2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

The injectors are very dirty, can they be cleaned or am I looking at new ones?

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

They CAN be cleaned! Mine looked like they were in a jar of molasses for 5 years and it runs now... here's my method take it fwiw:

Soak them in carb cleaner/kerosene/whatever you use
Blow them out both directions with carb cleaner
Take them inside and boil them for 5 minutes or so (in water)
Oil the seals and reinstall

You could maybe redo the cleaning/boiling another time to be sure but it definitely worked for me. I got the idea from googling it and it worked! Again take it fwiw!

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

...and then run some seafoam thru er once she's runnin for good measure ;)

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

With all due respect, I would not boil an injector, nor would I re-use the seals.

Injector o-rings are cheap and should be replaced anytime you are changing injectors, rebuilding injectors, or cleaning injectors. Its like $8/set.

I also prefer not to completely submerge the electrical portion of the injector. You can fill a small tray or pan with seafoam/cleaner/whatever and set the injectors into it, with the plug pointing up. You can do it with some safety wire or a coathanger. Soak them like that; if you want to go further, you can rig up a small power source to pulse the injectors, getting the solution into the nozzle from the inside and using the injectors own action to clean itself.

Basically its a 9v battery and injector pigtail, with one leg on one post, the other hanging loose. Touch the second leg to the post breifly to trigger (1 second, don't hold current on it).

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Where do you find the little screen baskets filter in the top end of the injector, is there a part number for them?

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Do what BR3W says. Rig up a 9 volt battery. It works great. All of mine were stopped up. I let them soak over night. It worked. Put new o rings on. Runs like a champ. The engine had been sitting for 3 to 4 years.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I rigged up a 9 volt battery and a hose filled with carb/injector cleaner on the intake portion and shot this through the injector. It allowed me to clean the innards and see the spray pattern, fwiw.

Replacing the o-rings was easy and cheap enough...

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Just sharing my experience and said take it fwiw... I don't claim to know a lot that's for sure! I just figured if it didn't work i'd buy new ones. I was afraid of hooking electric up to em and then using flammable liquids...

In the end it worked for me, and it's been running strong for 6 months! :metal:

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I too worried about the electronics for the soak and boil sections of your ...soup recipe. :lol:
Glad it worked out for you tho. I just used the 9V and spray cleaner method.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I am going to pick up "O" rings today, are there some better than others?
Still looking for the screen filters in the front end of the injectors any help!

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

o-rings and baskets for EV1 injectors (if you still have the truck injectors, you need another kit)

http://fuelinjectorconnection.com/sh...?productid=309

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Yes I still have the stock truck injectors, I will take a look at this site.
Thank You

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

The worse thing that can happen if you boil them would be you find the bad ones. They are water proof otherwise every time they got wet and the engine was up to temp (almost boiling) you'd have a problem.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Its not the temperature per-se, its the combination of the temp and the boiling action itself. I wouldn't want the tips to bounce around or impact the container or each other, and submerging an electronic component into boiling liquid is different than the injector just standing up to engine heat and some moisture.

IMO just because it might not mess anything up, doesn't make it something we want to reinforce. Some "pioneers" in the import scene decided that immediately pre-boiling gas before combustion could help with atomization...and when they did it right, the car didn't immediately blow up....but that doesn't mean its something I'm running outside to try :devil:

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I found a shop here locally that has been doing fuel Injector work for many years and checks cleans and flow checks them.
Got them back last night and he replaced all items "O" rings and baskets and tested the flow at 79 Ml.

Now I have a leak at the Regulator when the pump is started!

That is what I get for dis assembling and cleaning the rails !!!

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Anybody know how to get the little filters out of the top of the injectors? The ones listed in the link above?

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I had a local guy flow test and sonic clean mine. Best $100 I've spent.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

You'll end up ripping them if you try to take them out, more often than not. Get them clean, or rig them up in some seafoam. You can poke around google, there are a few ways to do it. Usually, its hanging them from some wire in solution, and triggering them with a battery. You can find more detailed directions on YouTube or google.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I suppose I will just clean them then, the kit comes with the little screens and O rings, but had a spare injector I tried to get the screen out of and it was stuck in there pretty good. Thanks guys.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

People that replace them end up popping them out using a drywall screw, but I stopped reading their procedures at "Jam a drywall screw into the injector screen..."

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

haha, yeah, they would have probably lost me there as well. If it works it works, but I imagine cleaning the original ones and leaving them in place gets you close to the same place.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Actually thats how the pros even do it. Theres a tool specifically for that that has a screw on the end of a small slide hammer

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I guess that's the only way to do it, its a tight fit to get anything in there to get a good grab. I might try that on my spare injector to see if that works. I guess if its easy enough I might try to replace the screens on my good injectors.

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

I found a Shop here in town and I took my injectors to him.
He reached under the pulled out a little tool screwed it into the end of the injector and "plucked" the seal and screen right out of the end of the injector.
What he pulled out was a rusted/remains of a screen and a bunch of rust!
Then he pick up another and it looked just as bad!
This tool looked like the one I have in my tool box for Schrader valve maintainence, or he had a special "dry wall screw tool"

Called two days later and I picked them up and he said they all flowed at 79 something and I was on my way.
So I went home and cleaned the fuel rails, and it was full of rust and junk like the bottom of a dirty fuel bowl!

If you have a engine that has been sitting for a "unknown" amount time, things happen with the fuel system, so I would put this step in the budget BEFORE trying to start the engine!

Re: 2003 Fuel Injectors 5.3
 

Guys, I took my screens out of the injectors and it was rather easy. I just took a drill bit that was barely bigger then the ring at the top of the filter and pulled the trigger on the drill for a split second, this seemed to loosen the ring up enough to get them out, I held the injector up and drilled like I was drilling underneath something to hopefully keep any extra debris out that I could, but I did not run the bit through the little screen. When I pulled the drill bit out it always pulled the little screen filter out and what was left was only the small ring at the top. From there I used an easy out for broken bolts and a crescent wrench and they came right out with a few turns. After looking it did not damage the inside of the injector at all, then I flushed them out with some sea foam. I ordered a kit similar to the one listed above for my correct injectors which came with the filters. My old filters were really nasty so this gives me some peace of mind.