Hey everybody Iam currently doing my injectors. Just a quick question. I was trying to get the fuel rail drain plug out but it stripped, actually not on the driver side stripped. I know there is the drain plug on the back of cylinder. If I drain that and turn the crank over by hand will that drain all the oil and fuel that has drained into the cylinder? I'm really not trying to bend a rod when I turn this thing over.
Thanks
Oh it's A 2001 7.3

 

It's usually best not to mess with the fuel and oil rail gallery plugs. They don't come out easy and can sometimes cause problems if you try and use excessive force to remove.

I simply pull the rear injector on each bank and let the fuel and oil drain into the rear cylinders. Then complete your work. (whatever you have planned)
When ready, pull the glow plugs and turn the engine over by hand with a breaker bar. Don't forget to place the valve covers back on the engine so you don't squirt fuel/oil everywhere. A few rotations should do the trick.

Depending on where those two cylinders are on the exhaust stroke....you MAY accidentally get some oil/fuel into the exhaust pipes. If that happens, your truck will make a ton of smoke when you first get it started. Don't panic. If you have the OEM muffler installed still, then place a drip pan or cardboard under the drain hole because oil will leak out of that hole for a few days. A lot at first, then little drips for a couple more days.

Good luck.

EDIT: don't forget to change your oil after you are done (I usually wait until after I get the engine restarted and verified everything works correctly....). You don't want to use oil that has too much fuel in it since that isn't very good for lubrication.

 

i pulled all the injectors to do the bearings and rings. so your saying when iam done and ready to put them back in i should put the rear two back on each cylinder. pull the glow plugs and turn it over by hand.
can i just put all the injectors back in and turn it over by hand not have to pull the glow plugs?
thanks for the quick reply
also, should i pull out that rear cylinder plug just in case?
thanks so much

 

What bearings are you talking about?

If you have already pulled out your injectors then just continue on with what you were already doing. Don't remove any gallery plugs since doing that won't help anything. I presume you have new injectors with o-rings and copper washers. Make sure the copper washer came out with your old injectors. Clean the injector cups, lube your new injectors with oil and re-install. Do all 8 injectors.

Then remove all your glow plugs. Be careful because someone before you may have installed aftermarket glow plugs that swell. Hopefully yours come out easy. Check the tips and make sure they are all there. It's easiest to remove the glow plugs by breaking them lose with a 10mm deep well socket and then sliding a flexible tube or vacuum hose over the stem and using that to turn them out. The tube also make it easier for reinstallation later....

With the new injectors installed, and the glow plugs removed and the valve covers set loosely in place.....rotate the engine 4 or 5 times by hand with a breaker bar on the crank nut.

Then re-install the glow plugs, connect up the wiring, make sure your under valve cover harness is connected properly and start the engine. I always leave the valve covers off when I first start up so I can verify that each injector is firing properly. You will see about a table spoon of oil get discharged from the spout each time the injector operates. When you are happy, shut down the engine, reinstall the valve covers (making sure you don't accidentally knock off the injector plug on #7 when placing the cover back on....it's super easy to do). Change your oil, refire the engine and drive it around for a bit. It'll take a few drive cycles to work out the bubbles in the system.

EDIT: FYI.....it will take a while to reprime the oil and fuel rails in the cylinder heads. They each hold about a quart of oil so you'll have to crank a bit. Make sure your batteries are fully charged and have a jump starter on hand. Crank in 15-20 second bursts and then wait about a minute to try again. Engine should fire after 3-4 tries. Sometimes more....

 

thanks so much man for laying it out great for me. sorry, i meant the o-rings on the injectors, ive been having some grey/white smoke at start up. I already replaced to glow plugs so I know they should still be good. Iam throw a new GPR on there just in case if that is shot, but last time i checked it was good too. we will see if this helps.
quick questions when i pull the glow plugs and hand cranck it over with the cover on will oil shot out the glow plug holes? iam guessing that is suppsoed to happen prob. lol.

 

Yes, if there is any oil/fuel that drained into the cylinders then it will come out the glow plug holes. This is done to avoid hydrolocking the engine and damaging parts.