Hello everyone, first I'd like to say that I've been reading and researching this forum for about two years now to help troubleshoot my truck and I'm thankful for the knowledge on this website.

I've read numerous threads pertaining to my issue but I feel like mine is a little different than the rest and I'm hoping some of you guys can lead me in the right direction. I've spent a lot of money so far. And I feel
like I'm getting so close to solving this and today I was let down...

Alright, I have a 2002 f350 7.3 4x4 ext cab xlt with 300k miles. Bought in may 2016 with 260k miles and towards November started running rough and felt like a loss of power. Had a no start but a new gray cps fixed that issue. Running fine. About a week later started it up and it had a rough idle, felt like not all cylinders/injectors were working. Was "knocking" and a loss of power. I was in the army at the time and stationed in Georgia, took it to a local diesel shop in Georgia and they confirmed my icp sensor was bad and injector #1 , #5 #7 were bad. Work was busy and money was scarce so I left it as it is and was saving up to buy the new parts. Then one day approx a week after the visit to the shop, I started the truck up and it ran fine. No misfire no knock no rough idle, drove fine for about a month.

In December, I was on vacation in florida to see my parents, drove the truck down, ran fine. While on vacation one day in a Walmart parking lot the truck didn't start up. Couldn't fix any issues then so towed the truck to my parents house. Did more troubleshoot, replaced fuel filter, cps, ipr valve, icp sensor, glow plugs, glow plug relay, ebpv pedestal was replaced with a ebpv delete pedestal. All parts bought oem and/or from riffraff diesel. Still would not start up. So then I bought a refurbished IDM from eBay, oem and then the truck finally started up one day but running rough again like it used to, then it wouldn't start again. So then, I replaced the PCM with a reflashed/refurbished one off eBay and boom truck started up, still running rough but now it starts up every time.

now, took all eight injectors out and replaced all the o rings. Cleaned them up and put them back in, truck still running rough. Injectors didn't appear damaged nor the wiring harness so now I bought three reman injectors from riffraff. And replaced those three bad injectors. One of them is not spitting oil out the oil spout on the injector, sorry I can't remember the officia l name for it.

Now, my dad has helped me through this entire journey. He has worked on freightliner semi trucks for years and is fairly knowledgeable when it comes to diesels. However he did something very amateurish the other day. So two injectors were installed while we were still waiting on the third in the mail. He wanted to see how the engine reacts when that one bad injector was not in play, but instead of unplugging the injector under the valve cover, he cut the wire outside the valve cover to the injector. He stated it's not a big deal and he can solder the wires back together. But once he cut the wire, the truck sounded a lot stronger, still rough idle but definitely stronger. Before, you would be pedal to the floor and the truck barely moves forward but now the truck will lunge forward. A big difference in power.

Now today, third injector came, swapped them out and fired up truck. We didn't solder the wire yet just quick connect, same you would use to connect wires for a car stereo. The new injector was not spitting oil out the oil spout. Even at high rev and truck warmed up. Truck still runs better with that one injector unplugged.

Tomorrow we will troubleshoot if somehow there's wires that grounding out or burnt out somewhere but as of right now everything seems to be in order, the uvch are tight, and no signs of anything burnt.

Triple checked everything, still getting fuel pressure, still getting oil pressure what gives? I also replaced the MAP sensor. Fuel pump is fine, fuel gets to fuel bowl.

Sorry for for long lost but I wanted to let you guys know from the very beginning and seeing if there's something that I missed that you guys would chime in. Thanks for looking and I still have faith in these psd's

the next thing I'm thinking is maybe the hpop but we have oil pressure so idk.. again thanks for everyone's input.

 

EDIT: at high rev the new injector DOES spit oil out the oil spout. Which gears me more towards it being a bad injector but it's a reman full force injector from riffraff diesel...

 

Before sending injector back, I'd swap it from one cylinder to another... as a test.

Although I'm quilty of just replacing parts to find a problem, with the thought that I plan on keeping my 17 year old truck for 17 more years... so things do need replaced. Better route is to get a diesel code reader and read the codes to find the problem. Check out Tugly's info on injector wiring troubleshooting

 

thanks for reply. we've tried that when we swapped out the other two injectors, so basically we put one of them in this one and same thing, no oil out of spout at low idle. High revs yes. And yesterday when we replaced the injector with the new one and no oil out of spout, we swapped with the working cylinder next to it and still, no oil out of spout of the same location. We are going to be tracing the wires to that injector and check for burns or something. Will update. Thanks

 

Update, we traced the wire from IDM to the injector. With key on, we have continuity. So the wire does have power running through it... I'm a little stumped but we are still troubleshooting right now. Is it possible we have a bad IDM? Although I replaced the IDM, I did buy it from eBay...

 

All the wiring seems to be good. No signs of burns or corrosion. We are closing up the valve cover now and going to see if we still have to "air out" that's our only option right now.. could a bad IDM cause ONE injector to not spout oil properly? In my head I'm thinking replacing that injector pigtail maybe? Or replace the UVCH and valve cover harness as well even though they seem to be working fine.. will update after putting some miles on truck to see if anything changes. Btw truck is completely stock. No tunes, stock air box, no mods.