Hi Gang,
What a great site FTE is! I wish I had found it sooner, and may have avoided the problem I have, but oh well, it's only money.

I recently bought an 02 Ex, 7.3 with about 150k. After driving it 700 miles home from a dealer in UT who I'm sure disclosed every detail about its condition (sarcasm detector alert), I noticed about 1/4" of fuel in the degas tank. The general consensus is injector cup failure.

I'm now in the acceptance stage of grief, and I'm gonna fix it and keep the truck. I've had a couple of local mechanics give their opinions, and they range from "fix the cups and run it" to " fix the cups and install brand new OE Ford injectors (at about $400 a pop)". The first opinion revolves around the idea that the injectors are working, and who's to say that new ones won't fail? The second idea says fix it now, and save the hassle later.

Now I realize that you guys are gonna have different ideas too, but if thought I'd throw it out there to the FTE crew to chew on. Besides, I need 5 posts before i can post pictures of my Beast!

I live in Ventura County, So. CA, if anyone wants to help a newbie!

Thanks upfront,
Curt

 

If you are having no cranking/smoking issues, its up to you about replacing the injectors. Do you want to get back in there later to do it if you have too? Are you going to do the work yourself or pay for it? If you are paying for it, it may make sense to go ahead and do it just for the piece of mind. However, its not a hard job if you wanted to do it yourself later.

Stock injectors by the OEM manufacturer can be found here: Ford - 00-03 Excursion 7.3L - Fuel System & Related - Alliant Injectors - Riffraff Diesel Performance

They also rent the tool for the cup replacement as well.

 

Welcome to the forum Curt (my fathers name too). You can get injectors for less than that if you feel that you need. Stock Alliants from one of our good buddies @ Riff Raff diesel are $212 a piece. Whether or not I would do that depends on a couple of factors. money being the first. If you have the money, it might, might, might, not be a bad thing. That being said, it might be an unnecessary step. There are lots of people on here that have 200,000 miles plus out of their original injectors some with over 300,000. Then there is the bigger injector choice. That depends on what your goals are for the truck.

Ford - 99-03 Super Duty 7.3L - Fuel System & Related - Alliant Injectors - Riffraff Diesel Performance

 

Carlton beat me to the punch...LOL. I have just learned a valuable lesson with my own injector issues, and if you have the ability, do them yourself. You will KNOW they were done right instead of hoping.

 

A lot of people talk really good about full force injectors too. I am kind of an OEM guy but these are one of the few I may try. I think there may be some folks here that use them and can weigh in. Here is a link to them.

Ford - 99-03 Super Duty 7.3L - Fuel System & Related - Full Force Diesel Injectors - Riffraff Diesel Performance


Great minds think alike Jason.

 

Do the cups and if you can't afford injectors leave them alone. But change the O-rings and copper washers on them for sure. I'd get some prices and try and get some money back from who ever sold you the EX. Then do the work yourself if you can.

 

At a minimum you need to replace the injector cups and the injector o-rings.
Nobody will fault you if you decide to re-install the existing injectors provided they seem to be working fine at the moment. There is no reason to expect they need to be changed out yet unless you are having symptoms.

If you want to freshen up the injectors while you have them out then a reputable builder can rebuild them for you. Rosewood Diesel is a reputable builder who I've used several times with excellent results. I always recommend new nozzles with any rebuilt....not all remans have new nozzles so you need to verify. The most economical option is to send your existing injectors to Rosewood for a budget rebuild with new nozzles for around $900/set. They are returned with new o-rings and ready to install in your engine. There may be an additional charge if any of your plungers/barrels are badly scored....not super common in the SD truck.

 

Thanks guys. While I'm not a total cheapskate, I don't want to spend any more than I have to, and I'm kinda like the "if it ain't broke" idea. However, I also don't want to hafta do it again real soon, since I think this might be at about the limit of my technical ability, and I may have to get some help ($). I'll get better, I promise! I mean, if there's a YouTube video on brain surgery I can do that, right?

Curt

 

The injector thing is sufficiently covered. Who's going to do the cups? If it's a shop, make sure they don't use the "pull the head" method - this is when they convince you the head needs to be removed to replace cups. This invites more expense than a set of injectors. Replacing cups is labor-intensive, but costs very little in parts... so this is one (ugly) task where you can save a ton of money by doing it yourself. Here's the brain surgery video: [LINK]

 

Yeah, I think I'm going to do it myself. What could possibly go wrong?


Curt

 

the good thing is you learn lots when you do projects your self. but can be daunting for sure when you start.

for example, I used to own a truck and paid someone to do the HPOP because I was scared to tear into it my self. yeah well now I own a van and did my HPOP and fuel bowl twice on my own during winter in Montana in the back alley. (big difference in amount of room you have with a truck and van)

and of course plenty of info on here to walk you through it. and of course take pics cause everybody likes pics to share the fun with you.

Best of luck