Diesel Injector Repair (Chevy 2004)

Today's post will be a parenthetical from the historical story line. One of the many cars that I own via my car lot is a 2004 chevy 3500 with the LB7 Duramax motor. I loaned the truck out to some "friends" and rumor has it that they were quite upset when I asked them to return it. Rumor also says that they tried their best to sabotage the truck. When I got it back it appeared that the tires had been switched and the truck was smoking quite badly. I put the truck on a scanner and did a power balance and it showed that some of the injectors were bad or going bad (I wonder if this was the rumored log cabin maple syrup that was added to the fuel tank?). I have no proof that any of this was actually done, but the circumstantial evidence is quite incriminating. I have not accused anyone and I wont. I am trying my best to be the best possible person that I can be and I pray for these "friends" on a daily basis. I started my relationship with these people in an attempt to introduce them to Jesus and the right way to do things. This is becoming a very hard endeavor for me and my wife. There is a part of me that craves the revenge path, but the small voice still yearns for them to see the better way. The RIGHT way. Anyway, today I wrapped up the project of installing the new injectors. It was a pretty large project, but the funny part was that I actually enjoyed the project. If anyone wants some pointers on this I would be glad to help them. It is not a hard project, but is somewhat time consuming due to the amount of stuff that has to come off the engine to get to the injectors. Once the injectors were installed I had to take some time to prime the system, but once it primed it fired up and voila....no smoke and the power balance showed normal on all cylinders.
Duramax DIY
Try the link above to see some pictures on an install for the passenger side. The driver side is easier to get to but some of the bolts near the firewall were a real pain. Some extensions and a swivel worked wonders. 1. Remember to label the hard fuel lines when they come out and you will be thankful when you go to reassemble. 2. When you put the wires back on the injectors, make sure you only snug these up. I twisted one of the little studs off and unless you are real good friends with the parts store this will cost you another injector and they are not cheap. 3. Take some pictures of the wires and hoses with your smart phone during your disassembly as this will help you out a lot if your memory is like mine. 4. I used the proper torque values and torque sequence for the valve covers because I did not want to do this twice, however I am thinking that you could probably use some common sense and not have to worry about this. To me there is no better feeling than the successful completion of a big job. Now I have to decide what to do with the truck. Should I sell it? Keep it? Customize it with some cool looking wheels? Whacha think?