R&D Injector Durability Test Results

Thewespaul

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First off, I paid for these injectors myself and I am not affiliated with R&D IDI in any way, so I will try and just show the data in an unbiased way as possible, however, things like what makes a good spray pattern and poor are of my own opinion and experiences. Others may have different criteria for these things and that is absolutely fine, I am just reporting my own findings to help people who may be interested in these injectors.

Well, I bought these injectors when they first came out, and I was hearing that these injectors were coming with completely new nozzles, which have not been produced in years so I bought a set to see how they did. I paid $225 for the set, and have about 75k miles on them, this is the third engine they have been in and recently I have gotten an occasional fuel knock from an injector or two hanging open and a rough idle.

This evening I pulled the injectors out and went through each one on the pop tester, my tester is just recently rebuilt and recalibrated. Each injector looked normal when I pulled them out, but each nozzle was markless, here are the results as I pulled them out.

  1. 1100 psi. Very poor spray pattern and sticking open
  2. 1600 psi. Good spray pattern
  3. 1300 psi. Good spray pattern
  4. 1500 psi. Good spray pattern
  5. 1500 psi. Good spray pattern
  6. 900 psi. Poor spray pattern (came back up to pressure spec after reshimming but spray pattern didnt improve much)
  7. 1200 psi. Good spray pattern
  8. 1300 psi. Good spray pattern
All injectors came back up to pressure spec and back to a like new spray pattern with a good amount of work except #6. Ill wait to weigh in my thoughts until after yall have had a chance to do so first.
 

Jason1377

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I know nothing of a diesel engine, but thank you first off for sharing as letting others learn.

May i incline what the basic pressure is supposed to be since the numbers are confusing n well I'm a noob
 

Thewespaul

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These injectors were set at 1800 psi, but I like mine set a bit differently. Engine runs much smoother, egts are 100* lower and picked up some power.
 

tbrumm

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Wes, do you know if R & D makes the new nozzles in house, or where does Justin get them from? I am not looking to buy an nozzles (I don't even have a pop tester) - just curious. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your results too!
 

Thewespaul

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From what I can gather, and I have yet to find any reason to think otherwise, the nozzles are made overseas, most likely China considering what he sells these at. Justin wouldn’t give me a straight answer when I asked but I’m pretty sure that’s what they are, but I could be wrong. Maybe @typ4 knows?

As far as what I think of these injectors, it may just be me but they seem very varied in their wear when compared to standard stanadyne nozzles. With this amount of miles with running only pump diesel I had expected to see a bit more consistency in the pressures and spray patterns. #1 and 6 were practically spraying at a 90* angle, but oddly the ones that were good looked great.

Overall, I think these nozzles just don’t have the manufacturing consistency or tolerance that the Italian stanadynes had, but for the price it’s tough to beat. I think these are a great option for someone who owns a pop tester and checks the spray pattern every 30-50k and can reset them back to spec. These injectors seem to need some maintenance to keep in spec. Keep in mind I bought these when they had first come out, so possibly tooling has improved since then, but I can only test what I have.
 

towcat

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do bear in mind these motors are very tolerant on bad injector pop pressures and spray patterns. that is why they will literally burn anything that you feed it within reason. the other thing you want to be mindful of, is 100k is the average lifespan of an injector. testing at 75k tells me the injectors are behaving as they should for the amount of mileage on them. want something that will really rock your world? try doing this to a set of Dieselcare injectors with the same miles on them.
 

Thewespaul

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Very true. Although they looked poor on the tester, the truck ran fine and wouldn’t have left me stranded with just an occasional fuel knock.
 

bbjordan

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My first thought was YIKES!, but as towcat said, that is pretty much at the end of the service life...but still...o_O

I think the Chinese metallurgy is not as good as the European's or Japanese's...yet. I remember years ago when Japanese = crapanese. Things have changed. Japanese stuff is top quality now.

BTW, Thewespaul what do you set your injectors at?
 

Thewespaul

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I’d say 100k-150k on the injectors depending on the filtration of the fuel, so these are about 75-50% through their life cycle, but I will be replacing them before the end of the year with a set of my own injectors. I have a cat dual filter housing with a pair of 2 12” filters rated for 2-5 micron, so the fuel is extremely clean, and i personally would have expected a brand new nozzle to last longer before hanging open, since the reman 20 year old nozzles seem to last at least a 100k with a similar filtration system, but maybe I just got some outliers since it was such an early batch, because many people are running these without issues.

Personally, I use a lot of different pressure specs for different applications. On an na engine, I like 2200 like the g code 5071 IDIs were set. On a turbo idi running less than 15 psi I like 1600, it works the pump a bit less and will flow a bit more fuel. On a setup where you are trying to get as much fuel as you can out of a stock pump, I bring the pressures down to where I start seeing the spray pattern deteriorate, then bring the pressure 150-200 psi above that so there is a good amount of room for wear but you get the maximum amount of flow out of the injector without compromising the spray pattern or sealing ability.
 

Thewespaul

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Chinese quality control is <b>you!</b>

This is so true. I’m not afraid of Chinese manufacturing especially since there are so many obstructions to manufacturing here in the states. It’s the quality control that makes the difference, and it’s the consumer that dictates whether a good or bad product reaches the market.
 

typ4

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New stanadynes are not very pretty on a pop tester and after some miles are awful. Delphis if you can get them, have the softest worst nozzle out there.
 

nelstomlinson

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Thewespaul, my point was that the Chinese manufacturers will ship whatever crap falls off the end of the assembly line, and it's up to you to sort out the ones that might work from the ones that won't. The only way to prevent that is for the importer to do 100% inspection, and refuse to accept any shipments that don't meet spec. Most importers don't even try.

You are the quality control.
 

Thewespaul

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New stanadynes are not very pretty on a pop tester and after some miles are awful. Delphis if you can get them, have the softest worst nozzle out there.
Man not the stanadynes I’ve gotten, they look great but they aren’t cheap. Didn’t know you could get a Delphi anymore!
 
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