Cost of injectors refurbishing

MapisM

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I half recall that some forum members had the injectors of their engines calibrated and the nozzles replaced, which is what I'm soon going to do with mine too.
Since it's one of the few maintenance jobs I never made in the past with any of my previous boats, can someone give me an idea of the costs involved?
I mean per injector, of course - and I'm talking of the Bosch service cost alone, not of the removal and reinstallation.
Thanks in advance!
 

jrudge

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That is a good price including the tips.

I had mine done.They all failed, were cleaned up etc etc and retested. All passed. Difference to the boat. Nil!

I only got mine done after Cloud9 of this parish with a D12 had an engine go and a large bill attributed to a possible injector failure. Unless there is a reason I would probably not bother.

Removal on a D12 needs the rocker cover and few other bits removed. Removal was described to me as either fine or a total bugger and you don't know until you do it. Mine were fine. The valve clearances were done at the same time as most of the work to get at them had already been done.

New tips were not available for my injectors - they were not 100% required but would have been preferable. I would suggest you find the injector model number and determine if the tips are available before you start. They might for example have a lead time and that would be a shame at this point in the season.

People seem to use who they trust. My own view would be that fuel injection overhaul is relatively complex and requires expensive kit - hence I would imagine any authorised repairer could do it unless for some reason they have a poor reputation.
 

scottie

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All depends on engine and the complexity of fuel system
In the distant past it was almost DIY access to a pop tester and a brass brush away you go
Modern engines may require specialists with extensive and expensive test rigs
Replacement injectors may make sense if being done professionally one out one in one visit
Perhaps check owners manual for guide
 

MapisM

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Thanks folks for your first feedbacks, and apologies for having not been clear enough, in hindsight.
The engines are fully mechanical (no common rail or other fancy tech), with Bosch HP pump+injectors, and the tips are available as spare parts.
In fact, MAN recommend to replace them every 1000 hours, on my engines.
By now, they are already half way into their second thousand of hours, and they were never checked in the boat's previous life, afaik.
So, I thought it was a good idea to pull the injectors, replace their nozzles and calibrate them, even if there wasn't anything obviously wrong in the way the engines ran.
In fact, I guess I'll end in the same situation of jrudge, i.e. fork out some money for no apparent result.
But better safe than sorry, I reckon - I also heard horror stories of engines wrecked by leaking injectors...
As of now, the things were already pulled out and I'm going to bring them to the Bosch service for the tips replacement and calibration, so that's the only part of the job about which I was wondering what cost ballpark to expect - hence this thread.
I will also take the opportunity to have valve clearance done btw, as well as heat exchangers and aftercoolers cleaned, but that's another kettle of fish, of course.

Oh, well. B.O.A.T., as always.
The only consolation, while on one hand I'm now regretting a bit my previous engines with 6 rather than 8 cylinders, OTOH I am not so envious of other fellow forumites whose boats have the full monty 12 cyl setup... :D :cool:
 

BruceK

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..........
The only consolation, while on one hand I'm now regretting a bit my previous engines with 6 rather than 8 cylinders, OTOH I am not so envious of other fellow forumites whose boats have the full monty 12 cyl setup... :D :cool:

Oh aye! When I heard just how much oil was held in the sump of one big boy the pennies started to drop over the validity of the whole oil analysis issue on when to do an oil change rather than a matter of course annually. Love their boats, love their engines, but talk about playing in a whole different league. :disgust:
 

Mr Googler

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It made a big difference to mine....but then it was smokin’.

Only other advice I had was to change the oil within a few hours after replacing the injectors. Bit of diesel is bound to go in the bores past the rings and the improved spray pattern frees off carbon. So I was told anyway.
 
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BruceK

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It made a big difference to mine....but then it was smokin’.

Only other advice I had was to change the oil within a few hours after replacing the injectors. Bit of diesel is bound to go in the bores past the rings and the improved spray pattern frees of carbon. So I was told anyway.

Was this on your 42's Farsco? I ask because in 2010 one of my engines while in PO ownership had a complete rebuild, well both did, and I believe this was caused by a faulty injector. I may be tempted to have mine out next maintenance season. It would have clocked a good few hours since then
 

Mr Googler

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Was this on your 42's Farsco? I ask because in 2010 one of my engines while in PO ownership had a complete rebuild, well both did, and I believe this was caused by a faulty injector. I may be tempted to have mine out next maintenance season. It would have clocked a good few hours since then

No....on my old boat. 61a’s
 

volvopaul

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That is a good price including the tips.

I had mine done.They all failed, were cleaned up etc etc and retested. All passed. Difference to the boat. Nil!

I only got mine done after Cloud9 of this parish with a D12 had an engine go and a large bill attributed to a possible injector failure. Unless there is a reason I would probably not bother.

Removal on a D12 needs the rocker cover and few other bits removed. Removal was described to me as either fine or a total bugger and you don't know until you do it. Mine were fine. The valve clearances were done at the same time as most of the work to get at them had already been done.

New tips were not available for my injectors - they were not 100% required but would have been preferable. I would suggest you find the injector model number and determine if the tips are available before you start. They might for example have a lead time and that would be a shame at this point in the season.

People seem to use who they trust. My own view would be that fuel injection overhaul is relatively complex and requires expensive kit - hence I would imagine any authorised repairer could do it unless for some reason they have a poor reputation.

Sadly you have the Denso ones. A mistake by VP asking them to make them as no afterservice backup.
 

Assassin

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Do you really need them replacing? Industrial versions of your engine recommend having them checked every 2500 hours and not replaced.

Mechanical injectors are simple and you can get them tested instead of replaced and save a wadge of cash, if you remove the injectors and number them you take them to a local independent specialist and they connect them to a hand pump and pressurise them. You do a break pressure test which is simply reading the pressure they open at, a fan or spray pattern test which shows the spray pattern, and a leak test which shows up any drips from the injector while it is under load and just under break pressure.

Its a pity you aren't nearer to me as I have access to the equipment to test them.
 

scottie

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Do you really need them replacing? Industrial versions of your engine recommend having them checked every 2500 hours and not replaced.

Mechanical injectors are simple and you can get them tested instead of replaced and save a wadge of cash, if you remove the injectors and number them you take them to a local independent specialist and they connect them to a hand pump and pressurise them. You do a break pressure test which is simply reading the pressure they open at, a fan or spray pattern test which shows the spray pattern, and a leak test which shows up any drips from the injector while it is under load and just under break pressure.

Its a pity you aren't nearer to me as I have access to the equipment to test them.

I used to think that a dozen or so years ago until we had several instances of injectors that passed “POP” testing being found faulty after being run on modern test rigs
 

scubaman

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I had mine done at about 100€ per injector. All were reported as not operating properly, but as jrudge, i noticed zero difference apart from the wedge on my wallet.

As you, I Wanted to have them checked just in case. May have been a good investment for the long run, who knows.
 

BartW

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on a old invoice from 2014 the nozzles are 73euro/p list price ex VAT
no idea about the labour cost, but looking in the service manual, it doesn't seem to be a complex work.

when we replaced the nozzles on one engine, it did make a difference, less smoke !
 

Old Harry

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I had mine done at about 100€ per injector. All were reported as not operating properly, but as jrudge, i noticed zero difference apart from the wedge on my wallet.

As you, I Wanted to have them checked just in case. May have been a good investment for the long run, who knows.
What engine hrs did you do this @
 

MapisM

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In my case, we're talking of a 15 yo boat with 1500 hours clocked.
Actually, last year she made the almost 1200Nm long delivery trip with no issues at all, so I wasn't expecting any relevant malfunctioning - and along the same lines, I'm not holding my breath for any noticeable improvements.
But based on both age and hours, the job was definitely due.

Now, a quick check on the first couple of injectors showed a reasonably normal behavior (one squirting just above the nominal 280 bar, and the other one at 275 or so). We'll see what they will tell me of the others, the job is under way atm.
The quote (from a non-marine, but official Bosch service) is 68+20 Eur, for each nozzle+labour respectively.
 
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