New injectors - what a difference

You should find that the new injectors settle down and beome even better afetr a few thousand km. You'll also probably notice a bit of an improvement in fuel economy.

I'd suggest not leaving your injectors quite so long next time - around

100,000km seems to be their lifespan before the nozzles are worn enough to affect the spray pattern.

...and EMB spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

I've always reckoned that injectors are one of those fix-it-if-it-breaks type of item. And consequently have never felt the need to do so. My

300Tdi has done 92,000 miles. Do you reckon changing them would be a good idea?

Get them tested. Its cheaper than swapping them on spec.

Steve

Not unless they produce markedly more black smoke than they once did, or the power is down and fuel consumption up, or it is rough running. I reckon around 150,000 miles is reasonable before changing with the usual dollop of luck combined with reasonable filter maintenance. In fact my hard used 110 naturally aspirated has done over 8000 hours on one set. 10,000 hours is quite normal on commercial vehicles. At 20mph average that is 200,000 miles

Huw

As others have suggested - get them tested. When I had my workshop I test about 100 sets a year, and the ones that had been in service for much over about 80,000km were generally showing a less than optimal spray pattern. That said, on vehicles that were mostly doing high-speed motorway running I saw some sets that were lasting about twice that.

There seems to be a large difference in lifespan between injectors from small high-speed diesels and those larger, lower revving engines (for starters the large engine ones are firing less than half as often in any given time period). I've got a set of injectors from a Cat truck engine on the bench at the moment and they are still performing well after

300,000km, but they'll be rebuilt anyway as the engine is having a freshen (after 1,000,000km).

On or around Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:36:00 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

might be worth a look on the TDi here - currently that's at about 110,000 miles.

That or bung a few bottles of injector cleaner through it :-)

It's not so much dirt as the actual nozzle wearing that causes the loss of spray pattern - injector cleaner won't help a set of injectors that are past their best mechanically.

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:47:05 +0000, EMB wrote (in article ):

My 2.5TD has recently started missing on one cylinder for about the first 10 sec after it is started from cold. It's done a little under 160k miles, with (so far as I can tell) no major work on the engine. Is it worth changing the injectors on this, do you think?

What sort of price is a new set(in the UK), and is it just a case of taking the old ones off and putting the new ones on?

Nick.

Somewhere authorative (not that I can remember where) I have read that 200/300Tdi injectors should ideally be replaced at 80,000 miles, though whether that's srtictly necessary is open to debate. Getting them checked at that sort of mileage is obvioulsy a good idea, but watch out for overauling/reconditioning - these injectors are two stage efforts, and there are very few places that can do both stages - a local diesel specialst reckons there are only 2 in England, one of which is theirs (and has never been used for LR injectors as the operator has never had the training!).

Richard

Yes! With new washers....

ERR1266 Injector - 2¼D/2.5D/TD from GA432368 - NEW £26.77 inc VAT

564332 Injector - New - 2.5TD - to GA432367 £17.93 inc VAT

Richard

I'd be looking for a dead glow plug as my first port of call. At that mileage and not knowing it's history I'd certainly be pulling the injectors out and getting them checked - removal is as simple as it appears.

For a UK price I have no idea, but based on prices here I'd be pretty upset if rebuilt injectors cost more than about 30 quid a pop. And that said our very own Mr Beamends has them listed at 26.77 each including the dreaded VAT.

My friend has a Shogun 2.5 with 160,000 miles on it now on its original injectors with no problem. It has always smoked a bit when accelerating hard but the pump was opened out a bit when reasonably new because it towed so much. Like I said my LR has done over 8000 hours out of over 10,000 on one set. The only reason they were changed was because I got a bee in my bonnet that the engine was smoking worse than usual. In fact it was no better with a new set and in fact is not much worse to this day. The actual mileage is only 125000 miles even though it has done over 10,000 hours with a lot of towing. In fact it has just gone to market towing a triple axle box with three fat cattle and six calves in the back.

Another example is my Land Cruiser 4.2 with the FTE engine. Just on 100,000 of mainly highway miles with less towing on this one but I don't consider the injectors to be halfway to needing a service yet. It certainly pulls as new and has no more visible smoke. Mind you, we have had ultra low sulphur fuel here for a few years which burns much cleaner than the yuckee stuff they have in Australia IIANM. The LR has spent most of its life on the dirty stuff though.

Huw

You might think so but I have a Deere 2140 with a Saran 3.9 engine which sometimes has a phase where white smoke [unburnt fuel] is emitted when started of a morning. The cure is to pour a litre or two of ATF into the 22 gallon tank. Over the course of two tankfulls of fuel the white smoke at start just goes away, not to return usually for some 500 hours or one year. Engine otherwise goes and smokes like new on original injectors at 9500 hours.

My LR naturally aspirated indirect injection engine has a bottle of Forte in the tank and in a new filter at every yearly smoke test and it gets it through although these engines have always been borderline or worse for smoke emission. The effect does not last as long as with the Deere and I would use ATF if it were not for the red colour that would 'pollute' the tank.

Huw

On or around Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:11:51 +0000 (UTC), beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

depends on the relative prices. If they're reasonable money new, I'd be inclined just to change 'em. ISTR that the main problem with any injectors is nozzles, though. I assume the springs can get weak inside and/or any valves get iffy and not seal properly. I'd always assumed that servicing involved replace the internals if worn, and put a new nozzle on/in...

Although no doubt some places just clean it up and make it look new...

A branch of Lucas Service [as was in Aberystwyth] supplied me with a set of exchange injectors once which looked nice and shiny in bags with Lucas Genuine Exchange stickers attached. On examination of the ports on two of them they were full of red rust, looking as if they had sat at the bottom of a water barrell for a couple of years. The insides were crusty with rust. Never dealt with them again for exchange or serviced parts. I've also had various service exchange injectors and pumps over the years that were not right in one way or another. Its a bit of a lottery and even the best of them sometimes gets it wrong. In general, if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it. The secret is in knowing when something is broken.

Huw

That thought occurred to me before I read your post - we've been on really dirty diesel (like 1500ppm sulphur) here until about 12 months ago, and the move to ultra low sulphur (

New nozzles, and suitable shimming of the internals to get the burst pressure to spec is generally how it's done.

Locally at least, there a few rogue places that just regrind the nozzles and set the burst pressure up again - the results are can initially be ok, but the lifespan is somewhat short.