how do i determine if the injectors are bad, if the injector pump is bad, or it is something else?

one morning my 93 7.3 F-250 decided to make a knocking noise (huge noise)make white smoke, and have limited power in accel and idle. something major wrong!

i took off both the valve covers, all seems to be rocking and springing properly. the sound appears to be coming from the front drivers side cylinder. i also checked to see if there was or was not compression in that one cyl. by taking the glow plug out...she seemed OK.

could the top look good and i still have problems with the cam, valves, and/or anything on the top end.

where do i go from here?

tskinner

 

big clunk and white smoke could mean head gasket blown, or maybe injector tip broke off and lodged in piston and make scratchy scratch in side of cylinder wall and have bad blow by and burn oil, and with that injector tip gone, it make really bad timing on that cylinder and knock knock and eventually motor go boom. i would take out all the injectors and look to see if one of them blowed up.and if there is no tip on one of them then pull the head. i have seen the tops of istons laying in the bottom of the oil ans before on these trucks when they break a tip off the injector. i doubt it is the pump. if its not injectors, ans still go clunk in the mornings when you try to fire it up, then let it sit overnight, pull all the glowlugs out, and turn the motor over and see if water comes out the glow plug hole. if it does, then its either a head gasket or it has pinholes on the cylinder wall. if it has pinholes, get the block sleeved on all 8 cylinders. thats wut my uncle did to his truck and its still running. if its just headgasket, then change that side only. its just easier that way. unless you think you should pull the heads off and get a valve job on it.its up to you. hope i helped you out any.

 

When you start it, try to determine the odor of the white smoke - fuel or antifreeze. If its smoke, I would suggest you pull all the injectors out and have them tested. (be careful handling them, there is a pin point tip on them) If the smell of the smoke is antifreeze, remove the glow plugs and let it sit overnight and crank it as stated above and watch for water to come out of the hole. If you are loosing so much antifreeze, you should see it in the radiator level. Good luck. Keep us posted.