Replacing Injector
 

Hey guys, I have an 01 F-250 Powerstroke. It has been shaking terribly at around 1500 rpms and shutters while holding the brake and increasing engine speed. I took it to the dealer and they told me that my #1 injector is bad. They wanted $385/injector and $300/labor so I decided to check around a little bit. I found a diesel service dealer (Midland Diesel in Fargo, ND) that has brand new injectors for $225/injector. (Not rebuilts for $385). Anyway I would like to attempt to install this injector myself. Can anyone help me out with the do's and don'ts of injector replacement.

1. Which injector is #1? (I've done a lot of mechanic work but not a whole lot
on engines.)
2. What do you do with the fuel and oil that get into the cylinder? Do you
have to get it sucked out?
3. Anything else that is crucial? What do you have to torque the injector bolt
to?
Thanks Guys!!!!

Go to beansdieselperformance.com, click the powerstroke link then injector link. At the bottom of the page is an injector installation write-up. #1 is passenger front cylinder I believe; someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Loosen plug on back of head to drain fuel. Remove intercooler tube and valve cover. Unplug injector and remove oil deflector on top side 8mm bolt. Remove 8mm bolt on lower side. pry up on injector to remove. Oil will drain into cylinder. I use a vacuum evac sys to suction the oil out. You can stuff a rag in and absorb as much as possible. Crank engine with ratchet at least two revs and absorb as much as possible. Unplug UVC harness both sides and remove fuel pump fuse. Crank engine with starter to blow out the rest. Bump the starter slowly at first so you don't hydrolic a cylinder. Oil o-rings and install injector. Bump it with the palm of your hand to seat it. Tighten injector to 10 ft lbs. Remove oil drain plug in cylinder head. There are two in each head, under valve cover between injectors. Should be 1/8 in allen. Tighten fuel drain plug. Fill hpop with clean oil. crank engine till oil is pumped out this plug. Reasemble as removed. the engine will crank for a while untill the hpop builds pressure and will run rough for a while.

Hope this helps.

Thank you mech2161. The voice of experience is always very helpful.

Thanks for all the help guys. This site is great! Are we all in agreement that the #1 injector is the front on the passenger side?

Yes it is.

Do yourself a favor and get a mity vac or some other device that can draw fluid out of a small hole. I have done two injectors in two seperate jobs and here's my 2 cents:

Don't mess with the plug on the back of the head unless you want to. There is some fuel in the rails but it can be dealt with pretty easily as you will read.

First pump the oil out of the high pressure oil pump reservoir. It's about a quart or so. The plug on the top can be removed for the Mity Vac to gain access.

You do need to remove the plug that is on the head that leads to the high pressure oil rail. It is drilled in-line with one of the injectors and faces the lifter valley. You will want to use the Mity Vac to suck out all the oil in the head, it will be another quart or so.

Get three rags or paper towels. Have them ready to go, sitting right there next to you. The second you pull the injector, stuff a rag into the hole. Wait 5 seconds. Pull that rag out and stuff another one in there. Wait 5 seconds. Pull it out and stuff the third one in there. Leave it there for now. Between pumping the oil you can out of the rail and the rags soaking it up, you will have captured about 90% of the fuel and oil that would have drained into the cyl.

Mity-vac what you can out of the cyl and also pull the glow plug and turn the motor over by hand a few times with a breaker bar. A nice little mist will spray up and out letting you know it's ok to put the glow plug back in. It is an excellent time to put in new glow plugs.

Before you put the injector back in, spray a little brake cleaner down the hole. It will blow any tiny bits of crap down into the cyl so the copper gasket on the new injector can get a good seal.

After you are done getting the truck back together, warm it up then run at 3300 RPM for about 10 miles to work the air out of the oil rails.

BTW, you can get NEW Alliant Power Injectors for about $200 versus the rebuilt ones the dealer will sell for nearly twice that. Alliant is OEM.

This will sure come in handy when its time to replace my injectors

Thanks

While it is correct that #1 is the passenger side front cylinder, I would recommend verifying that a bad injector is actually the issue. There are many stories here of dealership diagnosis that was incorrect. some guys here have way more experience with injectors than a lot of dealer mechanics, especially our trucks, that are getting old and probably built long before many mechanics started in their profession.

This happened in 2006, I think it's a little late to offer any additional advice. :)

Now that's funny:-jammin

It was early, didn't catch that. It is funny though.

Still good advise for people like me reading this years later. don't worry about dates on threads add good advise when possible to help build the info for people doing searches in the future.:-drink