My 03 X has 190k miles and basically 8 original injectors. I recently determined that i have some oil dilution. Not bad just smells like diesel never over full.
My truck has no stiction issues. At least not like some on here have and runs great. It may chug one single time on a cold morning but instantly cleans up and could be driven instantly if I was so inclined, which I'm not. Because of this I feel the injectors are still very healthy. Maybe because the truck has run stanadyne in every tank since about 25k miles.
That being said, it's been recommended to me by a reputable shop near me we all know (Thanks Julie for your time) to replace any offending injectors while they're out. I don't disagree with this school of thought except that part of me wants to find out just how long I could go on these original injectors. However my concern is that once I go in and disturb them say installing new o rings on them all for whatever reason they'll just become problematic. Because of this concern I'm inclined to do as I was told or even replace all on the bank where the leaker is. If that's all 8 then so be it. I don't really want to perform this procedure multiple times on the same bank. May as well hit them 4 at a time. Does this seem logical?

I've read the sticky about injector replacement but have some questions.
Do new injectors come with o rings installed?
Do they come with the top o ring installed that seals the nipple cup into the injector?
Seems I should check the nipple cup upper seals in the log while it's out per the sticky.
If i read correctly I don't need to remove the oil feed hose from the log just lay the whole assembly aside.
From what I understand the stand pipe feeds the hose. Any need to remove them and reseal?
Could someone direct me to a sticky regarding the steps involved in the bubble test?
That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

Injectors absolutely come with the upper seal installed.

There's no way they won't come with the other o-rings but I suppose they may not be pre-installed. No big deal if not, they're easy to put on just use clean oil as you go.

Bubble Test.

 

No time to watch video yet but I will on my lunch. But what size cap and thread pitch for the cap in case that's not covered in the vid?
Thank you sir.

 

Don't need to install anything. Basically remove upper fuel filter cap, fill with diesel, then use passenger side wire to crank engine (don't use key) and watch for bubbles. Easy peasy.

 

Yeah but I need to remove and cap each supply line to the head one at a time to determine where the leak is. I saw Anthony use some cap he had but he didn't mention what size and pitch

 

Oh I see. Yes to determine which side of the engine. I'll see if I can look it up. A more exact method is removing glow plugs, that will narrow it down to the exact cylinder.

 

Ford part number for the plug is 3C3Z-9K042-AA. It's M12x1.5 and it's actually an o-ring plug.

 

I'd like to avoid having to remove the glow plugs and replace the harness.
How does removing the glow plugs help determine which cylinder is leaking? The videos I've seen show fuel leaking in the head around the injector body looking through the rocker box. If it's leaking up there is it necessarily gonna leak around the injector and down into the cylinder to?

 

The bubble test is checking if the injector has failed internally allowing compression gasses to back-flow through the injector, or if the copper gasket plus lower injector body o-ring has failed allowing gasses past the injector and in to the fuel system.

Pulling out the glow plug doesn't allow compression on that cylinder so if you have one of the above failures which will show up in a bubble test, when you remove the glow plug for the corresponding cylinder the bubbling will stop.

The other kind of failure you can have is the upper injector o-ring which will allow fuel in to the oil too, but it isn't getting there through the injector and the bubble test will still pass in that case.

 

So I just need to remove the valve covers and somehow run the pump and look for fuel bubbling up around the body of the injector? Any other method to narrow it down to a particular side?

 

Failed Bubble test, etc videos:

 

I had all 8 original injectors at 160k until I replaced all the o-rings on them and replaced on injector. The seals looked horrible. Shredded, disintegrating, blown up from their positions. I would imagine yours probably look the same.

 

No. And it may be such a slow leak you can't see it. I had the same issue and checking my oil today, it's back.

The seals are extremely easy to do, $6 an injector and 1/2 days time. Just like you said, remove cover, look an them pull the injector, reseal and go.

Bubble test it to find a leaking copper seal on the bottom. Do a bubble test when done swapping injectors or after you seal them. Leave the top seal alone, set the log aside. If the nipple cups are loose, re o-ring them as well.
Inside the fuel bowl, remove the two screws in the bottom and then lift out the cover. That exposes the two fuel lines, one to each side... watch for bubbles to determine a side, then remove plugs one at a time until bubbles stop. When it stops, you've got the offending hole.

 

Also, the bad injector didn't hold vacuum at all. It leaked right out. The others were all good to go. The bad injector was probably having issues with the plunger wearing based on what I read.

 

Watched all those videos last night. Also watched Anthony look at individual injectors with the pump running I think and seeing fuel seeping up the body of the injector. Guess I got the two processes mixed up to for diagnosing my issue or do i need to do the bubble test to. I have no reason to believe i have a failed copper crush washer... or do i? I'm confused in case you couldn't tell.