My '88 van is in dire need. I'm only looking to get a few more months out of it then I'll be onto another vehicle, but my injectors are in really bad shape and I don't want them to damage the engine. Diesel Logic has a full set of remans for $200 which is really cheap. Just want to know if that's a good route to take or if I should look elsewhere.

 

Why risk it with cheapo injectors, when it's only a hundred and so more just to get the good stuff: R&D Handbuilt Injectors

 

What makes you think your injectors are faulty? They could probably need replacing, but I would be worried the injection pump is probably also wore out

 

Odds are, yours are "fine" but if you insist, go grab a set from the junkyard if you just need cheap ones.

 

Symptoms: hard starting hot or cold, smoking, intermittent knocking at almost any RPM but mostly at light throttle and lower RPMs, scary loud intermittent knock when going from deceleration to acceleration. All these symptoms started a long time ago and have slowly gotten worse, but lately it seems that they're all getting a lot worse pretty quickly. It has new batteries and new OEM glow plugs, cranking speed sounds good so I think those are ruled out for the hard starting.

The engine also has some issues with excessive blow-by, oil burning, and compression loss, but I think the injectors are causing most of the problems. If the above symptoms aren't indications of worn injectors I welcome the education. I know that the compression loss could be causing the hard starts and smoke, but the knocking is what's making me think injectors are the main issue. My only other thought is that if the blow-by has gotten real bad maybe it's pushing oil to the intake causing the knock (?). When I get a chance I'll try running it with the crankcase vent open and see what it does.

The reason to go cheap is that the van has multiple issues and spending more on the injectors doesn't appeal to me, on the flipside, if I get crappy injectors that aren't working right it won't help a whole lot. If I knew that I could open them up and fix them, even if just to work a little better, I would. Unfortunately, the additional down-time if I can't fix them and then have to wait for a set to arrive will be bad for my customers.

As far as junkyards go, I can't find them cheaper than the remans I listed so it doesn't seem to make sense to chance injectors that I can't verify are working properly. If I could find cheap used ones that I knew were good I'd do it. If anyone has a set of good used ones they wanna sell on the cheap side, I'm in.

 

Compression and oil consumption sound like stuck rings, unless its just oil consumption then could just be guides. Intermitten anything is tough to track down. Hard starting cold could be air, glow plugs, or compression. Hard starting hot is almost always the injector pump.

 

when it will not hot start, pour cool (NOT COLD) water over the injector pump and try to start. if it fires rite up, the injector pump is shot.

 

The intermittent knock isn't intermittent in the way that it'll only do it on occasion, it's an intermittent knock as in it'll do it damn near all the time just somewhat sporadically.

I'll try the cool water trick. I assume that the knocking indicates injectors that are popping too early and/or leaking, but the pump might also be weak and contributing to the hard starting.

 

Update.
I ordered the injector set from Dieselogic online last friday. Monday morning I called to get an ETA and the guy said they appeared to be one short of a full set and he'd give me a call later. A few hours later I get a text from them saying they need me to call to authorize a core hold on my credit card. I call and ask the girl if they have all 8 injectors ready to ship.

Oh yea, we always have injectors.
Well, the guy I talked to this morning said he could only find 7 so if you don't have them I want to know before I continue.
No, we always have them. He probably just meant that only 7 are finished and they have to build the 8th to complete the order.
That's not what it sounded like, can you check and confirm you have all 8 and give me an ETA please?
We always have them, we build them to order so what he meant was that only 7 are finished.
Again, it sounded more like you don't have enough cores to complete the order and that you have to source an 8th to fill the order.
No, we build them to order so I know we can fill the order.
You're not building them from scratch, you're rebuilding cores. If you don't have 8 cores on hand you can't fill the order, please verify.
I know we have them, we always do.

This went back & forth a few times and I finally told her to go check, verify, and give me an ETA or to cancel my order right then. She was kinda pissy sounding and put me on hold to go check. Ok, we only have 7 but we can get another one in a few days. No apology for her ****iness or assumptions and mis-information, nor a firm ETA. Screw them.

On the upside, since replacements would be delayed no matter who I ordered from I decided to open mine and see if I could do anything for them. I gave them a thorough cleaning and it runs much better than it did before.

 

If you keep the van, investing in a cheap injector tester wouldn't be a bad move.

Not only can you diagnose leaky/faulty ones, but you can reshim yours up when they get too low.

Normally a knock is an injector hanging open

 

I don't understand why cheap out. R&D or Conestoga, they are the two reputable fuel system sources for the IDI. Fuel system is not cheap, but do it right and it'll be good for another 100k+ miles. That's worth something to the next guy. Get cheap or questionable junk and the next guy will just be replacing all of it, and pay you appropriately less when you sell it. I've fixed enough hackjobs to always think of the next guy, though in my experience it's usually me.

 

Yup. I had one that was super stuck, had to hammer the pintle out of it.

 

I already answered why to cheap out. The engine has bigger problems than just the fuel system.

 

I bought NEW injectors from O'Reilly Auto Parts. They have a 3 year warranty and were about $300 total (you could even spend less if you bought rebuilt ones from the parts store but I didn't want to risk it). They didn't cure my truck's poor drive ability, but I think I have that tracked down to IP timing.

I also have 2 spare sets of injectors. I tried to run 1 set in my truck before buying the ones at the parts store and they caused a horrible knocking while cranking. Luckily, I never started the engine with that set of injectors. The other spare set I have are worn and corroded and are probably only useable as cores.

If you're going to try to save money and do a repair I suggest you consider the parts store brand. They aren't as good as ones I could get from Conestoga or R&D, but I haven't had any trouble from them yet.

I dream about Holley fuel injection for my Oldsmobile and Conestoga injectors and a Bull Moose IP under the Christmas tree. Gotta keep momma happy too though.

 

So fix those "bigger problems". Sounds like it just needs a freshening up. Tear it down and check the taper, you may be fine with just a quick and dirty hone and re-ring along with bearings and gaskets. Or don't bother, cheaping out is just spending money that has zero effect on resale and potentially causing you grief. Just get something else and sell it as is to someone who will do it right.