Overheard a shop manager say "injectors aren't that hard" and now I want to hear both sides

Was picking up parts at the Fleetpride counter yesterday and this manager guy was telling his buddy he thinks most diag work on injectors is overblown. Said he swaps them in under an hour on a 6.7 Powerstroke and has never had a comeback. Meanwhile my last set of injectors on a 2014 Cummins took me almost 3 hours because one was seized so bad I had to pull the whole fuel rail. So is he just lucky or am I doing something wrong? Anyone else think injector jobs are either easy or a total nightmare depending on the day?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_park1mo ago

Wait, does that shop manager actually think a 6.7 Powerstroke is the benchmark for everything? I had a guy once flex about swapping injectors on a 7.3 IDI in 45 minutes, but he forgot to mention he also snapped a rocker arm bolt and just left it in there. Last winter I did a set on an old Mercedes OM616 that came out so smooth I felt like a wizard, then the next week on a Ford 6.0 I spent four hours fighting with a single injector that had basically welded itself into the bore. I'd bet that manager's "never had a comeback" means he either works on brand new trucks or his customers just don't come back because he's a hack. Sometimes the job is easy, sometimes it's the devil's own puzzle, and it's almost never about how good you are.

kim_west1mo ago

You ever try a little heat from a propane torch on those welded-in ones? I mean, it's not a magic fix every time, but I've had good luck warming up the bore around a stuck injector on a 6.0, just enough to break the corrosion seal without cooking the head. Also, a gentle tap with a brass punch and a dead blow hammer before you start cranking on the injector puller can save you a lot of cussing. But yeah, that manager is full of it - some trucks just hate you, no matter how good you are.