Had a weird injector issue on a 6.7 Powerstroke last Thursday

It was on a 2015 F-250 that came in with a rough idle and white smoke. The scan tool said cylinder 3 was misfiring, but all the electrical checks were fine. I pulled the injector and found the nozzle tip was actually cracked, something I've only seen a couple times before. Has anyone else run into a cracked injector tip causing a misfire code without a clear electrical fault?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_christopher10d ago

Had the same thing on a 2017. Crack was so fine it was hard to see until I cleaned the carbon off. Swapped in a new injector and the code cleared right up. The electrical side can test fine because the solenoid still works, but the fuel spray pattern is all messed up.

tara_patel10d ago

That's a really good point about the solenoid testing fine. So you're basically saying a noid light or multimeter check could give a false pass. How do you even check the spray pattern without pulling the whole fuel rail? Just pull the injector and cycle the key?

grantw3210d agoMost Upvoted

Exactly. The solenoid can click all day and still have a bad spray pattern from a hairline crack or a clogged screen. On a lot of engines, you can pull just the suspect injector without taking the whole rail off. You need to relieve the fuel pressure first, obviously. Then you can bench test it with a 9-volt battery and some clean fuel to actually see the spray. But if you're already that deep, a new or known-good injector is the real test.