I asked an injector question in my thread (https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...7-3l-mods.html) but didn't get much response, and since this is probably going to be a thread in itself anyway... I want to look into upgrading my injectors since I'm going to be tearing into it this far and changing the o-rings anyway.

Thanks to Pocket's post the other day about nozzles, RPMs, and EGTs, I'm thinking that it might be worth it to go a little larger on the nozzles since I primarily use my Ex for towing.

I am a total injector noob. The only injectors I've seen were the ones in my 351w Bronco and these are a lot bigger! I've been watching videos on youtube on rebuilding injectors and it doesn't look too bad. I'm thinking about trying it myself but I'm not sold on that yet. Has anybody here rebuilt their own injectors with or without larger nozzles?

If this is something like setting up gears where you should just take it to a pro, I want to know that, too.

My goals are lower EGTs and improving reliability and towing performance.

Current mods are in my sig, and planned mods in the thread I linked above.

Also, do these guys know what they're doing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXRbY5d9KT0

I feel like I have to ask and be skeptical because of what's-his-name in Georgia.

 

I'm not the smartest guy on here, but if you want to tow, which to me would mean reliability must be paramount, I would not want to shoot too far away from standard nozzles. I would be hesitant to start adding a bunch of rpm's on a tow vehicle that's 15-20 years old. Are there guys that have good success with 80 and above nozzles? Most definitely. If you are a guy that lives your truck, then go for it. If you are happier in the routine maintenance realm (like me), then you really need to limit the output of the motor and your wallet!

 

As I said, my goals are lower EGTs and improving reliability and towing performance.

I'm not sure what you mean by "adding RPMs". I'm already turning 2400 in 3rd gear at 60 mph when pulling grades. I'm not trying to spin the engine any faster than that, I want it to operate more efficiently in that range so as to reduce EGT's.

 

I towed a fair amount of weight with my old 7.3, engine and tranny in stock configuration. Never had any complaints about her performance, even in the mountains. Racked up a lot of miles on that truck. Stock tranny was never out of the truck, heads were never off the motor. Traded her in because the rust was out of control, the motor was still pulling strong.


If you are towing, the very first engine upgrade to consider is the transmission. From the factory these motors/trannys are pretty bulletproof (save a couple isolated issues). As soon as you start adding ponies, especially pulling ponies, you are going to have to beef up the transmission to handle the extra load. A lot of guys who do performance upgrades and chips will put their truck in stock tune to tow so they don't fubar the transmission.


Just my $0.02.

 

I'm putting in a built 4R100 from BTS or JW this spring.

 

That should cover you!


To your injector question, you will have to get a tune to get any advantage out of other-than-stock injectors. These aren't like the old Dodges where you just throw bigger injectors in there, turn up the fuel screw and you are off to the races.

 

I have gearhead tunes on a PHP. I just updated my sig.
Can we please talk about injectors now?

 

I,ve been thinking about injectors for awhile now too. The ones I'm think about are 180/100 new from Full Force. These mite meet what your thinking about but I would like to hear what the guys here think.

 

As the nozzle size increases, the faster the engine can spin. Now you start having other concerns such as valve train, etc. Maybe someone with more knowledge can better explain. Like I said, many guys have done the bigger nozzles with great success, but mostly, these same guys spend a lot of time with their trucks. Its more of a hobby/lifestyle for them.

 

Here's a really good post by Pocket on injector nozzles:

So, keeping this in mind, what I want to do is find out what injector setup I should use, along with the mods that I have and have planned, to get me in a reasonably efficient spot EGT-wise for pulling an RV up a hill at 60 MPH - which is about 2400 in 3rd gear.

Maybe I should have included this in the OP.

 

Personally I would ask the injector builder that you decide to go with. Not saying to go with P.I.S but when I was researching injectors I told them what I was thinking about going with and they suggested a different injector that was actually cheaper. I wanted reliability and power and they ended up suggesting 160/30. But the most I tow is about 5 to 6k lbs.

 

For ease of tuning and fantastic DD/Towing manners, get 80% nozzles on a 160-180cc injector. This is your best bang for the buck injector that will work with standard Gearhead tunes right out of the box.

You can get more towing performance out of a larger injector/nozzle combo. However, the tuning gets exponentially more difficult to dial in.

 

The engine will spin only as fast as the tuning allows. Just because there's larger nozzles, doesn't mean the engine MUST spin at higher RPM's. It just means it's going to perform better as the RPM's climb, compared to stock nozzles.

This of course assumes the tuning is dialed in correctly.

 

How much harder is it to dial in 180/100 over 180/30?

 

Andy, all of this is our opinion on how to spend your money and should be taken as such.

For my money, I will be going with 160/80 new injectors from PIS.

I was originally going to select 160/0 new injectors, but realized that the 160/80 can be tuned to run like a 160/0, but when more power is needed the pedal goes down and the power goes up much smoother and at a lower temperature in the EGT area.

A lot of people go with 160/30, but some of them feel they should have gotten 160/80 or 160/100 because there is more "wiggle room" when tuning them or how you want them to run on your truck.

My stock injectors do very well pulling a 5th wheel, even in the mountains. Although, I am sure that I am using the heavy tow tune from Gear Head on my Hydra and not the daily driver, or anything else. It is very important to make sure you tune is selected for the use. The Hydra makes this easy.

Running at high RPM is OK, as long as the boost is up and the EGT's are down. When climbing a grade and towing heavy I see a steady 28 PSI on the boost, 1000 degrees on the EGT and maintaining my set speed of around 65 MPH with about 2500-2800 RPM on the engine. When I crest the grade, I move the transmission into 5th and the RPM's, boost and EGT's drop.

I suspect that with 160/80 injectors in my truck I will see about 100-200 degrees in EGT's drop under the same circumstances, but I cannot be sure. I do know that the power to climb the grade should be easier to attain and very smooth when reaching for it.

I also plan to install a KC38R turbo, even though the rebuilt stock one I have now does fine. The KC38R should produce cleaner boost, more boost and attain a slightly lower EGT as well, but it won't be much I think. Only time will tell on that one.

When you are thinking about injectors, just think of new vs remanned, what size fuel and what size nozzles. Don't go too big for your truck and your goals for the truck and get something because in this case bigger is not always better.