How do I replace a diesel fuel injector on a 1996 Ford 7.3L PowerStroke?

Answer 1

First remove valve cover on the side you are replacing. To make it easier remove the under valve cover harness. It's a harness that electrically controls the injectors and glow plugs. Now this is a very very important step!!!! The way the injectors are fired is by oil pressure and fuel. The cyl head has oil and fuel in them. You will need to drain the oil and fuel from the rails. If you don't all the oil and fuel in the head will go into the cyl bore when the injector is removed causing a hydro-lock condition. Their are ways to correct this but let's not go down that road. To do this their are two plugs in the head in between the injectors. they are an 1/8" Allen head remove both plugs and allow oil to drain. Be careful the plugs can strip out easly. Now the fuel. using a mirror of by feel their is another plug on the back of the head by the firewall. It will accept a 1/4" rachet loosen until fuel drains out you do not need to remove it all the way just loosen. with the oil and fuel drained you can remove one or even all the injectors safely. The inj have 2 hold down 8mm bolts only remove the one closes to the turbo. No need to remove the one by the exhaust manifold. using pry bar move hold-down up and pry against head and inj will come out. The new injectors will need to be o'ringed just make sure they are in the right slot. Their is a paper telling you where they go the pink one's a little tricky be carefull with that one. Make sure to put oil or trans gel on o'rings before installing into bore. Install to bore making sure it's all the way down If you cant start the hold down bolt it's not all the way down If you can start the bolt it will aide in pulling down the injector tighten to spec. O Ya their is also an oil squirter you will need to install to the new injector (its on the old one it's alumminum) you can do that last after the injector is installed. Now with that all done don't forget to reinstall the oil and retighten the fuel plugs install harness v/c and start. It will take a while to start because all the oil and fuel was drained from the rails. It will start and it will smoke alot Dont worry it's normal and it will clear-up. Hope this helps and good luck you can do it. O'ya did I mention MAKE SURE YOU DRAIN THE OIL AND FUEL RAILS?? VERY VERY IMPORTANT. THAT'S RIGHT I DID. HAVE FUN.