As I am waiting foir my new injectors to arrive, I'm thinking I should have my old ones tested before I send them back for a core. If they check good, I may just keep them and rebuild them.

Who can bench test a set of injectors for me?

 

Diesel Performance Parts and Accessories. Injectors Pumps Filters Additive Gauges and Apparel.

Don't know anything about them though .....

 

If you have a bad injector you're wasting your time and money trying to rebuild it. There is nothing but o-rings/seals to put in and no end user parts available. I know Casserly charges $300 to flow test injectors but that won't necessarily tell you if one is bad.

 

yeah, they must have those injector parts locked away in the same vault full of no. 3 pencils

 

As mentioned above, flow testing is going to be nearly worthless in terms of gauging overall injector performance. The problem I see you running into is finding a shop that has invested the considerable capital into the right test stands (~$100,000 for a good one and $60+ for a Frankenstein). The parts that go into an injector are the cheap part, the majority of the price you pay for an injector goes towards subsidizing the cost of the test stands, labor costs, ISO 9001 accounting, etc... If you suspect your injectors are bad it's going to be cheaper in the long run to just replace the ones throwing codes vs. paying for a test only to find that they're bad and having to replace the injectors anyway, our 6.0 injectors are way to cheap to risk much brain-damage on. I used to deal with injectors returned for warranty and if something was even a little out of spec (usually the older style P&B assys) they'd just get a new one shipped out to replace them usually at a pro-rated price. If we saw a trend developing we'd make little design tweaks but in general they're not worth the hassle of rebuilding unless you've already got the equipment.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm still coming around from the 7.3 world, where you can rebuild your own. I have a friend who is an excellent machinist and we were kicking the idea around of rebuilding these and holding on to them.
I also have a chance to sell them as cores for more than what my core charge is, and if they are known to be good injectors I can even ask a little more for them or hold on to them.
I may just sell these as cores and be done with it. Thanks for the advice.

 

There are adjustments that have to be made to make up for the varying tolerances of the parts that you just cannot do without a test stand. You could probably get close by guesstimating if you knew what to look for but selling a guesstimated injector with non-OEM/spec. parts would be unethical and it would be a grenade waiting to destroy your engine and that's not even mentioning the non-compliance with ISO standards i.e. you'd have to sell them to a private buyer. Not only that but the alloys for injectors are chosen very carefully, you would spend more on the small quantities of the correct raw stock than you would on 8 brand new injectors, add in the cost of the tooling (assuming you have the right machines) and you're well over the cost of many sets of brand new injectors. Just use them as cores and save yourself a major headache.

 

My intentions were not geared so much towards rebuilding and selling these injectors, but rather to avoid sending off any good injectors as cores.

If they were bad, then I would be interested in exploring the rebuilding process. Not for one second do I think that I can go to autozone and get some kit to throw in these things. I fully appreciate the full spectrum of design considerations that go into a modern injector.

My machinist friend, however, lives in a world where these unique alloys, tools, and equipment are commonplace. He has built several fuel components from scratch for some mechanical injection systems on nitro bikes, and there's an occasional Formula 1 part that comes through his place. The equipment that he doesn't have on hand he can get access to with a phone call. I hate him sometimes.

 

wouldnt your best bet be to Give the truck a cylinder Balance test to separate the good from the bad injectors and go from there

I dont know anything about these test stands but I could see that costing alot to get setup

 

blade35 I am way past the point of doing the most sensible thing. Time is a huge factor right now so I just ordered new injectors. I could get the injectors as fast as I could get the AE but I was trying to avoid waiting another day. I'm kicking off a new business now and I woud rather go through all this stuff right now than risk any more down-time later.

 

LOL Im with ya

do you have the injectors out of the truck yet

How did you determine they were bad injectors

 

Oh yea, all the injectors have been out. At first I couldn't see anything unusual, but after they have sat around for a couple of days I started to notice some discoloration around the fuel gallery area that could indicate some fuel contamination at some point in their life.
My new injectors arrived yesterday afternoon and I'm putting them in today.
I had 2 issues-one was that the truck would just shut down instantly, which was something electrical turning off. I suspected the FICM was the cause of that and sent my FICM to ficmrepair.com (Thanks Ed). They did find a problem with it and fixed it. Then I also had a no power/rough running/worse-as-you-drive-more issue that I believe was the injectors. Maybe the FICM contributed to the second condition and maybe it didn't.
The way that the weekend fell it was better for me to just order everything and get it rolling again.
It's very possible that the injectors are not bad. I just couldn't afford to wait to get the FICM and then find out that it was injectors also and start the ordering process again.
I'll be installing a new HFCM and blue spring also just in case it was a fuel pressure issue that killed the injectors (if they are indeed dead).

Sometimes it's not easy being me.

 

When you get it running again wiggle the ICP connector and wiring. Quite a few times the pigtail is bad and when you wiggle it, the truck dies. Happens when you hit a bump on occassion.

 

Thanks Matty169,

I did check that one early on, but since I haven't replaced it yet it's at the top of my list for the next suspect......

 

I think sometimes it's not easy being any of us.

Glad to hear that your FICM is working for you now, though.

Ed
Ed@ficmrepair.com