Silverado fuel injectors

Has anyone with the 2003 era Silverado diesel found a fix for the fuel injector problem besides replacing all the injectors for around a $5,000 cost?

GMC Fuel Injectors

JIM L said:

Has anyone with the 2003 era Silverado diesel found a fix for the fuel injector problem besides replacing all the injectors for around a $5,000 cost?

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Jim,
You don't say what exactly what you are experiencing so I don't know if this will help. But as you may remember I have a 2005 GMC Sierra Diesel. About a year or so ago my truck started with a terrible vibration during ideling. After reading several articles I thought I was in for an injector replacement by my GMC dealer. Thinkging that would break the bank I took it to a "shade tree mechanic" that I use. He and his brothers own the garage and all drive diesel trucks. I later found out that the garage does all the diesel work for one of our local electric co-ops. Here's what he said and what I did.
You'll already know some of this but I'll repeat it here for those reading that might not know. In 2007 diesel fuel PPM of sulfer were reduced from 500 ppm to 15 ppm. The mechanic tells me that drastically reduced the lubrication for the fuel injectors. And the lack of lubrication is what is causing the fuel injector problems. He didn't do much except check my truck and pour some additives to the fuel to clean and lubricate the injectors. He did not take them out of the truck. He told me that I needed to add one quart of transmission fluid to every second or third tank fill up. When he gave me the truck back it ran very smothly and has so since.
I did not follow his advice. Somehow just adding a quart of transmission fluid to every second or third tank of fuel just didn't seem comforting to me. So I did some research on the subject. I found some reports and decided on a product called Opti Lube. I have to order it online. I add one ounce for every gallon of diesel. I seem to remember reading a study that compared many different additives and this one was rated best. I also remember that bio-diesel made from cooking oil was rated very high. Since using Opti Lube I have not had any additional problems.
Here is the link to Opti Lube so you can research the product: http://opti-lube.com/XPD.htm
Hope this helps and please keep us posted on what you discover.
God Bless
Papa
P. S. We will miss y'all at the Hi Lo Rally this year. I just had back surgery and will not be able to attend.

Hey Papa,

Sorry to hear you guys (ya'll) will not be attending this years rally. I've had back surgery and know what you are talking about. Guess you will have to take the wife somewhere "beautiful" when you are feeling better. Hope all continues to go well for you.

Bob

Rally

Bob,
Yeah y'all are going to have to do it this year without us. I sure wanted to come. Hopefully this back will be ready for the Rockie's?
God Bless
Papa

Hi Pappa; Thanks for the link to Opti-Lub. I did investigate these additives and ordered it. They have a new product not on the web site yet that improves on the XPD for summer operation. The problem I have is smoking and surging at idle. According to owners it can get much worst and the injectors can start leaking. GM's only fix is replacing all injectors. They replace them with the same rebuilt injectors. As you said a major part of the problem is lubrication and in researching this also a lack of good filtration. Many owners have had to replace the injectors 2 or 3 times. You said your pkup came back from the mechanics running ok. Do you know if they added the transmission fluid as part of the fix. In my research I found a good webb site Nicktane.com that links to several articles on research done on the filtration problem. The GM fuel filter filters down to 7 microns. Caterpiller has a couple of add-on filters that filter down to 2 microns. The articles all recommend better filters. This problem exist on most all diesel vehicles. The orfices in the injectors has gotten much smaller and operating under much higher pressure. The lack of lubrication and contaminants in the fuel is causing the problems. Check the webb site out. I am going to put the Cat filter on my Chevy. Sorry You two won't be at the Rally. Hope your back gets better. Will call the next time we are in Charleston

JIM L said:

Hi Pappa; Thanks for the link to Opti-Lub. I did investigate these additives and ordered it. They have a new product not on the web site yet that improves on the XPD for summer operation. The problem I have is smoking and surging at idle. According to owners it can get much worst and the injectors can start leaking. GM's only fix is replacing all injectors. They replace them with the same rebuilt injectors. As you said a major part of the problem is lubrication and in researching this also a lack of good filtration. Many owners have had to replace the injectors 2 or 3 times. You said your pkup came back from the mechanics running ok. Do you know if they added the transmission fluid as part of the fix. In my research I found a good webb site Nicktane.com that links to several articles on research done on the filtration problem. The GM fuel filter filters down to 7 microns. Caterpiller has a couple of add-on filters that filter down to 2 microns. The articles all recommend better filters. This problem exist on most all diesel vehicles. The orfices in the injectors has gotten much smaller and operating under much higher pressure. The lack of lubrication and contaminants in the fuel is causing the problems. Check the webb site out. I am going to put the Cat filter on my Chevy. Sorry You two won't be at the Rally. Hope your back gets better. Will call the next time we are in Charleston

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Jim,
For the life of me I can't remember what my mechanic put in the truck. I just could not for the life of me come to putting the transmission fluid in my diesel fuel. Just thought there would be a better product and the engine cost too much for me to experiment with.
You did bring up something he did and that was change the filter. And he told me to start chaning it every 10,000 miles which I have started doing. I use NAPA fuel filters. Purchase them from fleetfilter.com. They make NAPA filters and it's cheaper (even with shippint) than buying at my local NAPA store.
We really wanted to come to the rally this year but it did not work out.
Hope y'all have a great time.
God Bless
Papa

Pappa, thanks for the info. I talked to the owner at Nicktane.com that links to several research articles by the trucking industry on the fuel injector problem. I wanted his input on what I might do to correct the problem and not have to replace the injectors. Local GM dealer wants $4,300 for the job. He said that from my description of the problem I probably have damage to the injectors caused by lack of lubracation and poor filtration. He suggested as a first approach, put a qt of transmission fluid in the next fill-up to see if things improved, same as your mechanic. Maybe there is something to this. I am going to try this. He also suggested several additives to use for lubracation and one of them was the opti-lub. I am also going to add a new fuel prefilter/water seperator that filters to 3 microns and replace the GM filter on the engine to a 1 micron. I have operated heavy diesel equiptment all my life and as a aircraft mechanic understand the problems being caused by the changes to fuel and injectors. I wish I had done this research sooner. The cost of the added filters is around $375.

unrelated to diesel engines, back in the 90's my Nissan truck was acting up, took it to a dealer, they told me all 4 injectors are bad and need replaced at a cost of $1400, talked to a mechanic over the phone who specialized in German cars but he said he doesn't work on Nissan, but there was a screw that needed to be turned to adjust pressure, as soon as I did, it ran perfect, sometimes it could be a simple thing.

gus, I wish I could find a simple answer. Other than the recomended idea of adding the transmission fluid to try and correct the problem the only other fix is replacing the injectors. I have talked to several owners, and companys that operator several of these pickups and on the duramax forum. Some have had to replace the injectors 3 times. The fix seems to be the additive for lubracation and better filters. The GM 7 micron filter is not doing the job. Since about year 2000 there has been major changes to the fuel and the injector system that has caused this problem to come up. The Gm dealer here wants about a week to do the job because of how much you have to tare the engine down to get to the injectors. Not like many fuel injector systems where changing a injector is about as easy as changing a spark plug.

Jim
When I had a shop, we mainly worked on gas powered vehicles, sometimes we get some with loud engine noise, due to lack of oil or not enough oil chsnges, that caused collapsed hydraulic lifters, and by dumping 6 Oz of Trans fluid into crankcase would fix it mostly, my techs used to say Trans fluid has detergents in it that frees collapsed lifters, I am sure there are other additives that can do the same, but the only work we did on diesels were fleet of F250 and we only changed their oil and the owners insisted to change the fuel filter at least once a year sometimes more, your mechanic must know some trick with the trans fluid that is providing the lubrication that the old diesel fuel had the additives to do it. How many miles do you have on your truck?