I will post the progress of my Fuel Injector Adventure here as it unfolds and would appreciate any help anyone can offer. I have already learned a great deal from many of you by searching the diesel forum.

Yesterday my 96 F250 7.3L PSD turned on its Check Engine light and started running real rough. Then light went out... then on... then off... all day long. I have an Actron OBDII scan tool and it showed no codes. Called Actron about that and they say that the heavier trucks are not required to be OBDII compliant. They also said that Navistar makes the PCM and does not respond to the OBDII standard way of doing things.

First I suspected a bad load of fuel because I had just switched to a different station with low price. The other tank was empty so I stopped at a different station and switched to that tank. No help there.

At this point I suspect an intermitant bad injector, maybe a couple. Put some cleaner in the tanks and it seemed to help, but today it is still running rough.

I am ready to get a tool to do the buzz and contribution tests. Auto Enginuity looks good but would like to hear if there are others.

So far prices for injectors seem to range from $258 to "get a second mortgage".

 

search beans diesel performance. they seem to be the company of choice of most of the guys/gals here. very reasonable prices from what ive seen.

 

do not buy injectors from ford or IH, its cheaper to have an aftermarket builder go through them and fix them.

LUke

 

If you are getting a check engine light then I bet it is the wiring harness under the valve covers has melted. Just pull covers and check resitance on wires. Also How many miles you have on it. I have the auto enginuity software is very good looked at some of the others but end up with it it takes a little while to learn though. I think 97350 has another scanner he likes and I believe it cost less also. I would bet your injectors themselves aren't bad unless you have over 200k.

 

Not sure about milage on injectors, I bought it at 197K and it now has 261K. If they are original they are suspect.

 

uh yeah at that kinda mileage i would get em reworked and maybe even modded if your into that. i use an ease program on my laptop. cost me 350 bucks and love it. i would check the wiring and vc gaskets and uvcs. if you see nothing start truck and with vc off and watch the oil spouts on each injector to see if they are shooting out oil.

 

No progress on fuel injectors yet. Finding out some things about OBD-II that makes me wonder if auto enginuity scanner will work on the 1996 diesel. Ford OBD-II manual says that diesels <14000 gvwr and =>1997 must be OBD-II in Calif. Fed standard is for diesels <8500 gvwr. The F250 is 8800gvwr. It is either OBD-II or OBD-I but not sure which. Sent querry to Auto Enginuity. Awaiting reply.

If anyone else has been down this path before, let me know.

 

enhanced ford scanners work with our trucks. 97 cali trucks are obd2.

i have an ease scan tool bought from obd2.com for 350.00 that i run in my laptop and it works awesome. autoenginuity also works on our trucks.

where do you live? maybe someone here lives close who has one.

 

I'm in NC neare Raleigh.

Truck will take a back seat for a little while. Wife's 97 Crown Vic needs a new intake mainfold. Local shop wanted $800+ with a one year warranty on a Ford part. AdvAuto manifold is $266 with lifetime warranty. The original manifolr is all plastic, replacement is alum where the crack was.

 

I took a close look at the engine today in prep for pulling injectors. Looks like a tight job. Haynes says to pull fuel drain plugs at rear of each cyclinder head. It doesn't look possible with engine in truck. Is this really necessary?

Also, if fuel and/or oil gets in the cylinder, how do you get it out?

 

pull injectors, replace with new injectors. pull glow plugs. remove fuse #9 under hood.put valve covers on with a couple bolts. put 24mm socket on front of crank and turn clockwise two revolutions by hand with 1/2 drive ratchet. turn motor over with starter several times. pull vc's. re install gp's and torque. reinstall vc's and intake etc etc...
fill hpop reservoir with oil through either hex plug or oil pressure sensor. crank motor several times. re install #9 fuse. begin the long task of trying to start it. have a vehicle on stand by to jump from..
if i missed anything anyone please chime in.

go to swamps page and read the install page along with bdp's injector page.

 

yes and if you dont you will be replaceing more then inj. it will fill the cyl. with fuel and oil. there are little oil plugs under the v\c for the oil. and fuel well that just stinks, there is a fuel plug in the back of both heads ones is easy to get to and there other is a pain due to the turbo. hint hint pull fuel lines off drain filter housing and start truck and let it run out of fuel. befor you pull the oil plugs of corse. its a lot easer faster and cleaner. if you do get fuel and oil in there which you will get an air gun drill a hole in the side put on a small fiting and a hose with a long straw on it and stick the straw in inj hole and point air gun away from any thing you want to stay clean and blow the al the oil and fuel comes out. hope you under stand what i mean its kind of hard to explain if not they also sell them on the snap-on truck.

 

Actron is clueless, 1996 f250 is OBD 2 compliant I can hook mine to the snap on MT 2500 at work, or my genisys scan tool and get all the codes. however your code maybe an enhanced Ford code and that is why a generic OBD2 reader will not show the specific trouble code.

 

Just trying to verify the torques on these bolts...

Injector clamp - 108 in-lbs
oil deflector bolt - 106 in-lbs
oil rail drain plugs - 53 in-lbs (I plan to use an allen wrench and thread-lok)
valve cover bolts - 72 in-lbs

These are from a Haynes book. The oil rail drain plug is listed as just 53, but it must be in-lbs.

Also, I measured resistance of glow plugs on the driver side... one was open and another had 1.4 meg-ohm. Other 2 were 1.6 and 0.7 ohm. This would be why the block heater was necessary this past winter even though we are in central NC.

 

Ok... got the scantool from AutoEnginuity. Engine cannot be started because left VC is off. But I did reconnect a battery and did a KOEO test and the Injector Buzz test. Got the following 2 codes
P0267 Cylinder 3 Injector Circuit Low
P1294 Injector High Side Open Bank 2

Heard all 8 injectors buzz. Did not detect a great difference when #3 buzzed.

Still plan to pull all 8 injectors and get them rebuilt plus new glow plugs (they have 260K miles on them).

Just not in a great hurry at this time, so stay tuned.