I came across this video today by Lubeowner. As in the video, make sure you are doing this wet. Using 600 grit paper or higher takes the varnish off.
It is easy to take the spool-valve off and remove the spool. He doesn't show it in this video, but the spool-valve assembly comes off the top by removing 2 Torx cap screws. Don't do this in the vehicle; if you drop a part you will be sorry. Watch for the alignment of the wires versus the notch in the injector body; they should be opposite of the injector won't fit properly in the head.
For those following or interested, Dale did some today and was mightily impressed! The cold start test is tomorrow morning. His results are posted in the Perf section.
This is friggen sweet...I just put my new BPD FICM in today and the truck has improved so much but when it's cold, I still feel like there's one injector with stiction....
...I am handy with pulling wrenches, but just learning about how diesels work so some things I'm a bit afraid to dig into because I'm not sure what's involved.
Any thing I should know about getting to the injectors and pulling them out?
Remove valve cover.
Remove oil rail (year specific) T-30 for the oil rail and a 10mm or 12mm hex for standpipe.
Loosen injector. You will need a long Torx bit
Previous post by Bismic
T40 socket for early 2006 model years or T45 for commonized engines - post Jan 11, 2006. When removing the injector make sure the copper washer is still on the end of the washer.
Make sure you clean out the injector hold down clamp holes with some q-tips or similar (remove oil), otherwise you won't get them torqued correctly and will probably end up doing it again.
Regarding the copper washers - the side with 2 raised circles goes against the injector and the side with 1 raised circle goes against the injector cup.
For those that don't have a 2006, the recommended Torque value is 24 ft-lbs. The 26 ft-lbs is for the later model years (although many Techs will go up to 28 ft-lbs).
I would recommend finding a place where you can check your Torque Wrench calibration. Many of them are WAY off.
Get the extended Torx (minimum shaft length is 2") - that way you can be sure that they are properly torqued down.
New o-rings and combustion seals should be used any time an injector is removed. Care should be taken when installing the high pressure oil rail to prevent damage to the upper injector o-rings.
As was said earlier - Be SURE to clean the injector cups w/ a bottle brush (personally I recommend one made for the job). These are made by Motorcraft, tool numbers 303-D111 and 303-D112. You can find them on hands on tools.com.
Oh - There have been some issues of the clip holding the holddown bolt in the clamp coming off during injector removal. As was said earlier - To be safe, you can put rags in the drain holes in the lower edge of the head while pulling the injectors out
After torquing the injectors, push the injector connectors into the rocker box opening and "seat them in". They can be seated using a small screwdriver and applying force using the rocker arm for leverage - but BE CAREFUL. Make sure there is oil in the top of each injector (take a half quart and dump all over the top of the injectors) then carefully place the rail back down over the injectors, with the joints into the tops. Seat high pressure oil rail by hand before tightening bolts. The oil rail holddown bolts are torqued to 10 ft-lbs (back ones that can not be torqued - do by feel).
One more video for showing the separation without removing the spool housing. This one did not need any repair, so no sanding. If you took apart your injector, the plunger and intensifier piston should move just as easy. The nozzle should be similar.
I cannot wait to try this. My truck has horrible stiction. To the point where I cycle my key 2-3 times on a cold start. (You can hear how stuck the spool valves are on the buzz tests). This beats 2k in new injectors.
Jugernaut, and twoicebergs...Are you guys also cleaning the intesifire piston when you do this job...? I noticed on 3 of mine the piston has scaring...or a buffed smooth spot like it is chaffing in the bore. Just curious if this can be polished out? I didnt try, but next weekend I will be pulling all 8 of mine and a buddys to polish the spool valves so figured then would be good to try it on the pistons.
I'm just cleaning the spool valve I haven't done anything to the piston because of the dlc coating! I cannot speak for Twoicebergs as he may chime in! But I'm mainly going after stiction or cold start issues. I would think if that piston looked like that then it would need a injector but let's see what Twoicebergs has to say.
The intensifier pistons could probably be lightly touched up. My concern would be to not over do it. Use a very fine lapping compound. Perhaps a household SS polishing paste would work fine. FWIW, none of mine had scuffing, but some plungers I had previously seen that were siezed showed scarring or extensive wear. Again, my plungers looked good as well, but one of the reman injectors has a variation in coating depth, but no scarring. It measured true, so my best guess it might have been off less than 0.0002 or less before it was matched to the bore. If they move freely as in my video in the injector mod thread, I wouldn't touch them, unless you can see varnish.
The only issue with doing this is that you CAN take too much off to the point that the actual valve falls out of the spool valve. And BTW, the little nut is a 4mm nut, which is torqued to 23.5in/lbs. The actual spool valve retaining screws are 49.5 in/lbs
Here is a bump for June... I may have to put my big boy pants on and try this... I saw a you tube of how to pull the injectors out and it does look pretty involved... I get nervous past oil/fuel filters and brakes on vehicles!!! LMAO
It just takes time. Take pictures if you need a reference for reassembly. Plan on laying on the engine while you fumble with your tools for the back bolts for the valve covers. It will probably take a good 8 hrs or more to remove and install them the first time plus the fixing time. If you have all the tools and work quickly, you could have them out in a few hours or less.
As long as everything moves freely there is no need. The spool is the problem child. The nozzles can also become clogged, but if the pattern is off, it might be better to just replace them. The cost to clean and test them is more than new nozzles from Poltron. The other parts are proprietary and matched to the injector. The plunger has a DLC coating, so there is nothing to clean. If it or the intensifier piston are showing wear, your injectors just became cores for an exchange.
I wish I would have seen this when I did my new heads!
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