[Devilmonkey]

Hi guys I haven't been on here in awhile, well my little 2.8 truck turned 5 years old (90k miles) in March and as a gift to me it died ☠.
Sounds like the #1 injector took out the piston. I'll know more when I pick it up tomorrow.
I've seen a couple of others who had injectors fail and wipe out the motor on other forums, now i'm wondering how common this is.

 

[JeffreyG]

I can think of two other posters who had cascading injector failures, so with you that's three I can think of.

Any other details in your case? Run a stock (or nearly stock truck)? Did you tow a lot, or some? Obviously the cause could have been anything, but sorting through any possible factors can be interesting.

 

[Duken4evr]

Hi guys I haven't been on here in awhile, well my little 2.8 truck turned 5 years old (90k miles) in March and as a gift to me it died ☠.
Sounds like the #1 injector took out the piston. I'll know more when I pick it up tomorrow.
I've seen a couple of others who had injectors fail and wipe out the motor on other forums, now i'm wondering how common this is.

Sorry to hear about your truck. I recall you being on here a few years ago.

For awhile there, we were seeing snapping wrist pins which took out the entire block. Now the most common catastrophic failure mode I see on the forums and in the Facebook group is a "failed injector". I suspect there was a small batch of bad wrist pins and there was a rash of nasty failures as a result, but the injector issue seems far more common and ongoing now. GM went to a different Bosch injector (and matching ECM) in mid 2019, possibly due to the failure rate of the older Denso injectors.

I have no idea if the injector itself has an issue. I always use lube additive and added a 2 micron marine filter and water separator after the OEM box in an attempt to protect the fuel system as well as possible. You are in Canada, seems to me your diesel fuel should be better than the seemingly random stuff we have here in America.

There is a thread by Lightning98, he had the same type of failure and he went nuts building a fire breather of a ZR2 from the wreckage. At this point I will simply be happy if the engine runs properly for a reasonably long time.

 

[MrCamo]

I’d check LKQ online for a donor.

 

[MrCamo]

Hey man sorry to hear about your truck- here’s a link to LKQ. they’re super reputable and even have their own national delivery network. They cater mostly to pro high end repair shops but sel to guys like us too. If I were you I would call them. They don’t gouge on prices me they’re nice on the phone too. You can see the wrecked vehicle and mileage etc.(complete engines)

LKQOnline

www.lkqonline.com

 

[Chuck_B]

JMHO here. I may be the only one with this view and it's ok if so. I do not tend to believe there is an injector issue.
What percentages of the known failures are tuned?
What percentages of all diesel twins are tuned?
Why would injectors fail at such higher rate on tuned vehicles?

It just doesn't make sense to me. YMMV. I before E except after C. LS=MFT. Whatever.

My current thinking is that the pistons that were specially designed for this market are made of butter alloys. Adequate strength to hold up to almost all stock usage scenarios. A perfect economic decision. Then again this is based on nothing except my observed failure stats.

I am running the GDE emission tested tune for what that's worth. I do not tow, so far at least. My usage is interstate national park trips in a vehicle I can sleep in the back of. Most diesel owners tow so that's a bit different. I don't expect issues with my usage but will let all know if anything happens.

Anyhoo - I still believe injectors are a scapegoat.

Your friend and mine,
Chuck_B

 

[custom90gt]

But just as many, if not more failed injectors have happened on stock tunes. It's not the tune. Also now GM has different injectors for mid-2019 (odd move) and the 2020 diesel supplement says to run a fuel additive if you don't live near one of the hand full of gas stations in the US that sell top tier diesel fuel.

I think GM knows they are an issue but is thankful that most won't be an issue until you get out of warranty.

 

[diesel or bust]

My #3 injector failed last November on my 2016 bone stock truck with about 78,000 miles on it. The failed injector also somehow damaged the head and I had to get an entire new head assembly. Luckily, I had an extended warranty that covered the $6500 repair. After piecing together everything that was involved, here is what I think happened to my truck. Before the failure, I rarely ran any additives in the fuel. Certainly not on any regular basis. At the time of the failure, I was towing my ~4500 lb camping trailer and a couple of miles before the failure, I was pulling out from a parking lot onto a busy road and had to really get on it to squeeze into a gap in the traffic. It was slightly uphill and I'm sure the turbo was at full boost to accelerate as quickly as I did with that much weight behind me. The fuel I had in was not treated with any additives. I think that in my case, the fuel was probably "dry" and the sudden burst of power uphill with a load forced too much fuel through the injector at once and the lack of lubricity caused damage. So now after my repair, I run additive each and every tank for the added lubricity that I have seen quoted that 44% of diesel fuel in the US lacks. Hopefully, by running additive every tank, I can avoid another failure.

 

[fjm568]

My #1 injector failed and holed my piston at around 48k mi back at the end of July 2019 on my 2016 Colorado. Was GDE tuned for about 18k mi at that point and was towing about 5600# of car and trailer when it happened. Luckily I wasn't far from home at that point and not halfway across the state when it let go.

 

[Devilmonkey]

I can think of two other posters who had cascading injector failures, so with you that's three I can think of.

Any other details in your case? Run a stock (or nearly stock truck)? Did you tow a lot, or some? Obviously the cause could have been anything, but sorting through any possible factors can be interesting.

Ya I had a GDE tune in it for the past 4 years. Ya had towed my ATV/UTV's around and cross country through the rockies a lot.

 

[Devilmonkey]

JMHO here. I may be the only one with this view and it's ok if so. I do not tend to believe there is an injector issue.
What percentages of the known failures are tuned?
What percentages of all diesel twins are tuned?
Why would injectors fail at such higher rate on tuned vehicles?

It just doesn't make sense to me. YMMV. I before E except after C. LS=MFT. Whatever.

My current thinking is that the pistons that were specially designed for this market are made of butter alloys. Adequate strength to hold up to almost all stock usage scenarios. A perfect economic decision. Then again this is based on nothing except my observed failure stats.

I am running the GDE emission tested tune for what that's worth. I do not tow, so far at least. My usage is interstate national park trips in a vehicle I can sleep in the back of. Most diesel owners tow so that's a bit different. I don't expect issues with my usage but will let all know if anything happens.

Anyhoo - I still believe injectors are a scapegoat.

Your friend and mine,
Chuck_B

I agree. Just got it back today after they had it for a month..... I was honestly tempted to wrap it around a tree and called the insurance company.

 

[Devilmonkey]

Well now I have a new motor and a 3 year 100k warranty (odd how that's better then the one i had when I bought the truck new). As for additives and towing. No I wont be adding any I kind of hope it fails again just to stick it to GM, and has for towing I'm planning to tow even more.
I'll run it till it fails for the next 3 years than maybe consider going back to a Silverado (wouldn't mind having comfortable seats again).But Holy **** the prices are sky high.

 

[Devilmonkey]

My #1 injector failed and holed my piston at around 48k mi back at the end of July 2019 on my 2016 Colorado. Was GDE tuned for about 18k mi at that point and was towing about 5600# of car and trailer when it happened. Luckily I wasn't far from home at that point and not halfway across the state when it let go.

Did GM cover it?

 

[Devilmonkey]

But just as many, if not more failed injectors have happened on stock tunes. It's not the tune. Also now GM has different injectors for mid-2019 (odd move) and the 2020 diesel supplement says to run a fuel additive if you don't live near one of the hand full of gas stations in the US that sell top tier diesel fuel.

I think GM knows they are an issue but is thankful that most won't be an issue until you get out of warranty.

I completely and whole heartedly agree why else would they have changed the injectors, Slimy bastards probably know full well there is an issue and are just trying to cover their ass.

 

[Duken4evr]

If the failed injector thing was happening with the big trucks it would be in greater numbers and much more prominent. I believe the Denso pump and/or injectors are not up to snuff for variable quality American fuel. Am picky about where I fill up and feed my truck a steady diet of lube additive, pretty much from day 1. Recently went insane and added the 2 micron marine fuel filter.

I love the economy and the vibe of the 2.8, but the thought of it crapping out in the middle of nowhere on one of my dirt bike trips to Utah is scary AF. Can't get rid of my truck as I love it, but I hate that this reliability shadow is over it. Kind of a crappy place to be really. Have done all I can to bulletproof it, so it is no warranty and roll the dice I guess. Always was a calculated risk taker but should not have to be in this instance, with a $40,000 vehicle.

 

[Blazedude]

I completely and whole heartedly agree why else would they have changed the injectors, Slimy bastards probably know full well there is an issue and are just trying to cover their ass.

I dont know if this is one of those times. But all too often i have found where an engineer says this is what we should use and the financial bean counter higher up says that cost too much, use what ever is cheapest.

 

[DieselDrax]

GM went to a different Bosch injector (and matching ECM) in mid 2019, possibly due to the failure rate of the older Denso injectors.

Do you have a reference showing the new injector is from Bosch? Considering the entire high-pressure fuel system is Denso, not just the injectors, I find it highly unlikely that they're using Bosch injectors with a Denso rail, injection pump, and ECM. Anything is possible, but it doesn't seem plausible to me.

 

[Duken4evr]

Do you have a reference showing the new injector is from Bosch? Considering the entire high-pressure fuel system is Denso, not just the injectors, I find it highly unlikely that they're using Bosch injectors with a Denso rail, injection pump, and ECM. Anything is possible, but it doesn't seem plausible to me.

Recalling a post from GDE. In order to change injectors they have to change the ECM too for EPA purposes. I could be wrong, but that is my recall.

On that front, I am very interested if the new injectors can be retrofitted to existing trucks with the Denso ECM. The electrical connection is the same, the fuel rail connector is different, but it seems that one could change the hard lines from the high pressure manifold (probably have to change that too) to the new style, install the injectors and plug them into the harness and they physically would drop right in. Would love to see some pics of a 2020 truck's fuel rail to see if the manifold is different too.

Assuming one could swap the injectors and feed lines, no idea if the Denso ECM would be OK with the new injectors, if retuning would be needed, or if going through the expense and trouble would even be worth it. Would be more than willing to do it if I knew doing so was possible and that it would "bulletproof" my engine from the dreaded holed piston scenario. Am doing all I can think of otherwise, fortunately none of it is terribly difficult.

 

[RedEyeB20]

Seem to remember a while back finding a link to a diesel parts supplier who was selling Bosch injectors that would possibly work with the current Denso hardware. There was no mention of that being a problem so it is still a mystery to me and I did not follow up with them to see what they would say. Lube the fuel, drop in a secondary fuel filter (2 micron) will either help or not, we will find out over time...

 

[JeffreyG]

I really, really doubt this is different for passcar, but their purchasing departments really do have more clout. But in general FIS are systems. You cannot use the pieces a la carte. So if you want Bosch injectors you have Bosch fuel pump, rail, lines, spill......and if you want the controls, Bosch computer too. Only that last part is negotiable provided you are doing all of your own software and controls then.

To change from one FIS to another would mean a complete new development. You have to run all sign-off tests, durability, and reliability growth for the new FIS from the ground up and then certify. It's practically like making a new engine.