24v Injectors Heat Discoloration

[Shainer]

Hey guys. I'm trying to diagnose a surge issue. Part throttle, and really bad at WOT especially if I have the Quad turned up. Also getting some extended crank times occasionally. Especially if the nose of the truck is even slightly uphill (replacing seals to stop internal fuel leak). At any rate here is a pic of my injectors cleaned up. Injectors #3 and #5 have quite a bit of heat discoloration. Is it possibly pump related since #3 follows #5 in the firing order? Should I tear them down and run everything through the ultrasonic cleaner?

 

[Shainer]

Or am I worrying about nothing? I also checked compression. All cylinders hit 480psi in 10 strokes. I did tear those two injectors down and it seemed like the pintle was not moving as smooth as I expected. Tore a couple of the others down and it fell right out. Tossed the suspected offender parts into the ultrasonic cleaner and reassembled. Once cleaned the pintle moved freely. So perhaps there was some debris in there causing them to hang a bit. Happy Independence day to everybody.

 

[01 dodge]

Id say they werent firing right most likely the pintles or some dirt in them looks like your on the right track

 

[Shainer]

I'm in the process of getting everything back together. Cleaning the fuel line post filter, replacing fuel filter and connector tubes. I'll post an update once I get it running again. Hopefully it smoothes out.

 

[weazel]

Interested to see what your results will be

 

[Shainer]

Taking me a bit. Retorquing the head as well. Should be running tonight.

 

[Shainer]

Not running tonight. Work as usual consumed more of my day than anticipated. Couple that with the torque wrench slipping off one of the back head bolts Sunday night when I was going for a 140 ft/lb pull and the handle landing in my lower rib cage makes for slow going. I thought for a split second I broke a rib because I heard a crack. Turns out my ego was the only thing that broke. I also realize I am no longer the spring chicken I was even 5 years ago. I did get the injectors and lines installed. I also lapped the injector lines on the connector tube side since I had a few injector lines that always seemed to require excessive torque to seal. One of which was #3 but I don't recall if #5 was an offender or not, but I'm pretty sure it was. Kind of in the theme of blue printing an engine. I believe all the high pressure lines should seal at roughly the same torque. Distortion of the injector has to affect performance. I need to get the valve train installed, and verify valve lash.

 

[Shainer]

Ok so here is my full retard moment. I got it running early this morning. I went on the advice of many threads stating that after re-torquing the head would not require valve adjustment. Yeah it ran, it ran like poo. Out came the feeler gauges. I could not slide the minimum .006" on several intakes. Didn't even bother checking any exhaust valves at that point. Figured valves were not seating properly. So there are several points to be made here.

#1 I originally torqued a factory head gasket with factory head bolts to 125ft/lbs.
#2 10K miles later re-torquing torquing the same factory bolts to 145 ft/lbs all the valves were tight, below minimum factory tolerance. Don't get lazy. You torque the head you check the valve lash.

So the retard moment? Bet you are thinking I'm gonna ***** about bent valves. Fortunately not. I pulled the fuse for the lift pump and the injection pump relay as I checked compression. So what is retarded about that? Well I purchased and used a remote starter button. As long as the key is off neither pump would get power. Going full retard now... I re-installed the injection pump relay... but not the lift pump. Truck started fine every time. In fact I bled the injectors without the lift pump. I was doing all my diagnosis under the hood because "hey I got this remote start button"! Well I finally decided to get back in the cab and inspect the instrumentation. Flipped over to the fuel pressure and zero. I'm like did I bump the connector or something? Checked that, all was good. Then I see the fuse on the battery and at that moment I realized how full retard I went. All it took was the addition of one new tool to throw my entire existing process in the ditch. I don't know how many times I've replaced injectors, adjusted the overhead, etc. Never once had a problem. Sometimes you have to admit you are your own worst enemy. Truck seems to be running like a top. Idle is smoother. I'll update this thread after I get some miles on it. I was getting 20mpg prior to this. It should be up around 22 (prior to head gasket leaking coolant due to overheating).