2003 Silverado Duramax injectors

Thanks everyone! Good suggestions and info.

These are all helpful posts. As I mentioned before I like learning new stuff, but prefer not the hard way. As an update, I had my truck hauled to someone that has his own shop (I can only hope he is as good as Tooljunkie) for a second opinion. He was about to leave for a week but at least my truck is inside, unlike where it was. That outfit tried to charge me a $350 restocking charge for the remanufactured injectors from Florida that I had told them I didn't want earlier in the week and to look for OEM or new Bosch injectors. Not my fault the parts guy didn't cancel the first order. Or maybe they were going to put in the cheap ones and charge me for new ones? In any case the service manager backed down and they "only" charged for the fuel filter and 2 hrs of tech time. What the tech wrote on the sheet was that injector 2 was bad, "injector return flow rates above spec" and "injector 2 causing misfire and heavy smoking". The thing that bothered me is that it went from running great, no smoke, to totally dead in seconds. The guy that has it now took a quick look after the tow truck dropped it off, and said he primed it and it ran for a bit, and he thought it might be the pump. So I have to wait until next week, but maybe as mentioned above it will be both

D2Cat said:

Sheepfarmer, I think you made a smart move!

I hope your new guy finds something obvious and simple to cure, so you'll still have confidence in your truck.

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D2 I got the name of this new guy when I took your earlier advice and talked to the guys that helped me out with the Ford 8N. Was kind of round about, but he did sound more sensible when I talked with him. Works on tractors too. Only foot he put wrong was to mention using ether to start something, and I jumped in feet first to say, but "not on a Kubota" etc. Everyone please keep your fingers crossed!

Well I am beginning to think my truck is never going to run again, or I am going to have to get it towed someplace else with its engine parts in a cardboard box

The new guy who has a nice shop building next to his house, is NOT like TJ alas. I think he has ADHD. He may be a really nice guy, he spent at least one of the intervening weeks driving a grain truck for a buddy who hurt his hand, but he never tells me the same thing twice, and I can't tell if he is just making up stories or what. Or if he optimistically thinks he can do more than he can. In any case my truck has been there 6 weeks and it doesn't run.

Week 1 he was gone , I knew that, he'd said he could get to it first thing Monday.
Week 2 he said he could get it to run for 45 sec by priming it, no smoke, but there was a Cub Cadet and a truck ahead of mine ( that wasn't there when I first called )
Week 3 thought it was a lift pump he'd have to take the fuel tank down, oh and did I mind if he put in new batteries, mine weren't holding a charge. I said fine it was on mylist of things to check before winter.
Week 4 he had discovered that this truck didn't have a lift pump, there was some kind of prepump embedded in the high pressure pump.
Week 5 he said he'd ordered a pump but it didn't come with the gaskets he needed. I said where did you get the pump and he said he googled 2003 duramax and got it off the internet, and I blew a fuse, slow blow as it took me a while after I hung up, sent him a text to say if he'd just gone to local dealer and bought it there we'd be done by now. Turned out he didn't really have it yet was going to get pump from local diesel parts supplier and gaskets from dealer.???
Week 6 he called and said he was sorry but he got it to run a little longer with the new pump, and it was smoking bad and so he thought it was an injector after all. Oh and did I mind if he put a new idler pulley on it. This was Wed before Thanksgiving. His favorite diesel store had Bosch remanufacture by Bosch injectors, and so I drove over and got them hoping he would get on it over the long weekend. No luck so far.

I have wandered the internet looking for a shop manual, diesel supplement, and parts manual like we have online for our tractors, and there seems to be all
sorts of junk out there, but not what I am looking for. I am thinking he is winging it without torque values, and when I mentioned shop manual to him he pooh-poohed the idea of finding one. If he'd had a shop manual he'd have known it didn't have a lift pump in or near the fuel tank. Any sources?

The bad news is I can't even drive it to the mall and hope someone steals it.

Thanks guys, I sure appreciate your thoughts and ideas.

D2 I put a bid in on the manuals, while I couldn't use them effectively the guy fixing my truck sure could. He is I think reasonably honest just not doing well. Has apologized for not picking the right things to replace. (Wouldn't be so bad if high pressure pumps and injectors were cheaper.) Went out to visit my truck again this afternoon. He has installed the injectors (I assume, the engine is more or less put back together) but he said it won't run for more than a few seconds unless he puts the fuel up on a ladder and does the gravity feed thing. Then he said it ran fine for 45 minutes (?). Back to the vacuum leak in fuel line hypothesis. Did things like pressurize fuel tank, and observing fuel full of air bubbles somewhere, not sure where. Thinks it is either the fuel line which now has a leak by the fuel tank or the housing for the head of the fuel filter. The fuel lines are rusty and so fixing the fitting where the leak is looked to me to be hopeless, I crawled under there to see, so I okayed ordering fuel lines, which will no doubt be a nightmare to install. He has a pit that he can put the truck over. But he keeps having to call his assorted buddies for info, so I think TJ and OldeEnglish are right, this was one of those cases where it should have gone to a dealership, although they have tried to cheat me in the past. This guy has to keep figuring stuff out from first principles. Sigh.

BTW those of you that think your BX needs skid plates should see what is vulnerable on the underside of a 4wd 3/4 ton truck. What were they thinking putting the fuel cooler radiator under there where it could be covered with mud? I happened to have run this rig through the carwash with underbody blast the day before all this happened or it would be much worse.