Injectors Maintenance

[Itsenough]

My mechanic is suggesting removing and sending injectors on my twin Ford Leman 135’s to a shop to be inspected and if necessary, refurbished. 1995 Engines have 4200 hours on them and seem to be running smoothly.

Some input from more experienced skippers than me would be greatly appreciated!

 

[kchace]

I wouldn’t do it without a reason such as hard starting, rough running or smoking. While some do, the Ford injectors don’t normally require Regular maintenance.

I just checked the manual and the below is a copy and paste directly from the manual.

“Injectors need not be serviced at regular intervals but rather, should be serviced after problem such as smoke, loss of power, hard starting, etc. develops and has been diagnosed.”

Ken

 

[DavidM]

I agree with Ken. I never posted to the thread on injector life, but many engines go 10,000 hours between injector changes. Keep the fuel clean with a 10-20 micron Racor first and a 2 micron on engine filter and they will last a long while.

If no engine symptom then the injectors are almost certainly ok as the manual says.

David

 

[Xsbank]

If you do decide to overhaul your injectors, find a shop that normally does farm equipment, you will save a bundle over “Marine.”

 

[syjos]

I do a cylinder test once a year on my FL 120 where the injection pipe nuts at the head are loosened one at a time to locate weak cylinders. Similar to a spark plug cable disconnect test on a gas engine.

I located a weak firing cylinder at around 5,000 hours which ended up being an injector needing rebuild. I had all six injectors rebuilt by H & H in Fife and when I reinstalled them the engine was noticeably smoother. Similar to putting new spark plugs in a gas engine.

The exhaust produced less smoke and sheen on the water. I did replace the valve stem seals while the injectors were out for rebuilding so not sure which reduced the exhaust.

 

[Pilon42]

I pulled all my injectors disassembled them cleaned them with ultrasonic cleaner. Bought a cheap pressure tester to test and set the correct pop setting. Had 2 that the nozzles where bad purchased them on eBay and set them with tester. They all work perfectly again. These are simple injectors they work off spring tension. If they do go bad it is just a nozzle replacement. Don’t really need to send them to be rebuilt also replaced the copper washer that seals the injectors.