My Black Death Saturday

skydiver007

DRB III Owner If You Need
First, I love this forum, it has saved me again.

Saturday morning and I am surfing this forum for information on CCV piece and decide to go take a look at it. Remove engine cover and all looks well except the dreaded Black Death around injector 1.

Probably shouldnt have, but I removed the bolt holding it down, and then removed all five to make sure they werent frozen in the head. They all came out.

Ok, do I fix it today or have to wait till Monday for parts. Europarts has the replacement copper seals that I wont get until at least Tuesday. Time to call Dodge parts. Local dealer says he doesnt have them, but Jeep dealer 8 miles away has 11 of them. Call to confirm he has them and go get 5 of them.

Come home and get back on forum to see best way to get injector out. Loosen the bolt holding it down and go for a drive. Sure enough on the way back at a red light it started idling rough :clapping:. Opened hood and sure enough injector 1 is higher than all the rest.

Remove all hoses and connectors and out she came. Top has a big ring of gunked on crap and there is gunk all the way down. Call the dealer again, do you have this part and how much. No I dont and they are $500. Thanks but no thanks. Decide to reinstall and the DRB III I purchased will let me know if all is well. Take laquer thinner and a rag and proceed to clean the injector and the hole in the head it came out of.

Interesting when the injector came out, the old copper seal is all mangled and wrapped around the injector. Probably due to the fact I blasted it out with cylinder pressure and it got hot.

Got everything cleaned up and test fit and it slid all the way in with no problem. New seal worried me though because it might slip off the end of injector when I slide it into hole. No worry as it slid off and stayed at bottom of hole. Inserted injector in hole and tightened everything down and torqued to 62Lbs.

Took her for a ride and all is well. Ran every test I could with DRB III and all results are nominal including compression test.

Will keep an eye on her for further problems.

Overall with the information provided here, not really a big hastle. Took me maybe 2 hours of actual work time.

Maybe removal and replacement of seals every once in a while might not be a bad idea.
 

talkinghorse43

Well-known member
Inserted injector in hole and tightened everything down and torqued to 62Lbs.

Maybe removal and replacement of seals every once in a while might not be a bad idea.
I hope that wasn't ft-lbs and you finished with a 90 degree turn. Try filling the wells with engine oil and maintaining that oil in there to keep the black death at bay
 

skydiver007

DRB III Owner If You Need
It was inch lbs. Also after reading a lot of threads I am curious about the resurfacing of the injector seat in the head. Mine wasnt very dirty and the seat looked fine. I did not resurface it. I very carefullt cleaned it and installed a new copper seal and reinstalled the injector.
All 5 of my injector hold down screws came out with no problems.

I only had black lava right around the bottom of the injector, suggesting to me that I caught it fairly quickly after it started. I have been hearing a weird sound under the hood for 2 week. Sounded like nails on a chalkboard on acceleration.

Question, resurfacing suggests removing some metal to make a new, better surface. If you do resurface the metal, when do you stop and how do you know you got it right. Waynerod in other posts suggests that a unibit or what I refer to as a step bit will work.

I understand the resurfacing process, just not whether it was necessary in my situation.

I plan on keeping a close eye on that injector and plan on replacing all 5 injectors when I get some extra moolaaa.

DRB III shows no out of the ordinary readings and no codes. I hope I am ok for now.
 

220629

Well-known member
If you caught it in time and the seat holds then I'd think you're better off not touching the seat.

I believe that Waynerodd was referring to using a Unibit or step drill to help remove the old copper seal if it is stuck down in the bore. A step drill will not work at all to properly re-surface a seat. There is a special cutting tool which is used for that. FWIW. vic

It was inch lbs. Also after reading a lot of threads I am curious about the resurfacing of the injector seat in the head. Mine wasnt very dirty and the seat looked fine. I did not resurface it. I very carefullt cleaned it and installed a new copper seal and reinstalled the injector.
All 5 of my injector hold down screws came out with no problems.

I only had black lava right around the bottom of the injector, suggesting to me that I caught it fairly quickly after it started. I have been hearing a weird sound under the hood for 2 week. Sounded like nails on a chalkboard on acceleration.

Question, resurfacing suggests removing some metal to make a new, better surface. If you do resurface the metal, when do you stop and how do you know you got it right. Waynerod in other posts suggests that a unibit or what I refer to as a step bit will work.

I understand the resurfacing process, just not whether it was necessary in my situation.

I plan on keeping a close eye on that injector and plan on replacing all 5 injectors when I get some extra moolaaa.

DRB III shows no out of the ordinary readings and no codes. I hope I am ok for now.
 

skydiver007

DRB III Owner If You Need
It is funny to me that there are various parts on a Sprinter that cost very little but if they fail they can destroy some very important and exspensive systems.

The Black death also occurs without any CEL or DTC notification. Meaning, you had better be doing visual inspections as recommended to catch this problem before it gets out of hand. New seals cost $2.00 each. New motor $5k and up.
 

rossco

New member
Can someone let me know the size and name of the copper smash ring? I called my parts shop and called it a seal kit for the injector and they said they didn't have any. I"m in an identical situation with very little black death on first injector.

Also, is that a reasonable way to push the injector up? Simply loosen screw by a turn or two? That'll save me from trying to find a puller to borrow?!

Thank you!
 

skydiver007

DRB III Owner If You Need
Loosining the bolt and going for a short ride worked for me. When she starts idling or running funny you will know it moved up. Worked like a charm for me.

I still have 4 seals as I havent replaced the 4 that are not bad at this point. Cost 2.50 each
 

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