FYI, nobody offers Rosewood Diesel Shop injectors except us.
We don't have any dealers, and you can't click and buy from our website.
We are the only 7.3 injector shop set-up this way.
We are the only true custom injector shop that builds each injector (and sets) one at a time specifically for the customer.
There would be no point having dealers sell for us, or having a website that allows you to click and buy, when we know we'd never be able to fulfill those purchases.

Anyway, I think the 160/30% are a great choice for an all-around injector. They can be tuned to work well with either a KC drop-in option, or a T4. I personally chose a T4 for my '96 to go with the 160/30% and I love the combination. I can tow my mini ex at around 12k behind the truck and with no inter-cooler I can't even get over 1100°.
I honestly can't say if a KC will do that, I really don't know. But the 364.5 I have is simply awesome.

 

I personally would stay away from FFD injectors. I had a set from them and had nothing but issues with one of the injectors. I would get intermittent codes, tried replacing the solenoid and no dice, ended up having to replace the whole injector with another reman.

 

We've run into that as well.
People need to understand that all we can do as injector rebuilders is turn the injectors on and off (VERY accurately) to make sure they flow what they are supposed to.
The flow bench isn't a very good test bench, not like running them in your truck anyway. There are warranties for a reason, because we can only find so many issues on the flow bench. Electrical issues are the worst to narrow down, as well. Some IDM's and PCM's are fine with a specific set of injectors, whereas other IDM's and PCM's are not. It's a reality.

 

And this is an example of why you have earned my respect. I feel like you are honest and upfront with your customers, also showing a humbleness while having a ton of experience. Hats off to you sir!

 

Injectors - 160/80.
160/30 is an injector from the DT466E with a modified nozzle from a 7.3L injector, 160/100 is a DT466E injector with its nozzle modified, and 160/80 is a stock DT466E injector with an unmodified nozzle. 160/80 is much easier to tune than the 160/100, but you still get the benefit of quicker injection for lower EGTs under load vs stock and 30% nozzles.

Bigger turbo (not T4) with a journal bearing for sure - roller bearings don't last with diesels.

Stock fuel pump is perfect, just make sure you have a Hutch mod.

Bigger air intake with those 160s - S&B CAI is common, Riffraff Diesel carries those.

Bellowed up pipes (not the type made with Chinese steel), because replacing the turbo without them triggers Tourette syndrome.

4" turbo-down exhaust for absolute certain.

Gauges - Most of what you need is on the OBDII port, but you need to add fuel pressure and EGTs. The MAP sensor is limited on the boost it can show, so a 0-40 PSI boost gauge can't hurt.

Intake plenum can blow a seal with these upgrades. You might need a billet unit while you have everything open in there.

 

Im going to second sous here, in that i would upgrade the turbo. And whatever else before i dropped in new sticks. Mine were tired, very,but i also had no block hetear and only 1 good glowplug, in turned out, when i swapped in my 160/30s. Do i like them. Absolutely. Would i have been happy with just the turbo and tunes, and new glowplugs... probably.
could i have lived with it months or years before changing the sticks... 100%
just trying to help you choke down the buckzooka a bit, since we all like to pull that trigger. You will probably want the riffraff boost fooler, im pretty sure thats what keeps throwing my ses light pulling hills while towing.
now, for the anecdotal evidence supporting your choices... last week i pulled a stock trailer. With animals and sundry extras, scaled just a little over 5k. I have a stock fuel system, with h&h 160/30, kc balanced, 6637 air, deleted cat, on stock pipes. I hopped on interstate, set cruise at 70 and she pulled every hill from clinton, to okc without needing a downshift. Without even dipping the needle. Fuel pressure ran as normal, fluctuating between 55 and 60 psi.
so the setup your considering, will work, and work well. But, you might be perfectly happy with the new kc turbo and tunes, and not need new injectors, yet.

 

Thanks for the additional input Tugly and Kd5zll. It's definitely a big purchase and there is lots to consider. I have the Chinesium up pipes, not installed yet. They've been sitting on a shelf. Now I'm considering purchasing better quality ones. What happens with the Chinesium ones? Why are they so bad?

The above great video (shared by Tpayne621 in comment #8) KC Turbos put out explains the global supply chain and that China has varying degrees of quality and fairly high capability, great facilities nowadays, etc... Anyone watch it? Of course, they still have a lot of poor quality stuff coming over too.

 

Cheap bellowed up pipes work fine. I have had a cheap set of Rudy's diesel up pipes which are China I'm sure on mine for 7-8 years now and they still looks great. But I'm not in the rust belt.

 

I agree. Eric or Jim are the only options I’d consider. I know Eric spends a lot of time making sure folks get the best combo for their needs.

I’ve installed a couple sets of the cheapies. No issues but I can’t speak to longevity. Mine were pulled for the T4 kit and dads truck was sold within a few years of install. I still recommend cheap uppipes, the worst that can happen is a leak and needing swapped out again.

 

You might want to look at the Turbo Matrix for some added research. I decided to do the Riffraff 360* turbo rebuild, with the Riffraff 4+4 billet compressor wheel, and the KC s300 turbine wheel on the F350 and just a Riffraff 4+4 wheel on the Excursion. I did a bunch of extra things while in there, but I'm still running stock injectors on both trucks with no desire to go bigger. I did however, shim the injectors...Excursion just shy of 260k and F350 at just over 200k...along with drilling an oil drain hole in the spacers between the injector solenoids and bodies for better cold starts. This is something you might also do some research on given the mileage on yours. If you do go bigger on the injectors, something to consider is the 160 units would be an off the shelf item at Ford/Navistar should you get stranded on the side of the road.

 

^^^This is a great explanation.

Like Typayne621, I am not in the rust belt and installed Dorman up-pipes on November 23, 2015 and ran them until 2018 when I installed a T4 kit. I sold the Dorman up-pipes to another FTE local to me and he is still running them with zero issues. Although, we are NOT in the rust belt.

 

Where in the world did you come up with that nonsense?
100% not true. None of it. I don't even know where to start to correct you.

Nothing wrong with a T4 turbo, I have one with 160/30% and love it. My truck runs great.

 

My mind has been squirreled away to other places for a while - big announcement coming soon. Maybe I'm inaccurate with the 466 - but the 160 is a stock single-shot injector for something NOT PS 7.3L. The 30% nozzle has had the tips modified for increased flow, as have the 100% nozzles - according to all the sources I had a few years ago. The 80% nozzle is an off-the-shelf nozzle for an injector larger than our stock 140 split-shots.

Nothing wrong with T4 at all, if you don't mind all the modifications and bolt turning in the most frustrating area under the whole hood to work. I chose drop-ins to save me the expense of band aids and therapy.

I have dealt with Chinese steel in in harsh conditions with more horror stories than not. Washington (my home state) does slime the roads with ice-melt.

 

Ok, something to work with.
Your sources are/were wrong.
The 160 Single Shots originally came in the T444E (7.3 Power Stroke) found in the High Output Medium Duty International trucks in the mid 1990's. Nothing to do with the DT466 at all, they did in fact come from the 7.3 Power Stroke engine, only it was called the T444E.

The 30% over nozzle is NOT a modified nozzle, they are manufactured NEW for the 7.3 performance market, as are the 80% over, 100% over, 200% over, and larger. NONE of them come from the DT466 nor are they "off the shelf" for any injector.
EVERYTHING DT466 related has either 5 or 6 holes that spray outside of the bowl of the 7.3 pistons, and are not recommended to run in a 7.3 injector. So the 30%, 80%, 100%, etc. are made from scratch with 7 holes (proper for the 7.3) at the proper angles to spray within the piston bowl.

 

Fair enough - I've been away from the 7.3L books a little too long. I got my history of the 160 transposed, but the nozzle information I received was from an injector rebuilder about 5 years ago. Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years, maybe my info was bad to begin with.

For the readers that haven't yet tinkered with upgrades and tuning...

The quicker the fuel gets in there, the lower the EGTs at higher power levels - with the caveat you don't compromise atomization. The single-shot 160 is a big upgrade over split-shot stock 140 for addressing this, but the stock nozzle holds you back. 30% nozzle is an improvement, 80% more so - but it's not until you get to the 100% nozzle that you get the full dump of the 160 injector in time to burn it all at higher RPMs.

Think of a spray bottle with an adjustable nozzle and a stopwatch. For an exercise, squeeze the spray handle as hard as you can for exactly one second - tightening the nozzle between each attempt. After a while, you find you can't compress the handle completely within one second - that's akin to the limit the nozzle places on the injector. Saying that, the better atomization occurs with the tighter nozzle, for a cleaner burn. The balance of controlled flow, better atomization, and max power with the 160 single shot occurs right around the 80% nozzle. 100% delivers more power at high RPMs, but the tuning is just a little tougher to balance across all scenarios - like cold idle at high altitude vs hot & heavy towing at sea level. I've had live tuning with 80% and 100% nozzles - 80% is easer to tame.

Saying that, live tuning needs tweaking when you change things under the hood like I have. I blew the original HPOP last summer while towing heavy - so new IPR and ICP sensor was installed with the replacement HPOP. There went my custom tuning - I'm burning a little rich now.