Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later

vulcancowboy · Jun 4, 2015

My '03 Chevy Duramax needs a set of injectors after 162,000 miles. Guess I may be lucky, I have seen many people who after that many miles are on their 3rd set. :thumbdown::thumbdown: A 3K expenditure I wasn't planning on!

HHR · Jun 5, 2015

vulcancowboy said:
My '03 Chevy Duramax needs a set of injectors after 162,000 miles. Guess I may be lucky, I have seen many people who after that many miles are on their 3rd set. :thumbdown::thumbdown: A 3K expenditure I wasn't planning on!

Not bad. I would add a supplemental lift pump to keep a solid supply of air-free fuel to the new injectors.

Turbys_1700 · Jun 5, 2015

That is not uncommon at that mileage. I've got a neighbor that hauls cars on an 08 6.7 Dodge Cummins with a roll back. Last week his muffler clogged. Service to clean the muffler is $350 with total replacement at $1800. DEF, egr's, converter, etc are all built in the muffler assembly. Keep your 03 Duramax.

Diamondpilot · Jun 5, 2015

vulcancowboy said:
My '03 Chevy Duramax needs a set of injectors after 162,000 miles. Guess I may be lucky, I have seen many people who after that many miles are on their 3rd set. :thumbdown::thumbdown: A 3K expenditure I wasn't planning on!

Yep, they are expensive.

Chris

vulcancowboy · Jun 5, 2015

The Duramax is my 2nd diesel, I also had a Dodge. As much as I like the sound of the diesel, given the added fuel cost (diesel here is $3.15 regular unleaded is $2.69) and I really don't need the pulling power, I don't see myself buying another diesel.

Turbys_1700 · Jun 5, 2015

vulcancowboy said:
The Duramax is my 2nd diesel, I also had a Dodge. As much as I like the sound of the diesel, given the added fuel cost (diesel here is $3.15 regular unleaded is $2.69) and I really don't need the pulling power, I don't see myself buying another diesel.

I agree. I sold my camper last June and sold my F350 dually with it. Owned it for 10 years and was a good one. Last run of the 7.3's. Since I was selling the camper I didn't really need that much truck anymore. The buyer wanted the truck to pull the camper so I sold it to him. I replaced it with a gasser. Suits my needs better now.

Gem99ultra · Jun 5, 2015

I had no idea that a set of injectors were that expensive. I've been complaining about the high maintenance cost of my old diesel '97 Chevy turbo powered 6.5L. Heck - the whole truck isn't worth $3K. I suppose I best shut-up about it, and drive it 'til it won't.

vulcancowboy · Jun 5, 2015

I was anticipating my injectors going, but the symptoms that I was looking for were: hard starting, smoking, loss of power, etc. None of that happened. What DID happen was suddenly, my oil pressure dropped to 1/2 of what it normally read. I was hoping it was the gauge malfunctioning. I made an appointment with the Chevy dealer to get it checked out and the day before I was to take it in....DISASTER! I drove the truck to work, the Low Oil Pressure warning came on momentarily as I pulled into the parking lot. When I came out after work, the truck had dumped A LOT of oil (and as it turns out diesel fuel) onto the parking lot.

Had her towed in and the next day got the bad news. Apparently, when the injector(s) failed, fuel started dumping into the crankcase, thinning out the oil, causing the pressure to drop. Still not sure how the oil/diesel got dumped onto the parking lot. Truck should be done on Monday. I'm thinking seriously about trading it on a 2014 1500 Silverado.

dodge man · Jun 5, 2015

Gem99ultra said:
I had no idea that a set of injectors were that expensive. I've been complaining about the high maintenance cost of my old diesel '97 Chevy turbo powered 6.5L. Heck - the whole truck isn't worth $3K. I suppose I best shut-up about it, and drive it 'til it won't.

The newer diesels are almost all what they call high pressure common rail. They run high pressure lines to the injectors, usually something near 30,000 psi or a little less and the injectors fire electronically. Sounds expensive doesn't it? It is. Take the Cummins engine in Dodge trucks, the old mechanically injected engines are pretty cheap to work on, which I assume is similar to your 6.5 diesel. The injectors also don't have as tight as tollerances so they aren't so sensitive to a little wear and when they do need replaced it cost a lot less.

The advantage of the common rail engines is less emissions and more power but also at higher maintainance costs.

Beltzington · Jun 5, 2015

vulcancowboy said:
Had her towed in and the next day got the bad news. Apparently, when the injector(s) failed, fuel started dumping into the crankcase, thinning out the oil, causing the pressure to drop. Still not sure how the oil/diesel got dumped onto the parking lot. Truck should be done on Monday. I'm thinking seriously about trading it on a 2014 1500 Silverado.

I am not a certified mechanic, but how would fuel get into the crankcase, much less the parking lot due to injector failure. You trust this dealership? Maybe a second opinion would have been warranted.

Good Luck!

Diamondpilot · Jun 5, 2015

Beltzington said:
I am not a certified mechanic, but how would fuel get into the crankcase, much less the parking lot due to injector failure. You trust this dealership? Maybe a second opinion would have been warranted. Good Luck!

The injectors are hydraulic. Use oil pressure on some to operate. Failing injectors lead to fuel in the oil or can just dump in so much fuel it floods the crank case venting it out.

Chris

2458n · Jun 5, 2015

The injectors now inject fuel a couple of times during the stroke so that requires the 30,000 pounds of pressure. WITH THE OLD 5.7 CHEVY GAS GETTING 250,000 = MILES PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF.

dodge man · Jun 6, 2015

Yes it can happen, they can dump in so much fuel it will vent out the crankcase. Hopefully there is no other damage, they can over fuel and burn pistons and cause other damage.

JJZ 109 · Jun 7, 2015

Turbys_1700 said:
I agree. I sold my camper last June and sold my F350 dually with it. Owned it for 10 years and was a good one. Last run of the 7.3's. Since I was selling the camper I didn't really need that much truck anymore. The buyer wanted the truck to pull the camper so I sold it to him. I replaced it with a gasser. Suits my needs better now.

Sold my 1997 F Super Duty 7.3 bucket truck last winter. Replaced with a 2001 F450 bucket truck with V10 gasser. The 7.3 ran great and had a DP Tuner chip, upgraded intake and down pipe but still seemed like I was starting out in high gear when trying to pull a trailer up a grade from a standstill. The V10 has no such issues. Step on pedal, truck pulls away like nothing is behind it. Mileage slightly lower with the gasser, but fuel is much cheaper as stated. Lower maintenance costs too.

schmism · Jun 10, 2015

vulcancowboy said:
My '03 Chevy Duramax needs a set of injectors after 162,000 miles. Guess I may be lucky, I have seen many people who after that many miles are on their 3rd set. :thumbdown::thumbdown: A 3K expenditure I wasn't planning on!

if you know people that are on there third set... and this is a known issue... remind me again why its an expenditure you were not planning on?

vulcancowboy · Jun 10, 2015

schmism said:
if you know people that are on there third set... and this is a known issue... remind me again why its an expenditure you were not planning on?

I don't personally know anyone, just saw some posts in a Chevy forum that I follow. I think, (hope) they are the exception. I was surprised because I didn't have any of the symptoms that people usually see, hard starting, smoking, loss of power. The only thing I saw was the low oil pressure. I had hoped that my truck had been blessed with a good set of injectors. No matter now, I traded it for a Silverado 1500 gasser last night.

BTW: here is the oil/diesel slick that greeted me last week, (it was from my truck, not the red Honda in the pic)

Capricious · Jun 10, 2015

Beltzington said:
how would fuel get into the crankcase, much less the parking lot due to injector failure. ...

I know nothing about these Duramx things, but if an injector or a line is leaking, and the injector is under the valve cover, then the fuel goes straight into
the crankcase.

Or, if the injector is "dribbling" and passing too much fuel, then it can get by the piston rings.

At work we run Detroits, Deeres, Cummins, EMD's, and the occasional Lugger (Alaska Diesel Electric) all of which are oil-sampled, and one of the checks on the sampling is fuel dilution of lube oil.

allen in texas · Jun 16, 2015

I will soon be having the 5th Yes the 5th set of injectors in my 03 Duramax. I am averaging about 50k per set. The first three were on Chevy. The last set and this set are on me. I am adding a lift pump and additional filtration to try and get the truck to last a bit longer. It is my work truck and I want to keep it but I can't keep throwing money at it. Yes, I have had the full crankcase and diesel running out everywhere.
Trying to decide and researching whether to buy Ram 2500 or another Chevy.

vulcancowboy · Jun 16, 2015

allen in texas said:
I will soon be having the 5th Yes the 5th set of injectors in my 03 Duramax. I am averaging about 50k per set. The first three were on Chevy. The last set and this set are on me. I am adding a lift pump and additional filtration to try and get the truck to last a bit longer. It is my work truck and I want to keep it but I can't keep throwing money at it. Yes, I have had the full crankcase and diesel running out everywhere.
Trying to decide and researching whether to buy Ram 2500 or another Chevy.

To me, the injector problems negate most of the advantages that a diesel brings to the table. I have some buddies with the Ram diesels, they are not happy with the fuel mileage. Good luck!

Scott65 · Jul 5, 2015

Wow that sucks. If you didn't have hazing at the tail pipe, you might have only had one injector fail. That is almost always a symptom of multiple injectors failing. GM has specs for fuel rates that they should have checked before condemning it. But it seems you already know you were on borrowed time either way. Anything before the 04.5 lly engine was iffy.

Correct that the injector(s) fail under the valve covers and dump straight into the crank case, and blow holes in pistons-then the crankcase directly below. 7.3 and 6.0 powerstrokes or other applications for international were the engines with hydraulic injectors driven with engine oil