early 99 major fuel problem

[stroked383]

Ok heres my story last year i had a injector tip come apart and take out a piston. the truck has 240,000 miles so i figured good time as any for a rebuild. I did a complete rebuild with new pistons all bearings ect. The truck has run like a top until a few weeks ago i was driving down the highway with the cruise on and a started to hear a knocking sound that got worse very fast. The truck was smoking very badly white. So i shut the truck off and coasted to the side. I then restarted the truck and could tell it was raw fuel. the tow truck showed up and i tried to start the truck again and it was hydro locked. I thought it was a injector hung open causing the over fueling issue. The injectors were getting weak to where it still ran fine just didnt have the balls it use to. So i had rosewood rebuild me a set of injectors. I installed the rebuilt injectos had a heck of a time getting the truck to start (it would sound like it would hit on 1 cylinder here and there. no white smoke when cranking. I cranked it for a long time thinking i just had alot of air in the hpo system.) and it was running on 6 cylinders when it did start. I then ran a contribution test and found cylinders 1 and 3 not contributing. pulled the valve cover off inspected the wiring found it to look ok reinstalled and started the truck. It ran smoother than it has in a long time. It was sitting there idling while i was topping off the cooling system and checking for leaks under the hood. Then all of a sudden it started kocking real loud with a whole lot of white fuel smoke. I shut the truck off then went to restart and its hydro locked again. I'm lost. I did find what looks like a little oil in the coolant tank but didnt think much of it. I have no codes in the idm or pcm. i'm pulling the valve covers tomorrow to find which cylinder is hydro locked. The way it didnt want to start after i put the injectors in makes me think its a electrical issue. Any one ever see a idm or pcm cause a issue like this? With these new/rebuild injectors and the same thing happening again that it did before i have a hard time condeming the injectors to being bad. I'm lost with this one. I'm a diesel tech a ford dealer and do driviablity on 6.0s and 6.4's all day. This is my personal vehicle and i got in the dealer game late enough i dont play with that many 7.3's at work. There so much simpler than a 6.4 but i cant figure this one out and its driving me nuts.

I have a idm and pcm that i might try to throw in it after i figure out what cylinder/s are hydro locked and dont see anything obvious. I've never had any problems with injector cups. Are they even a possibility?

Again guys im lost. The more i think about it it sounds like a idm/pcm issue but then i dont see how it would hold the injector open to hydro lock it.

Sorry theres alot of thinking out loud there any help is greatly appreciated.
Alex

[ford_trck]

Sounds like you may have an injector cup cracked or leaking. Pull the injectors figure out which hole is full and you probably have to replace the cup

[dray8165]

A cracked injector cup would allow the fuel rail (pressure around 50 psi) to leak into the cooling system (max pressure when hot around 16 psi) - I guess if it were cracked to the very tip, where the copper washer seats, it could leak into the piston, but it would be so slow.

My guess is that you either had a copper washer that didn't come out with one of the injectors that you pulled (and now have a double stacked washer) or one of the washers fell off while you were installing and therefore have a leak from the fuel rail into the cylinder.

I think you have a good idea of finding which cylinder is hydrolocked and pulling the injector on that one. I just doubt it is a cracked cup and more likely the washer.

Also - I see no way for a PCM or IDM to cause this problem.

[stroked383]

It ran perfect for 10-15 mins before it started to over fuel which is what throws me for a loop. And then did the same thing it did on the highway. All injectors are flat across the top with a straigh edge meaning no extra washer right?

[dray8165]

I don't think you could see a double stack or absence by comparing heights. If you were missing a washer, the space where the washer sits would be where the leak was.

Also, there was air in the fuel rails from when you had the injectors out. Maybe the ten minutes it ran good was the time it was taking for the air to be completely purged, and the fuel that was leaking to overwhelm the cylinder in question.

[stroked383]

Well no washers on any injectors. waiting for my 7.3 compression adaptor from the matco truck should be here tomorrow. I swapped number 5 injector with 7 because i was getting a contribution codes for 5 and now i get the same code for 3 not 5 or 7. This is driving me crazy. I've never had this much trouble with any vehicle and its my own personal vehicle go figure. I'll try to put shop air to the cylinders one at a time to try to figure out what cup is leaking. They dont leak with 20 psi in the cooling system. I'm running out of ideas on this. I just drove my buddies cummins, i guess this is a good time to do a conversion right?

By the way this thing will fog my 200 by 200 shop at work in 2 mins. And i found out the owner doesn't like it when it starts to smell in the show room.

[dray8165]

What do you mean no washers on any injectors? There is supposed to be a copper washer at the base of each injector.

Look at this page to see where it goes:

Replacement O-rings for Ford Diesel Engines

[stroked383]

Sorry no extra washers.