Do I need new injectors (photos)? OM603 300SDL
 

See attached photos, they pretty much all look like this.

Cars runs ok. Idle is just a little rough, no smoke, decent power (14 sec to 60 mph). Cylinder compressions are all within 10% of each other. Injectors all seem to be 'nailing' quite a bit as the engine is loud at idle compared to another sdl. Stethoscope sounds as though its the injectors - it sounds like pennies hitting a steel plate hard.

Also am cleaning the pre-filter every 10 miles because of junk in the tank. Using Star-Tron to get rid of the fungus.

I cranked the car with the injectors out and attached to the lines and I didn't see any streams or 'peeing'. I think they were spraying ok but it was a little hard to tell because they were pointed down toward the cylinder - there was an instant cloud of diesel as the spray hit.

I know this isn't great data, but I'm just trying to see if it's worth the money to either (a) have them properly tested or (b) just cut to the chase and buy/install new nozzles or entire injectors. I plan to keep this car a long time.

If you plan to keep the car a long time then i would install new nozzles and have them all balanced. At 180K the car is probably due for new nozzles. Sean Watts does great injector work at a great price, i have had very good luck with is work. Contact him here on the forums.

his screen name is C Sean Watts and he is skilled with the monark installation!

WARNING
 

Something I want to add here about hooking up your injectors this way to see the spray pattern. probably won`t hurt the car or injectors, but will make a mess and you will be breating some Diesel mist. However.....

Warning:
If for some reason if you were to accidently place a finger or other body part in the injected Diesel stream from the Injector. it WLL penetrate your skin, and will cause you to just maybe have to have said body part Amputated. there seems to be no way to medically clean this from your body part.
As I remember the injected stream is 1900 to 2000psi or so.


Back in the early 60`s when I was going through Navy Boot Camp, and we did get a LOT of shots. the company would line up and walk through with a Coreman on each side giving us shots in ea arm. they used a pressure gun the vaccine bottle was attached to. then the gun was placed up our arm and when the Coreman pulled the triggger, the vaccine was injected w/o a needle. If you were to flinch or move, the spray stream would slice your skin.

Charlie

Good warning.

I put a rag over the injectors that I wasn't observing so as to minimize mist. Wore goggles but should have worn a mask nonetheless.

So does everyone agree that I need new injectors? I don't want to spend money if it is unnecessary.

You can take them to a good diesel shop and have them tested/balanced for around $25-$30/each.

you can`t really tell by looking at the sooty ends. here is a good link to show the spray pattern.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/296747-fuel-injector-spray-patterns-good-bad.html

Charlie

What's your mpg? Cost of testing is same as putting in new nozzles. Your injectors are probably ok. If you don't have 150.00 or so now you can wait. My car runs and idles a little nicer with new nozzles from CSEAN. Its an 87 300TD with 603. It still smokes a little at startup though. 135000 on the clock on mine.

Cost of testing should be more like $60... although if you decide to get new nozzles anyways you end up paying another $60 to test the new ones.

I paid less, I guess shops vary.

Part of the Pop/Opening Pressure check is to find out what Pressure your specific Injector opens at and then bring the pressure up to about 200psi below the pressure it opened at and see if it drips.
This is the test where people get their fingers Injected. You want to reach up and wipe the Injector Nozzle off with a Rag to dry it off instead of blowing it off with compressed Air.

That checks the seating area to see how well it is sealing.

You are allowed x amout of drips over a certain time period (I do not know the spec).

Another part of the test is to manipulate the handle and slowly build up the prssure until the Injector Pops and observe the spray. If it pees or hoses out it is no good. You would like the Injector to reach pressure, suddenly open with a good spray pattern and close suddenly.

I don't think hooking an Injector to the Fuel Injection Line and cranking the Engine will tell you a lot. Certainly you cannot duplicate a Pop Tester.

biopete - Not sure yet what my mpg is, haven't driven it much since I bought it. Can't be bad as I've drive 180 miles and the gauge is showing 2/3 - 3/4.

I'm really just trying to get rid of the racket coming from the engine compartment (see first post). And if it idled a little smoother that would be nice too.

They want $25 per injector to test and balance around here. If you get new nozzles, its still same $25.00 to install and test and balance each one. Nozzle i think is like 12.00 or something.

I sent mine from the 603 to a Bosch-certified shop in Greensboro and my instructions were "test them, adjust if needed, make 'em work". I asked, before I sent them, what this would cost, and the reply back in an email earlier this year was "Between $40 to $80 depending on what they need." $40 to check them and adjust, $85-90 or so if it needed a new nozzle was the final outcome I'm pretty sure. I think what I got back (not 100% sure) was six injectors, pressure adjusted, but no new nozzles. The price corresponded to that in any case.

Didn't notice one tiny speck of difference in how the engine ran. This was after something like 250,000 miles; if they'd been replaced before, we didn't know about it.

If anything the car actually smokes more now at idle than before. Injector repairs coincided with our head replacement so it's a little confounding as to what had which effect.

bustedbenz - what symptoms did your car have that caused you to have your injectors worked on?

Does anyone have experience with telling the difference between injector nailing and other noises such as sticky lifters?