A little over 2k miles ago I did quite a bit of upgrades to my truck including baby swamps. The truck has seemed great, did a couple big pulls with it and didn't skip a beat, great power. Truck doesn't use a drop of oil, has little blowby and good compression. I'm getting 15-19mpg so far.

But, I have been seeing bluish/white smoke on startup that won't go away until I open it up once, 2500 rpm or so and 3rd gear. It is kind of chuggy until that first opening up. It used to be that the first start of the day was the only time I saw the smoke. Now it comes back after sitting for a few hours with the engine still relatively warm. Smells like fuel. Engine seems a little bit lopey on the road but it is hard to tell.

So the other day I pulled the covers to put on new motorcraft gaskets and wiring and noticed #3 and #4 injectors were both about 1/16" higher. I swear I seated them all until they pinged. But I'm wondering if this is my issue. All the other injectors needed to be retorqued. I thought it was odd that the high injectors were at about the same place on each side.

What sort of symptoms does an unseated injector bring, and will the injectors be ok if I pull them to put on new o-rings and crush washers? I've got a trip coming up this weekend and kind of concerned about pushing it if the injectors aren't seated.

Thanks.

 

it what if those couple injectors the original copper washers had fallen off or ur running symptoms sounds like mine when I had bad injector orings

 

Yep it sounds like you need new injector o rings at minimum. Pull them before it gets worse and check them out, or you'll be like me with a set of premium injectors with two toasted ones on the shelf and some unknown mileage "will it start" used injectors in the truck.

 

Thanks you guys. So I guess my question is does the straight edge test ever lie? It seemed like an interesting coincidence that the injectors sitting a little higher are in the same spot on each bank, cylinders 3 and 4.

Another observation: Fuel pressure is usually 60 psi +/-10 psi. But when the rig is cold I have seen it go up to 80 psi or a bit more. I thought I read somewhere that fuel pressure could rise with a leak around an injector o ring.

I hope I'm just being overly cautious. Got more orings coming tomorrow and will check the suspect injectors.

 

Update: I got new injector O-rings and pulled the two injectors that seemed higher.

They looked as clean as when I got them (to me). The copper washers were in place, with no extras, and it looked like they were sealing. The only things I noticed is that the injectors came out very easy, and there was a small amount of metal galling above the top cushion ring on the injector body. When taking off the o-rings, one of the top square cushion ring split in two. Perhaps it got pinched or torn when I installed.



I got an audible ping when installing in the cup, used a mallet and torqued, yet these two injectors still sit a bit higher and seem to fail the straight edge test. I compared to an old injector and it did seem about 1/16" taller from the solenoid. Is that very common?

I retorqued all injectors and glowplugs and a few certainly needed it. All are oiling as they should and the truck feels good; seems more peppy.

Sorry about the resolution of these photos... but wondering if there is anything you see that I don't? Perhaps retorquing helped.


What brings the galling on the injector body near the hold down bracket?




Will keep you updated on smoke. It seemed to clear up pretty fast today on the second drive.

 

Did you make sure the old copper washers came out with the old injectors?

 

Yep, all injector sleeves were clean without any extra copper washers. Dave at Swamps let me know that 1/16 to 1/8" variation in injector height is common due to casting differences. That's easily the thickness of an extra washer. So probably didn't need to spend half the night replacing O-rings! Oh well, it may have caused me to find an Oring that was sub par and retorque.

Moral of my story is that the straight edge injector check is not an absolute!

-Ben

 

Better a $80 set of o rings and an afternoon than toasting two injectors. Glad it all is ok!

 

Totally Jarret! Where I'm headed a break down would really suck.

 

I am running into what sounds like the exact same issue with my truck on start up. Went to 180/30 single shot injectors with kc300x stage 3 turbo. The truck will get up and go and doesn’t seem to miss. My next step was going to be a compression and leak down test to see if there is cracked piston rings, valve guide wear, or something of that nature that would be causing my Smokey start up. Did the o ring replacement clear up your problems?

 

Best to make a new post with your info. many here have left.

 

Hey there, no injection o rings didn't solve my issues. I rebuilt the engine with a pretty solid build and made lots of other changes. I'm pretty confident the smoke/haze is ****ty remanufactured injectors. They came over with the rebuild and it still smokes below 75f on start up. Id love to try new alliant injectors someday.