Resealing injectors on Ford IDI. Any gotchas to be aware of?

[ripcord]

I'm resealing the injectors on my brother's truck with the 7.3 IDI an AC Delco he bought. It comes with crush washers, o-rings, hose, constant tension clamps, and plastic banjo fittings.

Not having done this before, is there anything to watch out for or are there any non obvious ways to mess the job up? I'm lubing the o-rings with ATF before rolling them on and using a dab of grease to hold the crush washer on. I can't find my extra deep 1 inch socket so plan on "torquing" the injectors with an open end wrench.

 

[CDX825]

Just make sure the O rings are good and lubed before you put the plastic caps on. Other than that not much to it.

 

[ripcord]

Well, that took twice as long as I thought it would. The good news is it started easier after I finished than it ever has. I cranked it over for about 5 seconds with the injector lines loose to purge the air, tighten them down, held the glow plug button for about 3 or 4 seconds and bam!, off she went.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Keep an eye out for the next few weeks. In some cases I have had the copper crush washer leak if the seat was not cleaned. You will get a bubbling around the injectors. Not common on these as much as on the 5.9L cummins. I was unable to get mine to seal without buying a special tool to clean up the seat down in the head.

Glad to hear you got it done.

 

[ripcord]

Keep an eye out for the next few weeks. In some cases I have had the copper crush washer leak if the seat was not cleaned. You will get a bubbling around the injectors. Not common on these as much as on the 5.9L cummins. I was unable to get mine to seal without buying a special tool to clean up the seat down in the head.

Glad to hear you got it done.

Dang. That's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear before I did the job, lol. Fingers crossed.

 

[Fordiesel69]

I was confusing you. What I meant is that on the cummins it is more common, and I experianced it myself and had to re-do the job. The IDI's I have only read about it but did NOT have it happen personally.

On the IDI's the injector body twists, so it galls and flattens the crush washer. This is a great thing as it basically grinds itself into sealing. The cummins the injector body does not twist, it aligns with a little ball and a large nut compresses it into the bore. So the crush washer only flattens.

 

[ripcord]

Thanks! I kept it an extra day to test drive it around and didn't see any leaks. my brother is happy as it starts easy and doesn't smoke hardly at all like it used to for the first half minute after startup.

It seems to run great for now. I think its had rebuilt or replaced injectors at one point as they are dated several years newer than the truck.