bad tank of fuel 2000 7.3 Auto -- bad miss now

[richardndawnc]

I have a driver with an 00 7.3 F-350 and he got a very bad tank of fuel thursday. I drained the tank and washed it out completly and put it back in the truck. The fuel looked like 3 day old coffee, with rust and fine hairs in the pickup screen.. But now it has a hard miss in the engine. I done a cyl balance test and 3, 5, and 7 showed weak. After a buzz test all 8 are functioning, What can I do to "wash" this crap out of the injector w/o having to pull them out? he has a programmer on the truck and I believe thats all thats keeping it going right now. Any ideas???? or do I just need pull the injectors? I tried a half of tank of fuel and 3 qts of ATF , and its better but still has a long way to go, at least now it will idle on it own.

[Dirk]

I don't believe bad fuel will cause weak readings from injectors. I would not run ATF in the fuel. Run Diesel Kleen or something like it and change the fuel filter.

[richardndawnc]

I know it may seem odd ,but the truck was hauling 3 cars just fine until about 30 min. after he stopped to fuel up and has missed and had no power every since. And I just dont see 3 injectors all in a row going out all at the exact same time.Especially when fuel comes into the #7 injector first and flows to #1 and ,#1 is firing 100% ,wich in my logic means that the trash did not make it all the way to #1. But if you do run a buzz test they all 8 buzz ,so its not the wiring harness.

[alabamafrog]

Same thing happened to me a while back and I fill up at a large Pilot truck stop right at a major Interstate exit. I had to remove the filter and clean the bowl and lines and FPR and heads out and replace the injectors. I had high miles and low compression due to dusting so I went ahead and built the engine and replaced the injectors while I was at it. This is why I advocate for folks to do the prepump filter and tank mods. These mods should help save us when we get bad loads of fuel and as a side benefit it really cuts down on the frequency of filter changes and the amount of ingested air. You can really tell the difference in the sound of the engine at cruising speeds. Here are the pictures I took of mine. Shutterfly | View Shared Pictures Total cost was less than $30

[richardndawnc]

did the fuel stop take any responsibility ??

[alabamafrog]

I haven’t even told them about it, I figure nothing good would come of it and I would most likely wind up in jail before the conversation was over so I have avoided going to see them until I calm down. Plus I have no way of proving it came from them.

[richardndawnc]

The station he got the fuel from was a place called Hobbo's in Dothan,AL. I went ahead and pulled all 4 injectors on the right side and had them rebuilt. The guy that built them said they were full of a hair like material, and that 2 of the 4 had broken plunger springs from were the sludge had stopped up and the solenoid was trying to force the plunger open and damaged the springs inside. I got it back together and put the programmer on race mode and she's back to blowin the tires off again --- whewww I feel like we dodged a bullit with it . So I hope all is ok with it since it wasn't driven but 150 miles if that.

[offroadwizard]

i work at a diesel shop and i just had a 7.3 come in theother week with the samething. 3injectors were plugged. i did a fuel injector cleaner. its a machine that just cleans out the injecotrs and it cleared the dead miss fire up instantly. also iput a fuel filter in it to get all that **** out. but it worked. most diesel shops have something that will dothe same.