting myself. I miss typed my quote. I meant to say is that oil mistaken for soot.

Golden brown color fuel filter means you have a leaking cup.

 

Not good news for me. My filter was golden in color, when I changed the filter two days ago. I guess it makes sense, since I have a little bit of blow-by, and it's not running 100%c

 

As always, I appreciate the feedback. I'll check the fuel filter next, as that is usually easy. I figure, i'll tackle the cups job over labor Day weekend, or at least get to pressure testing with the injectors out. I'll try to take close, untrained look at the injectors and see if I notice any issues.

My needs list for this job totals about $500. My want list is at least $1200 more for reman injectors, which i figure is a dice roll. New injectors would be nice, along with a new turbo, regulated return, built trans, t-500, rust work....man it's nice to dream. At the end of the day, I think I just want reliability, so I'll probably go with what is needed.

 

That first picture is soot - oil in the degas has a whole different (and obvious) look.