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Charlie · 22-11-2011, 14:18

Hi everyone. This is not marine related but it does have to do with diesel engines. I have a 1987 Mercedes 300TD. It has around 254k miles on it. I don't like throwing things away whether it is a car or money on a car that is beyond help. If the car had run at 60 MPH the engine would have ~4200 hours and if at 30 MPH ~8400. The engine has really been lacking in power lately. I purchased an injection tester and rebuild kit from Mercedes Source for a bit under $400 including shipping. I have a spare engine and took the injectors out of it and they were popping at about 1450 PSI and some were dripping fuel too. I cleaned the injectors and replaced the nozzles and balanced the injectors so that they all popped just below the factory setting at 1900 (factory is 1950 PSI). After installing the rebuilt injectors the car really improved its performance. Where I used to feel it would be a good idea to get out of the car and push going up a hill it now runs great. Not much smoke even when I jump on it going up a hill. I imagine that there will be an improvement in fuel mileage as well since less diesel will be injected into the cylinders. The reason I was thinking this might be appropriate to share with everyone here is because I was wondering how often injectors should be pop tested. It really wasn't very hard to rebuild the injectors as long as you have a vice, the correct size wrenches, a pop tester and the specs on the particular injectors on your engine. I could write up a report on how to rebuild the injectors but it was already done at this website vincewaldon.com - HOW-TO: Rebuild Diesel IDI Injectors I'd be more then happy to answer any questions that people might have. I am also going to pull the injectors on my tractor and on my Yanmar 4JH4E test them, balance them, and if needed rebuild them.