What can be done to ensure injector longevity?

[Johnstra]

I owned an 03 CTD back in 03/04. I drove it for 18 months, put 28k miles on it and had one injector fail that got replaced under warranty. Since then I've been around the horn with several different trucks. Now I'm back driving an 03 HO again - sure is nice to be back.



Anyway, I'm reading threads about injector and lift pump failures. The truck I just bought has 49k miles on it so I still have a good bit of engine warranty. Still, I'd like to do what I can to protect the injectors and I'd like to know if there's any specific things people are doing that seem to make injectors last longer - additional filtration, fuel additives, what? I used Stanadyne with my first 03 and I still lost an injector, so that alone doesn't seem to be a magic bullet. What about biodiesel? Does its added lubricity help?



Thanks,

-john

 

[rbattelle]

Anything that adds lubricity and improves filtration will help, but there's no guarantee that it will improve injector life (in fact, it would be impossible to prove that anything improved injector life, so we can only think about things that are "likely" to help).

Biodiesel is a good choice, as is Stanadyne. I happen to run both (B10). Stanadyne also makes a lubricity formula, which I've considered running (but don't).

Ryan

 

[Johnstra]

Is there a poll or thread that shows a rough percentage of how many 3rd gen owners have experienced injector failure?

-john

 

[martion007]

Injectors life

I run my 03 to 575,000 miles then replaced all 6 injectors, 2 were still good 2 were fair, 2 were bad. One time I had an injector with dirt in it. I filled the fuel filter canister 1/2 full with lucus injector cleaner cleaned it right out.

 

[sag2]

Buy clean fuel, clean filter housing at every filter change, change often using Mopar or Fleetguard filters. That will be your best insurance without spending money on aftermarket filter equipment.

 

[dan shss]

I run my 03 to 575,000 miles then replaced all 6 injectors, 2 were still good 2 were fair, 2 were bad. One time I had an injector with dirt in it. I filled the fuel filter canister 1/2 full with lucus injector cleaner cleaned it right out.

Is that a typing error our did you say 575K on your injectors?

 

[rbattelle]

Is there a poll or thread that shows a rough percentage of how many 3rd gen owners have experienced injector failure?

-john

This one's been going awhile.



Ryan

 

[CDonaldson]

Excellent topic! I think we all would want to do everything possible to get the most out of a set of injectors as possible. I cange the fuel filter every other oil change, but I do my oil changes on 5K intervals because I am using the Valvoline Premium Blue as recommended by Dodge. I don't like the 7500 mile intervals they recommend with the oil, just my preference. So I am changing the fuel filter on 10K intervals, using the 7 micron filter. I also have the Glacier 2-micron filter in line between the stock filter and the CP3. That seemed to me to be the better option as I cannot determine whose fuel tanks will have garbage in them that might cause a problem. The ULSD has been out long enough to have cleaned up tanks and lines, etc in filling stations, but the chance of an out of the way station having garbage in their tanks still exists. I have no injector problems and want to do everything I can to keep it that way. I am also running a lubricity additive. Without it I get too much clatter, it quiets down significantly with the additives. I also get better fuel mileage with the additives.



CD

 

[Money Maker]

CD,

What additives are you running?



BTW I have seen oil analysis tests from my friends truck that had 16,000 miles on that blue stuff with one fleet guard filter and it was still good to go. I run amsoil out to 50k intervals with no problem, 254K on the odo. The oil companies' love selling oil, you should have some samples tested, what ever combination of oil/filter/mileage you like. Just a suggestion.

 

[Johnstra]

Thanks for the link, Ryan. That's exactly what I was looking for. Wow! Over 17% of the participants had at least on injector failure.



CD,

I'm looking to install a supplemental fuel filter ASAP. I like the look of GDP's inline 2-micron filter. Seems like a very good setup for a stock engine.



As for additives, I'm running B20 and I use Lube Control's FP-60.



-john

 

[CDonaldson]

I've been running a 50/50 mis of PS and MMO, about 16 ozs to a tankful or 1/2 oz to 1 gal pumped. Those 2 are the easiest to get in my area AND when on the NM roads, would probably be easy to get everywhere. I won a case of Lucas additive at a truck pull event, so I may try it back and forth with the other mix. By the way, I don't use my truck for pulling, it was a door prize ticket.



I have been doing oil samples and was not happy with the soot levels, so that was my impetus for the AMSOIL BMK-11 oil bypass, the 2-micron fuel filter was a no brainer since cavitation from the 3-5 micron particles found in the fuel was determined to be the culpret for failures. Plus, I would rather change a filter than deal with injector problems caused by inadequate filtration or whole fuel system problems due to dirty tanks. When the change over to ULSD took place, so many were having problems, I just wanted to try to curb the possible problem, the benefit over the long-term didn't even make the picture regarding injectors, it was the in-the-moment frights.



CD

 

[Money Maker]

My truck has a small amount of smoke at idle when either not using additives or on Lucas. When using Amsoil conditioner or the stuff I'm on right now (can't recall the name at the moment but it is easy to find) no smoke.