Symptoms Of 6.0 Powerstroke Injector Failure (Explained)

The 6.0 Powerstroke engine, like the 7.3 its predecessor, uses Hydraulic Electronic Unit Diesel Injectors (HEUI), which receive energy to open from engine lube oil that’s pressurized by a gear-driven high-pressure pump.

However, driving your vehicle for a long time with a clogged or faulty fuel injector can cause problems. 

Many users have experienced 6.0 powerstroke injector failure, but they could have prevented the problem if they were aware of the initial sign and symptoms to get a hint. 

Therefore, in this very article, let’s learn how to detect when your 6.0 powerstroke injector needs immediate attention.

What Is The Sign Of A Bad 6.0 powerstroke injector?

One of the most common and obvious signs of 6.0 Powerstroke injector failure is – when you encounter increased fuel consumption or a noticeable increase in tailpipe smoke or a rough idle and hesitation during acceleration. 

6.0 Powerstroke Injector Failure Symptoms:

There are other significant symptoms by which you can easily identify when your 6.0 powerstroke injector needs proper inspection and repairing or replacement. 

So, let’s learn more about those symptoms and how to detect 6.0 powerstroke injector failure –

1. Engine Misfires

There are multiple cylinders in a 6.0 powerstroke engine that ignite the fuel introduced within them and produce energy to run the vehicle. The injector delivers into the appropriate cylinder. So engine

issues are quite common when it comes to injector failures.

One of them is an engine misfire. Engine misfire happens if one or more of the cylinders fail to fire correctly.

Engine misfire will create a banging noise from the car’s engine. You can even experience a jerking motion while driving if the misfire is severe.

2. Hard Starting

Another common symptom of a failed 6.0 injector is difficulty starting the engine. As we told before, a clogged injector causes the engine not to receive an optimal ratio of air and fuel. As a result, the engine

cannot generate the combustion it needs to operate. So you face these difficulties while starting the car.

Sometimes the car doesn’t even start at all. Not only starting, with a clogged injector, you can also face difficulties speeding up or slowing down.

3. Rough Idling

If you experience shaking and bouncing while driving, you might have a rough idling issue.

If your vehicle is experiencing rough idling, you’ll probably know it immediately. While some cases are less severe than others, a rough idle is usually identifiable by shaking and bouncing sensation in the

vehicle. Sometimes, it is accompanied by engine stalling that creates odd sounds that feel like running out of gas and a sudden decrease in RPMs. All these symptoms can be a result of a dirty fuel injector.

4. The RPM Needle Fluctuates

The dash gauge in your car is important to give you information while driving. Generally, the gas needle moves from ” F” to “E” and the speedometer moves from ” 0″ to “60” when you drive a lot. But it won’t

be the case when there is contamination in the fuel injector. It causes the needle to move unpredictably.

The RPM needle can move up and down even when you are not changing the gear. Cleaning the injector properly can fix this problem.

5. Poor Fuel Economy

Fuel economy measures the efficiency of fuel. It is basically the distance you can cover with a given amount of fuel.

Generally, every engine comes with a gas mileage i.e. the number of miles that a vehicle can travel using a particular amount of fuel.

Well-performing fuel injectors help the vehicle get the gas mileage that it promises.

If the fuel injectors fail, the fuel can be lost or leak within the engine. It can also inject too much fuel unnecessarily resulting in the wastage of fuel. Pay attention to your gas gauge while driving long distances to point out the decrease in fuel economy.

And if you face a sudden decrease in fuel economy, it’s time to check the injectors.

6. Fuel Odours

If you can smell diesel fuel while driving, it’s most likely that the fuel is leaking. This can happen if there is a crack in an injector seal.

These are the most commonly identified symptoms that indicate the 6.0 powerstroke injector failure condition. So, if you also own one of the 6.0 Powerstroke engines on your vehicle, make sure to keep them in mind.

What to Do When You Detect 6.0 powerstroke injector Failure?

Whenever you encounter any symptoms indicating that your 6.0 powerstroke injector may fail or has any damage, make sure to follow the below instructions in order to fix the problem-

Inspect the discoloration:

With 6.0 powerstroke injector, there are often cases of discoloration. Specifically, if a nut on the injector has carbon deposits from top to the bottom 0-rings, the injector might not be in a good position to work. This symptom basically indicates that combustion leakage is happening.

Also, other cases of discoloration between the two 0-rings mean that the injector has come to contact with contaminated fuel which is an indication of a bad injector.

So, you have to change the rings to eliminate this issue. 

Cleaning The Clogged Fuel Lines:

This is a very common situation for faulted injectors. Often the fuel lines or fuel filters get clogged where you can easily detect such clogged fuel lines by checking if the injector can fill up with fuel between cycles. If not, that’s a faulty injector and needs to be fixed. 

You can also detect this problem by observing the throttle level. Because of the clogged lines, there would be a lack of power, thus causing you to increase the throttle while starting the engine or driving.

The cleaning of the clogged lines will be the solution. 

Reducing Static Friction:

If the injector causes static friction, you can identify that to be bad. Now, to understand if the injector is causing such friction you need to look for some common symptoms.

If the engine doesn’t start or struggle to start, creates white smoke, or has a slow performance the injector is not in a good state. So, the static friction needs to be eliminated by proper fuel. 

Checking The Metal Flakes:

This might not happen often but this is one of the indications. There are situations when metal flakes get into the injector and cause trouble. This mainly happens when a snubber valve fails. 

So, if you find metal flakes in the injector there’s a possibility the injector will go wrong. Changing the snubber valve may solve this issue. 

Is Replacing A 6.O Powerstroke Injector Typically Expensive?

Fixing 6.0 powerstroke injector or replacing the faulty 6.0 powerstroke injector with the new one is not a big deal. 

However, the biggest problem I have found is that if you are not replacing all the internals, only what was causing the injector to fail.

The estimated cost owners have to bear for that replacement task is around $200 to a maximum of $400.

If you have one bad one, you don’t have to replace all of them.

There are no issues at all with a new injector working with old ones. Secondly, once you change an injector, you will see that it can be easily done in a couple of hours. 

How Often Should You Inspect Or Service 6.0 Powerstroke Injectors?

To prevent your 6.0Powerstroke engine’s injector failure, you should change or replace the fuel filters after each10-15,000 miles operation. 

You can also take some precautionary actions in advance, such as installing an EPA Compliant Kit. 

This one is highly recommended for Ford users and will protect your fuel injectors, lines & rails from the excessive amount of contamination. 

Final verdict

One of the most common complaints about 6.0 Powerstroke Diesel is the failure of the injectors.

While it can simply wear and tear down with time, sometimes clogging and contamination can also cause this failure.

It’s quite important as the power of the engine depends on the supply of the injector. 

So, it is important to check out the symptoms that you will encounter if your 6.0 powerstroke injector fails.

However, acknowledge that while these are symptoms that cause injector failure, they can also happen due to other causes.

So don’t take it for granted that you have a failed injector if these symptoms pop up.

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