Life on your cups when you changed them?

Basically, trying to anecdotaly determine average cup life before some type of failure.... to help me decide if i should wait till i pull injectors and hope i dont have to order a set, or assume they have lived out life expectancy, and order them now.....

 

Indefinite...

 

Like anything else. Some at 100K, some more than 300K.

Don't do them until needed and don't do more than you have to.

 

Yeah... they are good, until they arent is basically what ive gathered. Since im putting in new gp's and new injectors, ive been trying to decide if i could (somewhat) prevent needing back under the valve covers if i just changed them while im there. Flip side being... if they are good, what are my chances they stay good, another 100k, anyway....

 

Sir, you are asking a very difficult question as the answers will be very subjective and all across the board. There are many driving conditions that may contribute to an earlier than expected cup failure. As the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t touch it.” About a year or so ago I replaced my OEM injectors and asked the guys “should I replace the cups while in there?” And most said what I just mentioned. I wasn’t having any symptoms that might alert one to questioning the cups, so I left them alone. If replacing the injectors, you can perform the recommended pressure test for visible leaks and proceed from there. So, if you sleep better with an oil change at 3000 miles rather than say 7000 miles, you may sleep better with new cups.
Wishing you the best with your decision.

 

Some do them as a preventative but I don’t know that I would. If yours are fine I would probably run it.

They’re difficult to change and lots of room for error. It sucks when they let go though I barely made it home. Here’s mine at 240k miles. Three were cracked it puked fuel all over my driveway. No idea why they let go it’s a mystery to me. Hope this helps,

 

You either have the time to do it now or later. Easy to do since you are already there replacing injectors. Using the correct tools makes a world of difference.

 

i had one crack at 90 k miles on the truck. i replaced all 8 and bought the tools/equipment to do so. it was pretty straight forward and fairly simple to do with the right tools. when mine cracked i was 4hrs from home, luckily had a very small flat bed behind me. i drove 4hrs home and it only puked diesel out of the coolant over flow once. that was after a cold start and 10 miles of a sand gravel mixed road, when the thermostat opened. didn't puke out the overflow a second time on the way home. not fun to flush the entire coolant system but not the end of the world either. what i was told back then was that there is no rhyme or why or when they crack.

 

You won't sleep better with new cups...you will just wonder if they were installed well and if you'll need to redo them (I have that t-shirt).

Another vote to what everybody else said. Leave well enough alone unless there's a problem. Mine were a hot mess (at least 1/2 of them IIRC) that had issues so replaced all 8 for a "one and done" approach since I was already replacing so many. In for a penny, in for a pound.

I don't know how long mine lasted but when I swapped sticks at 310K miles my cups needed to be put to pasture.

As AubieTN said, pressure test the coolant system (~15 psi) and check for leaks. Use a non-corrosive/cylinder friendly solution to check for leaks (bubbles). Here's one way to do it: Injector cup sanity check - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums (ford-trucks.com)

As cleatus12r said, don't fix what ain't broke. I had no intention of replacing my cups. When I saw an issue I planned to only replace the ones with a problem. Then when I realized I was going to do most of them I decided to all of them.

 

So a question to those that have replaced them. How many of y'all were running the original green coolant...and if so, did you keep up with the additive? On the flip side, how many of y'all made the change to the heavy duty red coolant that doesn't require the additive (for a very long time anyways)?

 

Everything I own runs ELC.

 

My truck was an early '03 so was ELC from the beginning.

 

I run ELC in all three of mine. Getting ready to install brand new injectors into 293k mile cups without worry. I did pressure test the cups with the old injectors out.

 

I have 360k on the OEM cups, (170k since the injectors went in)...I'm not going in on that job until it's required.

 

So what causes them to fail. I know it’s a loaded question but I can’t for the life of me figure it out.

Coolant choice doesn’t seem to have an effect on them otherwise they would be eroded, corroded, oxidized etc. Every failed cup I’ve seen has been cracked with no visible signs of weakness otherwise. All three of mine were cracked and the cracks did not look fresh before they gave up and started leaking. Maybe it’s a mystery.

Hope I didn’t hijack a thread. Figured since we
were on the topic…