I have a 2003 f250 powerstroke The other day I chaned out my NR 2 injector since I was getting a cylinder imbalance code. I really haven't driven the truck since than, maybe a couple miles around town. I know The injector I replaced was bad since there was a nut missing on the injector. Today I was out driving and lost power then I started getting black smoke and the truck died, after some cranking I got the truck to start again. And the truck seemed fine monetarily then started losing power again. Pulled the codes and was getting p0266 and p0113. Looked at the injector and the plug was not all the way in. Then I had to jump he truck to get it running. Once running i would be fine the start blowing a combination of white and black smoke and then the truck would die. Each time it died I needed a jump to get it started again. I would blow more white smoke then black. It Took me about an hour and a half to get home with my wife following me each time I died I would have to jump it agin. Now the truck wonk even crank. I have the truck on charge in my drive now. Anyone have any ideas? I wondering if the alternator went causing issues with the FICM I was going to start it again after the batteries charge to see if I get the smoke. I also noticed that the egress bottle is under pressure when I opened the cap after it was running there seemed to be a slight pressure that was released. I am debating on taking it to the dealer but would like to figure it out myself since I really don't have the money that I know my bill will be.

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Went out and started the truck after charging the batteries truck is still smoking pretty bad and smells like fuel I'm thinking that so minting is leaking from installing the injector the other day plus I'm still getting the PO266 cylinder imbalance code

 

Sound like injector thing.
Happened to me once. Was towing a boat down the road and engine started to surge up, blowing out smoke and couldn't get it to crank up again.

Inspect injector and harness connections. Make sure their are clean, no damage or sheered wires on them.

Remove the 2nd fuel filter cap and filter out (located next to oil filter housing), and have someone cranks up the engine to see any bubbles.

Your seal might be leaking. And you need to replace them all.
the seal kit is about $60 with coppers

 

The more I'm reading about this it seems like and injector issue. Actually it seems like I may not have completely seated the injector that I installed on Friday. Should I change all the coper gaskets or just look at the one I recently replaced. Thee nj extort not properly being seated would explain why my code didn't clear. This injector is really starting to frustrate Me been in this side 3 or 4 times in the last week. Fist I got a bad injector which caused me to go back in troubleshooting. That injector was wired incorrectly now it seems like I may have installed this one wrong. I hope nothing else broke seems like I'm dumping a good amount of fuel into the engine. I'll be changing the oil once I'm done with this one. I really hope I don't have to take it to the mechanic. I've done two other ones with not one issue.

 

It takes less than 2 hours to do this job. I recommend you to change those copper seals also. Use angled mirror to inspect the inside valve, remove all the residual (piece of broken copper or rubber seals).
I use a strong absorbent paper towels shoved in there to clean them out.
Remove all the seals off the injector.
I would also do this, soak injectors into simple green about 10-15 mins (dont do it too long) to dissolve and break down the carbon or whatever is, and wipe them off. Clean them again with WD40
Inspect those tips for any cracks or loose fit.
Put on a new seals and lubricate the seals outside for easy fit on. Then torq down to 10ft lb.

 

After doing a bunch a reading and seeing that I didn't have this issue until I changed out the Nr 2 injector plus the change out never cleared the code. I have driven 10 to 15 miles maybe less and burned an 1/8 of a take of gas (maybe more) since the install.

My plan is to pull the Nr 2 Injector and inspect my work verify that everything is tight and properly sealed. I'm going to look at all the seals that I just put in. I'm thinking that I may have screwed something up with the fuel rail or the injector seating/sealing. If I don't find anything then I'm going to test the FICM and alternator or pay someone to do the checks. If I don't find anything and I'm still having issues the truck may be going to the shop.

This cylinder imbalance code is driving me crazy since I initially bought and installed an injector from AutoZone which didn't clear the code and gave me a CKT high code had to pull the valve cover off 3 times troubleshooting this. Turned out the injector plug was wired incorrectly. So then I bought a ford injector (should of got the injector from ford in the first place)and installed it in the cold and ran out of light during the install (do all the work in my driveway and it's cold). I'm thinking that I will take either Thursday or Friday off work to run through the install again and see what I find before taking it to the shop and shelling out the money. I'm hoping that this works and I didn't screw anything else up. Also the batteries are finally charged back up after leaving them on charge overnight.

 

There is no fuel rail. Those r just high pressure oil rail seat on injectors. Leave the valve covers open and check for oil leakage on high idle.
Check inside the injector cup/sleeves. Make sure there ain't any particles left inside there and it still in sevicable condition

 

Today I went in and verified the installation of the injector that I installed last week. What I found was that I didn’t properly torque down the injector. The injector hold down nut was barely hand tight and the seals on the injector were broken/cut. I did not remove the glow plug since I heard of some horror stories of broken wires but sucked out the cylinder with my shop vacuum. I got a good amount of fuel from the cylinder. I got a seal kit for the injector and replaced all the seals on the injector including the copper seal. I ensured that everything was properly cleaned and torqued during reinstallation.

Upon start up, I think I had slight hydro locking on the cylinder since I was not properly cranking and the cranking stopped at times. Everything was cranking fine earlier today. After the slight hydro locking seemed to be cleared the cranking was sluggish.

I put my charger on the batteries and the voltage was low and the batteries needed changing. I also noticed that I left the controller for my plow on which in the past drains my batteries for the duration that I left tit on.

At this point I turned the charger to jump and the truck cranked but then I got a puff of smoke along the passenger side firewall area (couldn’t pin point the exact location) so I checked the starter and it was extremely hot to the touch. Since then I have had the batteries changing and periodically have checked to see if the truck would start. I have gotten very sluggish/slow cranking and then no cranking with not start condition seemed like the batteries were low on charge.

Now both batteries are charged and it’s been a couple hours since I last tried and all I’m getting is one click and done all lights work batteries are charged and the FICIM and injectors appear to be operating correctly. I also should of noted this earlier but I had my batteries tested a couple weeks ago and they tested fine but I changed one since sears dropped one during reinstallation. That trip to sears is what started this whole tail spin of events (long story but they will never be touching my truck again.)

I also changed my oil today since it smelt like fuel and I know that I dumped a lot of . I’m thinking that I now need a starter especially since how hot that it got. Was also thinking of getting the batteries re tested.

 

glad you got it back on the rooad again.
Yes, you can get hydrolock and surgin up when too much fuel dumped inside the cylinders. And fuel could also slipped through the rings and mixed with oil.
From my experience on glow plug harness. If its too old. change them out with new ones and get a dual core glow plugs. they are durable more reliable when comes to winter.
Is normal for starter to get hot after along cranks

Dont forget pull out the back exhaust pressure sensor out. clean with carb cleaner and soak in simple green. I would pull out the IPR to get it check and clean also (need a special socket wrench for this).

 

Latest update: Saturday I changed the starter and the truck started right up but I was blowing smoke. I also blew out a bunch of fuel from the exhaust on the driveway. Ran the truck around town and hit the highway and the smoke cleared although I was still slightly smoking. I let the truck sit for a couple hours started it up and had no smoke. I did some local driving Sunday and the truck ran great it is starting better than it ever had and is idling and running a lot better. I had no codes Saturday or Sunday. I ran the truck to work today about 12 miles highway it’s running a lot better but I checked my codes when I got to work and the PO266 # 2 cylinder imbalance is back. Now I’m not sure what is going on. I’m going to rehash out my chain of events and may or may not start a new treed.
• Was out plowing and battery voltage was low after about 6 hours of plowing with everything on. Lights were dimming and radio was kicking off. I turned everything off that I didn’t need and problem resolved itself
• Went and got the batteries tested at sears I was told the batteries were good but when they tested them they did not disconnect the batteries.
• Had the batteries pulled from the truck for testing under load. Batteries tested good but upon reinstallation the sears technician dropped one of the batteries and broke it. Had the battery replaced with a die hard platinum.
• Went out to the truck after the batteries were reinstalled started great. Turned on my plow lights and the truck died. Had to help sears tow it into the shop
• Troubleshooting revealed that the reason that it died was that fuse 116 blew (30A ignition switch) sears gave me no rational why. Also airbag light was on with a code 16. Sears said they don’t troubleshoot airbags and that they didn’t do anything. Blamed everything on a aftermarket alarm/remote start system. Even though the system didn’t work it has been in the truck since I bought it two years ago with no issues.
• On the way home from sears the truck started running horrible ant idle and under load.
• Once home I pulled PO266 and troubleshot the blown fuse and airbag.
• Found nothing with the airbag. Removed the aftermarket alarm/auto start system since I wasn’t using it. Found that I mistakenly hooked up the power to the switch for the plow lights to an ignition wire on the auto start system. I am not using the factor wiring harness for the plow lights since my plow lights weren’t properly working with the used harness that I had. I made my own harness utilizing 2 relays one relay is for low beam and the other is for high beam theses relays are mounted in from of the drivers side battery. I found out that the ground wire on one of the relays was knocked off and it was touching the power supply to the other relay. I corrected this problem and I’m assuming that the wires were disturbed when sears pulled the battery. I also changed the power to the switch to the extra aux wire that was supplied to the factory (goes to fuse 29). My theory is that the relays were shorted and since the switch power feed was hooked up to an ignition wire that the short caused the fuse to blow and cause the hard shutdown.
• On the next nice day, I bought and injector from autozone (duralast injector) and changed the Nr. 2 injector. What I found was that the nut on the end of the bolt that runs through the injector and injector spool valves was missing. I then installed the new injector and but everything back together.
• After running the truck around town the truck still ran rough. I pulled the codes again and was getting PO266 and New code indicating a ground issue on the nr 2 injector. After verifying the connection and going into the valve cover a couple times I found out that the injector was not wired correctly. It had the same color wires but when they were hooked up didn’t go to the same pin locations as the other injectors.
• I took this injector back to autozone and bought and injector from ford. This time I did not wait till the next nice day to install it I did it as soon as I had it in hand. Once done it was dark cold and I had somewhere to be so I idled the truck in the driveway for a bit it appeared to be running better had no codes and I thought I was done.
• Drove the truck a couple miles two days later and was running like it was supposed to but I did not check for codes. The next day I ran the truck a couple more miles and all of a sudden the truck started to blow smoke, lost power and died. Got it to started and pulled into a parking lot. I found that the PO266 code was back but the injector was not plugged in. Plugged it back in and started the truck, it initially started fine then I lost and regained power. Tried to drive the truck home was blowing a lot of black/gray smoke. Truck died several times on the way home and needed a jump to get it started again. Finally, got the truck towed the last 5 blocks. Got home and batteries were dead.
• I charged the batteries and got the truck started to get it in my driveway, but was blowing a ton of smoke that smelt like fuel.
• On the next semi nice day I pulled out the injector again and found that it was not properly torqued and the seals on the new OEM injector were shot (broken and melted). I changed the seals and meticulously reinstalled the injector. Verified the torque on all components several times and made sure that I had a good connection on the plug used my shop vacuum to suck out the injector area and head. I went to try and start the truck and initially seemed locked up and then would slowly rotate. But it would not start. I thought the batteries were dead from trying to crank it so I jumped the passenger side battery with my charger and tried to restart it. Got a couple good revolution then I got a puff of smoke from my passenger side firewall. I touched the starter and it was extremely hot to the touch. I then tried to start the truck several times and would only get one click.
• Two days later I changed the starter and the truck started up. Actually starts better then it ever has. I did initially have a good amount of smoke and fuel ging out of the exhaust but that has cleared. I drove the truck around town over the weekend with no codes and the truck seemed to be running great.
• Today I drove the truck to work 12 miles highway. It seemed a little off but I was attributing it to the sway bar bushings since I I think that I need to replace them or a possible ball joint issue. When I got into work I checked the codes and PO266 is back. Truck is starting and running a lot better. I even took a coworker for a ride and he thought it was running a lot better.
Sorry for the long post but I’m at a loss.
• I know the original injector was bag since the nut was missing and I saw the same thinking two years ago on my Nr 6 injector
• I am wondering If I damaged the injector by not torqueing it correctly during the initial install.
• I find it hard to imagine that I did something wrong when I changed the seals.
• I’m also thinking that If I had an issue with the connector that I would have a electrical injector code

Any help would be appreciated

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Does anyone know what fuses I would pull to do a bubble test? Also how high should the fuel b in the fuel filter housing? Do I need to dump fuel in or can I use the fuel pump to fill it?

 

Oh yeah it will blow excessive smoke out from exhaust. Because it still try to burnout whatever is in exhaust intakes. Hope you dont get sticky turbo exhaust valves.

Remove the fuel filter next to oil housing. no need to drain fuel out. unless you have a full filled tank.
Crank it up for a few secs and simultaneously observe for bubbles out from the fuel filter housing.
Check your injectors wires and connections if they are clean, dry and no sheared copper showing.
Other consideration, chck for FICM outputs and IPR.
What kind of oil are u using? have u been using any oil additive?

I had the similar issues (even more worse) when I bought the truck from Taxes couple years ago. It tooks me awhile to these pieces together.
Here I live in washington, cool climate. I use Amsoil and 2x of Rev-X oil additive, and change them every 10,000 miles or 6 months. I drive out up to the mountain weekendly and running on B99 biodiesel all the time.