Pulled mine for new o-rings, among other top end stuff, and all have quite a bit of carbon build up on them.

Should I worry about this? I have not tried with anything aside from brake cleaner and a shop towel.

Thanks

 

This is fun DIY article with a lot of pictures of disassembled injectors. The link to the parts source was dead when I tried it.

"Affordable Injectors, rebuilding fuel injectors on Ford 7.3L Power Stroke diesel."

 

I don't know if its a good thing to do or not but sometimes I fill the fuel filers with power service.

 

Do you have access to and ultra sonic cleaner?

 

No ultrasonic cleaner. :/

I will contact Rosewood, maybe he can clean the nozzles and bench test them for a modest fee.

 

An ultrasonic cleaner can be cheap and has other uses.

I want to do my glowplugs and harnesses. As part of that job, cleaning and re-ringing the injectors would probably be a good move for me. I have heard of these injectors lasting nearly a million miles. It would be great to get another 100K out of mine. They are at about 170K now.

 

The only way they will go that far is changing the oil religiously at 2 or 3K.

 

Maybe with being Rebuilt every 200k miles. Even then 5 rebuilds is asking a lot since not every component gets replaced in a rebuild, only typical wear items and those parts out of spec.

 

The carbon you see on the tips is normal. There's really nothing you need to do about it. Just make sure the injector body is clean and free of debris for the new o-rings and whatnot.

 

i must be doing something right. Have a few work trucks I maintain and work on for people that are over 400k on factory injectors. One is going to hit 500k very soon. That guy wants me to do injectors at 500k miles as a preventative measure, so I'll be in touch for a new set when that happens.

 

I was hoping you might post to this thread.

Rosewood Diesel Shop

The 900K+ mile injector story came from a shop owner right around the corner from the local diesel injector shop. He said the injector shop NEVER rebuilt Powerstroke injectors. They ordered them in. So, if the injector shop doesn't mess with them, I take that to mean it's not profitable or not worth the trouble.

Guessing also that DIY-injectors.com was more trouble than it was worth?

I'd like to squeeze some additional life out of my injectors. They work good now. Is there anything I can do along the lines of cleaning the injectors or am I just asking for trouble? I've successfully cleaned old mechanical injectors before, replaced nozzles, etc. I understand that I can't test the Powerstroke injectors like I did the mechanical ones.

 

Most "Injection Shops" focus on what's really profitable, and that's rebuilding pumps and injectors for big trucks that far out number our little niche hobby truck thing we all enjoy. So when it's easier to just sell NEW 7.3 injectors and not have to actually use your head and figure out how to correct issues with them, then that's what they do. Don't fault that shop, let them do what they do best, and let us do what we do best.

The DIY injectors wasn't "more trouble than it's worth." You can find all the parts you need on eBay, so someone is making money doing that, making it "worth the trouble." I stopped because the trucks/engines/injectors all got much older with many more miles and the DIY thing became very unrealistic for 99% of my customers. The guys selling 7.3 injector parts on eBay are doing so to make a profit and don't care that you won't be successful, whereas I personally care that you'll run into issues, and that you'll regret trying. So I stopped selling that stuff 8 years ago.

These are nothing like mechanical injectors, and you can't just swap nozzles. They are probably the most complicated injector you find in the automotive world and as such, everything needs to be happy and work perfectly together for the engine to run smoothly, and for a long time.

The only thing you can really do is run good quality fuel, keep up with fuel filter changes, and keep up with oil changes. All of these affect the longevity of injectors.
And I have seen my share of 400k+ and 500k+ mile injectors, many of which just needed a basic Overhaul to be put back into service. Generally if they made it that far, they are usually not in horrible shape. Those Wednesday injectors are rare, though, with the vast majority needing work done around 200k miles.

 

You shouldn't have to ever clean injectors. Proper maintenance, good fuel, and the correct fuel additives (Ford PM22 or equivalent) is the best thing you can do to prolong the life of your injectors and they will stay clean that way. If you have dirty injectors or they are wearing out prematurely, it means the maintenance wasn't kept up with, there was bad/old fuel used, and/or the wrong additives were put in the fuel tank or even in the crankcase. At that point there's nothing to clean since the damage is already done.

And don't throw cleaning additives in the tank such as alcohol based additives. Those actually strip lubricity and cause premature wear with enough usage.

Injectors will eventually wear and require rebuilding or replacing at some point. The 200K miles Jim pointed out would seem about average to me. Some people get more, others get less. I have seen trucks with 400K+ miles on the original injectors still starting up and running fine. But at idle you can hear multiple injectors are worn and out of spec.

On edit: Jim beat me to it....