Am I going to be sorry I got a set of injectors for $150 from Ebay?

[Jack]

Brand new diesel owner here. Got a new (to me) 93 F Superduty a few weeks ago and have put about 1000 miles on it with dying batteries and
a bunch of leaking injector caps. It stopped starting so I found this forum, read a bit and bought a return line kit. Not sure why I
also ordered a set of injectors from Ebay except it looks really easy to install them and they seemed cheap.....
I'm going to throw two new batteries in it and do the return line kit in the morning and hope it starts. Anything I should know about the cheap Ebay injectors before I go through what will probably be a not as easy as I anticipated task?

 

[typ4]

Where did they come from, Possibly the state you live in? at that price I can almost tell you, and if the return kit came from the same place it will leak in short order ,the hose is very poor.

 

[Jack]

The injectors are coming from dieselcare in Memphis. Return kit is from accuratediesel in Michigan. I was thinking of just changing out the o-rings on the leaking injectors and leaving the new caps and lines for another day when (if) I try and do the injectors. Going to see how it goes when I have the batteries, fuel filter and oil change done and it cranks faster than 30 or so rpms.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum. Please read the Hall of Shame forum and then make up your mind on the used injecters you bought. Parts to bebuild them will cost more than what you paid for a set of 8 injecters. Don't think the injecters were cleaned nor rebuilt either. As for the return line kit. Its just as posted. We mostly agree here that the best return line kit is from typ4 aka Russ in Oregon or agnem aka Mel who owns Conestoga Diesel in Pa. They have been very long time members selling to many of us. They sell the best injecters, injection pump and turbos. Also add in injecter return line kits. Theres don't leak because they supply Viton o-rings.

 

[franklin2]

You can buy a "kit", I don't know why people seem to love the word "kit". I guess it keeps the research and running around town to a minimum.

You can buy the hose from Napa. It says "fuel" on it, and they have it on a roll. None of the other chain parts stores seem to have the correct size "fuel" hose. On my 89 it was 3/16" hose. I have heard that possibly some of the earlier trucks had 1/4"?

The o-rings are a standard o-ring #111 7/16 ID x 5/8 OD. Buna-N is easily found locally, and is what was originally on there and lasted for all those years. If you are going to run different fuels, then you can buy the viton from someone on here or order them online. I got my o-rings from tractor-supply, they were in the hydraulic section in a little plastic bag.

You can re-use the caps. They are a non-wear item and as long as they are in good shape, they will work fine again.

 

[Jack]

Thanks for the heads up guys. I feel pretty dumb as I have a 50 pack of #111 o-rings sitting in the garage along with a roll of 3/16" fuel line. I suppose the kit might pay for itself if I break any of those caps while re o-ringing them today. As for the injectors....I suppose the answer to my question is 'yes, you will be sorry.'

 

[junk]

Where they new or rebuilt injectors? You can buy new injectors pretty cheap. What brand are they?

One trick is to coat the o-rings in vaseline when you install them. Makes install easy and helps get the caps back on.

Make sure on the kits you use the same style of fittings. So if they are small hose and fittings use that. If they're big use that. You dont want to mix-match sizes.

 

[icanfixall]

Any idi engine can run the 1/4 or the 3/16 return line hose. It just depends on what the other fitting on the return line are. Each plastic cap needs to be cleaned off of the small flashing found where the o-rings first touch them. Thats at the bottom edge. I use an exacto knife to scrape it clean all the way around. We are supposed to have a bleeder of the 7.3 fuel filter headers but the engines run fine without that fitting and line. But it takes a long time to rid the fuel filter of trapped air. It has to go thru the injection pump. Some felt the bleeder line on the filter heads was a return from the injecters back to the filter. Its not. That line goes back to the fuel tanks. Once the fuel has passed thru the injecters and the filter along with the injection pump its sent back to the fuel tanks. More than 80% of the fuel brought up from the tanks is sent back to the fuel tanks. The return from the injecters is used to cool them as is the return from the injection pump. This is a reason to not run the engine out of fuel.

 

[typ4]

The caps may be a non wear item but they do get brittle and the hose nipples can and will break off very easily. the original hose is actually 5 or 7 mm, depending on cap type, yes, fuel hose can be used BUT if you get cheap hose from somewhere the diesel will ruin it in short order, some turns to mush ,some gets hard. Doesnt seem to be any consistency to it either.

And FWIW Im about ready to order another 4000 vitons so if anyone wants in like last time pm me.

 

[icanfixall]

Most of the above posting is current real time issues we have found with the partical return line frankstien fixs. I look at it this way. Someone like Russ aka typ4 has spent plenty of time and money testing so we don't have to. Hes done that for years just like several long timers on the forum. Its a simple job but why risk the probability od doing it twice because you dodn't follow thru. Done once its no longer rocket scinece but its more redo work that could have been avoided easily by doing the job the right way the first time. I'm not beating up on anyone that has a differance of oppinion with me either. I have read the horrible issues with a ebay selly from tenn. I will never buy from nor recommend them to any. Thats sad too. I will recommend typ4 and Mel at Conestoga Diesel. In all my years here and over 16,8000 posts I have never seen either of these guys rip off or cheat anyone. But I sure do recall a turbo issue with Mel being delievered to the wrong place and both partys lieing about it. Thats a fraud over the wires and mail and shipping companys. Its interesting how those two suddenly figured out they could not get away with that. Jail has the fact behind it...

 

[Jack]

Well today I found that two of the high pressure lines are shot and actually spun the injectors when trying to remove them.... I suppose at least the injectors aren't frozen into the head.

After throwing two new batteries in I started cracking lines to see where fuel was and wasn't along with adding some clear line in the return path. Great fuel flow with no air bubbles coming out the filter and fuel is getting to the IP. (and dribbling out of the two injector caps I couldn't o-ring). Fuel doesn't seem to be making it past the IP so I checked the shut off solenoid and it clicks just as it is suppose to when pulling the terminal off and on. I have no smoke at the tailpipe and no amount of cranking would get me any fuel out of the hard lines on top of the injectors despite the filter being air free, pumping good and the return lines being full.

I'm going to see if any of the local boneyards have an IP with the lines attached.

From reading all around I haven't seen anyone have an IP just go bad overnight and I don't want to try and change that thing if I really don't have to. Is there any other simple thing I have overlooked?

 

[Jack]

Well after cutting the fuel filter off, chiseling out the rust ball mold algae thing growing in there and replacing it with a once piece, dropping the tank to remove the water and algae, throwing in my $150 set of Ebay injectors along with Ebay caps, viton o-rings and a pair of batteries.....my good old truck is running like a serious champ. Oh yeah, right after the guys at Everglades Diesel rebuilt my IP. Wish I had the time to go with a Baby Moose but I had to get the thing back in service after screwing with it far too long. So in the end about the only thing I'm not sorry about is the stupid Ebay injectors I probably could have waited on...haha. Sure is nice hitting the key and having the thing crank up though. Also goes scary fast now too. I guess I have about a month to get a glow plug button installed before it gets coldish enough to ruin my new found fun with the key.. Thanks to this awesome forum for all the info I dug out to get this thing going!

 

[icanfixall]

gLAD YOU HAVE THE ISSUES REPAIRED NOW AND ITS STARTING AND RUNNING FINE. hOPEFULLY THIS FORUM CAN BE MORE HELP TO YOU IN THE FUTURE. wE ARE ALWAYS OPEN HERE EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY. Sorry but the wifey was just on my computer anf left the caps on again. I'm really not yelling. I just type by looking at the keys and not the field on the screen. Sucks being a bad typest. And the wifey doesn't obey my commands to return things as she found them. Gotta change that somehow..

 

[rjglenn]

The injectors are coming from dieselcare in Memphis. Return kit is from accuratediesel in Michigan. I was thinking of just changing out the o-rings on the leaking injectors and leaving the new caps and lines for another day when (if) I try and do the injectors. Going to see how it goes when I have the batteries, fuel filter and oil change done and it cranks faster than 30 or so rpms.

I have some Dieselcare injectors. They lasted about 20k or so. Next I bought some "cheap" ones off of eBay. I'm currently using them although one of them occasionally knocks and sputters with about 2k on them - not sure which one and I don't believe it's the same one every time. I have another set coming from Typ4 hopefully this week. For what I spent so far, I would have been money ahead (and time, trouble, aggravation, etc.) if I would have bought from here the first time. Funny thing is, the guy is actually competitive with eBay, go figure.

 

[icanfixall]

When you say... "The guy is competitive with ebay" who are you referancing. Russ aka typ4.. Well sure is. Figure it this way. You pay lets say 125.00 for the el cheepos from a crappy seller on ebay from Tenn. You find out is a few thousand miles you got screwed and not kissed. Then you buy what this forum knows is a great deal from very trustwhorthy members. Now your out doing the job twice and out the 125.00 bucks. Money thrown away in many peoples feelings. But some come here not knowing. Thats excuable. Some buy the el cheepo stuff because funds are tight. We all accept that. But to be a member here and still know the issues but buy that horrible stuff... Well heres your sign.. I post for the help I believe I can give to many. I feel its my duty because so many helped me when I needed it. Now its time to give back so others can learn and pass it down.