Where are you now? My schedule for driving over the pass keeps changing.

 

Finally ran out of time, and had to head back home to the west side. It was raining axes and hammer handles when I got back, so I felt right at home. I do appreciate your offer to help, but I didn't want to take up your free time with this stuff. I thought you might be curious, so here's what I know :
After replacing the fuel pump and fuel filter, I felt no improvement. Changing the CPS, no change. Replacing both UVCH / gaskets no change. Things got steadily worse. Managed to limp it to the local shop, almost wouldn't make it that far. Investigation revealed failed injectors. #1 #3 #5 and #6 were bad, not moving fuel at all. I won't make it back for another week or two, so I can't confirm if that was the problem, but it makes sense. It was fuel starvation after all, sort of ...
There I was : hearing hoofbeats and looking around for zebras. Turns out it was just horses ! Apparently stock injectors do have an ultimate failure point.
Anyway, I am not complaining, just posting what I know to satisfy the curiosity of anyone who may be following along.

 

Injectors don't usually fail en masse unless a bad batch of fuel hits you. Something happened, they didn't all just choose now to let go.

 

Yeah, that sounds unusual to me, still waiting on confirmation, but it seems like a credible diagnosis. Not sure how to guard against a bad batch of fuel, other than use a high volume location. I guess the rest of them are due to fail shortly, if it was bad fuel. Hope not, I liked this truck, but that's about enough for me. Any other ideas, regarding multiple injector failure ? You have lots of experience regarding injectors and their application.

 

That is a violation of Karl's rule of one. If a thing was working OK, and then it stopped, It is not because five things suddenly went wrong. There is one cause not five. Not that I can say what it is.

 

How did the shop identify those bad injectors? Beyond wiring, there's one thing in common with them, the IDM. If the failed injectors were all on one bank, I'd almost be certain. A failed IDM can typically shut down an entire bank, as in my case on my '97. And I also had injector codes, but they were fine. Bad fuel? 80 miles prior to my IDM going out, a kid in NJ filled my tanks with gasoline (illegal to pump your own, and I was on the phone ). I never started the truck, but even dropping both tanks who knows if any got into the lines.

Anyway, I shared that info with the dealer and they leapt to the conclusion that I needed 4, and should replace, all eight injectors. $1500 or so later, with reman injectors, new fuel pump, filters, and hours of labor, I joined this forum, shared the codes from the dealer, and bought a $150 IDM off ebay and drove my truck home.
Can you share with us everything the mechanic gave you regarding those codes?

 

This is what I know so far. No codes came up, for me or them. The kill test ultimately told them which ones went bad. Like you, I also wondered about the IDM, but #6 is on the opposite bank. I don't know for sure if that rules out the IDM or not. I was told they were not moving fuel, even though they were getting power. Any other ideas what can cause four injectors to fail ? I'm no mechanic, and kind of out of my depth on this.

 

I'm curious as to how they determined that those cylinders were not moving fuel. CCT? Is that the "kill test" you mentioned? I don't completely understand how the CCT is done, but generally it measures the rotational acceleration of the crankshaft (via the camshaft and the CPS) to determine how much each cylinder contributes, by individually adjusting the injection signal to that injector. How it affects each injector, shutting it down completely or what, I don't know. But the CCT returns data, specific numbers, in the form of PERDELS (Percent Deceleration), which your mechanic should have given you - you paid for it, right?

I suppose bad or contaminated engine oil could affect the ability of the injector solenoids to operate, but that's just speculation on my part now and I don't know how quickly a fresh oil change would make any difference there either.

Going back to bad fuel, did all of this happen after a recent fill-up? Finding a 40 gallon bucket to dump it all in so you can get a new tankful of diesel might be something worth trying, or David's idea of simply fueling it from a temporary source. If you have a regulated return, cycling the fuel pump a few times will clear the old fuel out of the lines back into your tank before trying to crank it. Or leave the filter housing drain valve open to clear the lines up to the filter. If you try this, run that drain hose into a large container or covered 5 gal bucket, it will splash and fill quickly.

 

All good questions, and I apologize up front for not having much knowledge here. I have not been able to go get my truck yet so I don't have the data you asked about. I will get all that before I pay for it. I assumed the kill test was just to cut off power to individual injectors, and use that to find the bad ones, when the engine ran even worse. My mistake for assuming, and I will verify this when I call again.

The oil is changed every 5000 miles with Motorcraft filter, and HPOP oil as well, with Rotella T5. Fuel filter every 10000 miles with Motorcraft as well. I am fairly certain that the oil is still OK.

I did fuel up, from almost empty, right before my trip to the east side. A Shell station I use a lot, but that I now suspect doesn't have a high traffic volume. It probably wouldn't hurt to drain the rest of the tank and refill, as it's around 1/3 now. Can fuel be so contaminated that it takes out multiple injectors ? With water or some other contaminant ? Can the fuel be tested for the presence of crap in it ?

It may simply be a matter of mechanical failure, and I am aware of the possibility. I don't expect anything to last forever, but it just seems suspicious to me. I can't really explain why, but it does.