A man at a fuel stop told me he had two dodge trucks that had had injector problems and that my engine sounded like we had a failed injector. Truck is 06 Ram Dually with 65,000 miles. Life of heavy pulling but power seems good, no mods and no smoke. My hearing is impaired so I took it in.
1. A local Cummin's mchanic listened to the engine and said I had a cracked injector tip that had taken out a piston and/or cylinder wall and estimated $1500 to identify the problem and $4500 to $9000 to repair the engine.
2. A second diesel mechanic listened and said I had one or more injectors going out and estimated 3 hrs plus $425 ea for new Bosch injectors.
3. The local Dodge service department listened, supposedly tested, and found all injectors working OK. Said the engine sounded normal for that age of diesel.

What are the first symptoms of a cracked injector tip? Can you determine a cracked injector tip before the piston starts knocking by listening to the engine run? At 65,000 miles if one injector has a cracked tip is just replacing the failed injector o.k. or is there a good reason to replace all the injectors or to have all the nozzles replaced?

Thanks! Don

 

Symptoms are typically running rough, feeling/sounding like it is having a misfire. (similar to a gas engine with a dead injector or bad spark plug/wire)

other symptoms can include black or greyish white smoke from the tailpipe, the smell of diesel in the engine oil and if enough is in the oil it will be visibly contaminated.

potential loss of power, etc.

You can have a dodge dealer do what's called an "injector kill test" to determine if there is a bad injector, and which one(s) is/are bad.

at the cost of new injectors for a common rail, I would just replace the bad ones if you even have a bad one...

If they say it is making an abnormal sound, but you are unable to hear it because you are deaf/hard at hearing, you can always take a video of it with sound and post it up on either youtube or photobucket and post a link here for us and we can have a listen for you and give our opinion on if it sounds abnormal or not...

Up to you, but I definitely wouldn't trust that first guy who said you need to pay 1500 just for him to diagnose it...

 

Thanks for the reply! My wife says she thinks the engine sounds just like it always has. Oil level is normal and neither of us can smell any diesel in the oil. No smoke at idle speed. There was just a tiny puff of greyish white smoke when I had her rev it up to 2000 rpm. Exhaust stayed clear at that rpm for about a minute of running time.

Sometimes being deaf and having white hair does seem to ring up $$ in peoples eyes when you try to do business with them. I'll see if I can figure out how to upload video and post a link.

Don

 

Then you probably have nothing to worry about. A dodge dealer already gave you a clean bill of health anyway.

one of the things you can do to help prevent a cracked injector tip is run a better fuel filter than stock...

Stock fuel filters only filter down to 7 microns.

A filter like this one: AFE #44-FF003 filter down to 2 microns.

The less junk that makes it to your injectors, the less problems you will have with them.

I run a full aftermarket fuel system comparable to a FASS150 titanium, but I have an older generation of engine that is not at risk for cracked injector tips. I run the fuel system for to protect my injection pump and keep up with my performance mods.

One of those fuel systems like a FASS150 titanium wouldn't be a bad idea on your truck, but if you keep your truck stock then it is a bit overkill and that AFE or a comparable 2 micron filter oughta do the job

 

Still working on posting video. The problem I have with the dealer's mechanic is that he also told me my 06 didn't have a common rail injection system. I asked him if he was sure of that and he said he was. Made me really question whether he had even looked under the hood and if he was qualified to do the inspection.

Thanks for the tips on the filters.

 

yeah I would question that as well...

 

Here is the link to the video on Youtube.

Don

 

doesn't sound like it has a miss at all. You can also quiet it down a bit by running a 128:1 mix of TC-W3 2-cycle oil in the fuel (1oz/gal) Just the cheap supertech outboard stuff you can get at wally world by the gallon. a gallon treats 4 full tanks of fuel. (assuming you only fill up with around 32 gallons max since it's never a good idea to run a diesel bone dry on fuel)

I always recommend it to the vp44 guys for helping lube the injection pump, but it wouldn't hurt a common rail truck to run it to help reduce wear on the injectors. just don't run it in a 6.7L that doesn't have a DPF delete. your 5.9L doesn't have that emissions garbage on it, so nothing to worry about.

the alternative to 2-cycle in the fuel is filling up at a station that has B5 soy based biodiesel. anything 2% or higher soy based biodiesel provides excellent lubricity to the fuel.

 

Follow up: The the second mechanic capped off the rail while listening to the cylinders with a stethoscope to determine which injector was bad and he changed one out. I couldn't see a defect in the nozzle but the tip was caked in carbon which he said was caused by the fuel not spraying directly into the piston cup. I intend to post a follow up video of the engine running with the new injector for comparison.

 

It's got a slight knock to it, I'm not sure I would have had anything done to it. My 07 has a slight knock as well, mine does have at least two injectors going out but it's still going a year after I first noticed it. It ran rough on initial start, a little hard starting as well when cold. And it dumps black smoke when it's cold. There is nothing visual you can see on the tip, unless it melts a piston, then you have aluminum on the tip.

The 1st one is either after a quick buck or a complete idiot. You will 100% KNOW when it takes out a piston, there will be a very noticeable decrease in power, and the whole truck will shake.

Been there, done that.