My 2002 at 82000 is in the shop right now. Injector(s) were failing and blowing fuel into my crank case and in turn blowing fuel and oil out the pass by tube. truck did nnot show any signs of over heating but I cant help but wonder what kind of damage has been done running 300 miles with diesel instead of 15/40. bought truck used at 70000 miles w/ no extended warranty.Dealer says he need to call someone to find out what extent of 100,000 warranty will be covered. What's that saposed to mean? And last but not least, Is this what I have to look forward too with my chevy? replacing injectors at 700.00-1000.00 a pop?Looking for some hope here. steve

Injectors for 01-02 are 7yrs 200,000 miles with no $100 deductible. Other engine stuff is 5yrs 100,000 miles with $100 deductible.

If your dealer doesn't know this find another because he is clueless or trying to rip you, IMHO.

Injector replacement on your duramax is not something you should expect to happen again(Providing your dealer did it right,i.e.keeps the contaminates from getting into the lines when replacing the injectors) Fuel injector overfueling falls under special policy 04039 which states the "As the owner of a 2001 or 2002 model year Chevrolet Silverado or GMC Sierra vehicle, your satisfaction with our product is very important to us.

This letter is intended to make you aware that some 2001-02 model year Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra vehicles, equipped with a 6.6L Duramax diesel engine, may experience vehicle service engine soon (SES) light illumination, low engine power, hard start, and/or fuel in crankcase, requiring injector replacement, as a result of high fuel return rates due to fuel injector body cracks or ball seat erosion.

This is not a recall. Do not take your vehicle to your dealer as a result of this letter unless you believe that your vehicle has the condition as described above.

What We Have Done
General Motors is providing owners with additional protection for the fuel injectors. If this condition occurs on your 2001 or 2002 model year Chevrolet Silverado or GMC Sierra, equipped with a 6.6L Duramax diesel engine, within 7 years of the date your vehicle was originally placed in service or 200,000 miles, whichever occurs first, the condition will be repaired for you at no charge .

What You Should Do
Repairs and adjustments qualifying under this special coverage must be performed by a General Motors dealer. You may want to call the service department at your dealer to find out how long they will need to have your vehicle so that you may schedule the appointment at a time that is a convenient time for you. This will also allow your dealer to order parts if they are not already in stock. Keep this letter with your other important glovebox literature for future reference."

direct from the customer special policy letter, basicly if the dealer is trying to make you pay for anything not even a deductable(unless they sold you additional maintanance) than you should stand your ground. be sure they replace your fuel filter(@ no charge) under the policy because it is part of the procedure.
This is good info I have performed this special policy more than once myself

As for the fuel in the oil, well obviously that can't be the best but I have never personally seen any long term negative effects like from customers that have had your problem & still bring their truck back for maint. or other work over 100k after injectors!
The best thing you can do to help prevent future injector failures is change fuel filter every 15k & keep good fuel in your truck(from a high volume station)
I HOPE this gives you some HOPE!!!

:D Yep! Thanks for the hope. dealer called and said 4 injectors are bad,and they will be replacing all 8.What changes have been made to replacment injectors?They have been improved right?

They are supposed to be better! As to the specifics I'm not sure, they look identicle but that is because they are rebuilt, & the problem is on the inside.
Basicly GM Found some things they could improve on as far as the injectors
but the main thing I believe they found is the high pressure fuel lines above the valve cover are corroding & or rusting internally especially when the customers do not replace the fuel filter every 15k as they are supposed to.
That is part of the reason they came out with the fuel filter recall for all LB7 engines. To help customers realize the importance. Also as I said earlier the the dealer should be replacing your fuel filter as part of the special policy when they are doing your injectors. With both cases(recall 05546 & special policy 04039) GM is paying for it because it is that important! By the way If the dealer working on your truck isn't very familiar with diesels & hasn't done many injectors than they may not know to look inside of your high pressure fuel lines that feed the injectors, if their is any rust or corrosion inside or @ the seating surfaces than they should replace them, GM will pay for it,(they know rust particles blown through a injector @ 23,000psi will cause them to fracture & it may happen again. Not to worry you because as long as your dealer has Duramax experience than your Duramax will be tearing up asphalt again in no time.

The explaination of what rust does to injectors was very interesting. maybe you can explain this. When I changed my original fuel filter I couldn't get the fuel to drain. After taking the fuel filter off and spilling fuel all over the place I examined the drain and it was plugged with rust particles. My question is, is rust always being introduced before or after fuel filter or both and is that one of the reasons for the recall ?

Change your filter atleast every 10k miles

Mad4amax: How does one know how much "diesel experience" a dealer has??? Is this a question we should ask of the service manager? For instance, do I walk up to the service manager and ask, "How many injector repairs has your diesel mechanic done?"

Or should I start with, "Do you have a diesel mechanic?" and then the question above? What ever happened to the ratings of dealers service dept? Did it ever get going?

Great info! Ill be sur to mention those high-pressure lines when they call me.Truck is still and dealership. Tons of Thanks to ya!

Just joined the injector failure team. Took it in this morning and they tore it down for replacement of 8 injectors. Had some fuel in the oil. Will have injectors tonight and replaced tomorrow. My truck is not alone in the shop, one sitting next to it with same problem. 98500 miles on mine. My truck ran well like it was new, some smoke only at idle with it in drive, and really did stink from the exhaust.

My question now is: once you have the injectors replaced once: are the replacement injectors warranty continue through to the expiration of the orginal 7 yrs. or 200,000 miles?

My question now is: once you have the injectors replaced once: are the replacement injectors warranty continue through to the expiration of the orginal 7 yrs. or 200,000 miles?

yes

The explaination of what rust does to injectors was very interesting. maybe you can explain this. When I changed my original fuel filter I couldn't get the fuel to drain. After taking the fuel filter off and spilling fuel all over the place I examined the drain and it was plugged with rust particles. My question is, is rust always being introduced before or after fuel filter or both and is that one of the reasons for the recall ?
--Good ?. Pure diesel will not cause any noticable corrosion or rust to the steal lines in your fuel system but even small amounts of moisture will. That being said your best chance to avoid moisture is high volume diesel fuel station because the fuel is used & replenished far more ofter than your "Mom & Pop" gas stations that might see a diesel once a week, the Mom & pop stations diesel fuel sets in the tank for who knows how long & all kinds of bacteria & moisture have time to accumulate.
Here is some interesting(lengthy) info I stumbled on, It might help!
From "Heavy Duty Trucking" 10 Oct 2003
Verbatim from the subject article:

The mandate to reduce diesel engine emissions and increase engine performance and fuel economy has resulted in major technological advances in diesel engine fuel system design and sophistication. The modern diesel engine is smoother running, quieter, more powerful, and yet much more environmentally friendly. The system can even diagnose its own problems.
This is all well and good. But a major diesel engine problem is currently going undetected – and it is destroying these precision fuel systems.
The problem is dirty fuel.
Ten years ago, maximum diesel fuel system pressures seldom exceeded 3,000 psi. Today’s state of-the-art fuel system pressures can be as high as 30,000 psi. And therein lies the problem.
The issue became apparent some 20 years ago – not in fuel systems –but in newly developed high-pressure hydraulic systems that utilized servo valves. It was noted that hydraulic system component life was drastically reduced in the new high-pressure systems. And for no readily apparent reason.
Pumps and valves that had previously lasted tens of thousands of hours in low-pressure systems were failing in only hundreds of hours in the new high-pressure systems.
How does this relate to you and your vehicles? The modern diesel fuel system is essentially an ultra high-pressure hydraulic system. So the same issues and parts failures apply here.
In the case of the high-pressure hydraulic systems, it was determined that ultra fine particles that had not been a problem in lower pressure (1,000 psi or less) hydraulic systems were the cause of reduced pump, valve and component life.
Particles in the 5 to 10 micron size were determined to be the most abrasive particle size group and were the cause of severely reduced component life. In particular, the 7 micron particle was the perfect fit between the micro-machined clearances and would grind away on metal surfaces, causing accelerated wear. This would result in reduced pump pressures, servo valve orifice erosion and degraded system performance.
As a result of this hydraulic system research, an International Standards Organization cleanliness coding system was developed that enabled lubrication engineers to establish target cleanliness levels for systems with operating pressures beyond 3,000 psi. By using these cleanliness levels, system life was extended and brought back to normal. The ISO coding system addressed three particle size groups that were found to most affect high pressure component life – namely the 2 micron, 5 micron and 15 micron size ranges.
By utilizing ultra-fine fluid filtration, the harmful particles could be eliminated and systems would be less vulnerable to failure as a result of contamination.
Since the modern diesel fuel system is essentially an ultra-high pressure hydraulic system, the same requirements for ultra-fine cleanliness should apply directly to our fuel systems, right?
Wrong.
The fuel cleanliness issue begins at the refinery. There, the final fuel output filtration is typically 30 microns. Particles smaller than 30 microns are unfiltered and still remain in the fuel. And the problem only gets
worse. After the diesel fuel has been taken from the refinery it goes through several transfers until it ends up in its final tank for distribution to vehicles. By this time, the fuel has picked up even more contaminants.
Poor ISO cleanliness levels can mean that for every gallon of diesel fuel entering that fuel system there are 263,719,875 particles greater than 2 microns, 49,163,365 particles greater than 5 microns, and 1,006,810 particles greater than 15 microns.
All of these particles are going right through your fuel pumps and fuel injectors.

Controlling Fuel Quality
Fuel filters at truck stops typically catch only 30 micron units and above. Consequently, they don’t filter any of the most abrasive 5-to 10-micron particles.
The same is true for truck engine filters – most of which are nominal 15-micron filters.
For most diesel engines, with every gallon of diesel fuel burned hundreds of millions of abrasive particles have cut their way through the fuel pump and injector system.
As a result of this high amount of ultra-fine dirt contamination, high-pressure fuel pump and injector life is going to be greatly reduced.
Silently and gradually the fuel system degradation proceeds until decreased performance finally becomes noticeable or the truck just quits running.
All during this process the truck uses more fuel, creates more pollution, develops less horsepower, and becomes less efficient each day.
To this point, the typical truck operator is unaware of the problem.
But there is much that can be done to protect sensitive fuel systems from dirt and contamination by way of quality control and good housekeeping with fuel stored at terminals.
First, the fleet must test the diesel fuel source to find out exactly what it is purchasing.
Diesel fuel is the trucking industry’s No. 1 commodity cost of operation. Yet very few companies regularly test their diesel fuel quality.
The recommended fuel tests should be for cetane index plus ISO cleanliness code.
If a trucking or construction company has its own fuel tanks, fuel tests should be run for both incoming and output fuel from the tanks. Often, fuel is being contaminated by dirt already present in storage tanks.
Poorly maintained storage tanks can also contain significant amounts of water, which results in microbe and algae growth that can cause fuel filter clogging. The acidic by-products of microbe life causes tank inner wall corrosion, further increasing fine fuel contaminants. Once fuel quality and contamination are determined, a plan can be implemented to reduce contaminant levels.
Read the story beginning on page 82 to learn how to clean up that dirty fuel.


Fleets can save themselves a lot of trouble and expense by making sure that diesel injectors receive clean, water-free fuel. This may be easier said than done, depending on how much control you have over vehicle refueling, and whether it’s on-site or at gas stations and truck stops. The type of fuel filter used and its micron rating also has a major bearing on fuel cleanliness.
If your fleet has its own fuel storage tanks and buys by tank-truck loads, make sure you know what’s being delivered and check it. Some fleets take fuel samples at the time fuel is dropped, marking the brand, delivering carrier, time and date. These samples are stored for at least three delivery cycles and regularly checked to see if any water has settled to the bottom of the bottles, or if the fuel itself is discolored or cloudy. If fuel is suspicious, it is sent to a lab for analysis and appropriate action is taken against the fuel provider and/or the delivering trucker.
The next step is to make sure fuel island dispensing pumps each have functioning fuel filters – the lower micron rating the better without affecting the pumps’ delivery rates. Make sure these filters are changed at regular intervals. Stick in ground storage tanks with water-detecting paste or make sure your delivering trucker does. This procedure will give a “heads-up” to any in-tank contamination. And if any is found, have it chemically treated
and/or pumped.
When are your vehicles fueled? Ideally, it should be at the end of day or run because today’s diesel engines – depending on make – recirculate as much as 90% of the fuel delivered to the engine. Each “trip” to the engine and back increases fuel temperature, and sources tell H D T that in-tank fuel can reach well over 100 degrees F. Hot fuel in a mostly empty tank leaves hot air, which cools and condenses, forming water droplets that are added to the fuel. Refueling before parking for the night or weekend is desirable.
Today’s truck fuel tanks, with few exceptions, no longer have sumps. Sumps are the low point in the tank where dirt and water collect. Sumps made it easier to drain off contaminants during preventive maintenance (PM) servicing. Even without sumps, more and more fleets tell H D T that loosening the tank plug and draining off a small amount of fuel is a smart procedure.
A trick some fleets use is to park vehicles on a slight slope overnight or weekends. Any water or dirt will tend to settle to the low point in the tank where it can be drained off. Roadway Express’ late vice president of maintenance Don Dawson, even went to the trouble of having tractor fuel tanks mounted with a 3-degree pitch to the rear. Water and dirt would settle there and could easily be drained off. It was one of dozens of “Dawsonisms” he invented to reduce maintenance needs and costs.
If your fleet doesn’t have on-site fueling and must rely on local service stations or on-road truck stops, it’s even more important to check for water/dirt in the fuel. Ask your drivers to report any fueling locations that don’t have in-hose filters at their fuel islands. H D T has learned there are occasions where fueling personnel – with and without management approval –have removed filters because they’d detected a slowdown in pumping rate.
Rather than replace a partially-plugged filter, they remove it to get vehicles through service islands faster.
One fleet manager we interviewed found that his own personnel were removing filters to speed up the evening refueling rush when trucks came in. When drivers do their own refueling, they should report any “slow” pumps so filters can be replaced – not removed. Maintenance managers should review PM procedures to make sure fuel tanks and fuel filters are serviced regularly. Darry Stuart, who has managed many fleet maintenance operations
over the past 30 years, says a fleet’s PM program should be designed so vehicles can make it from one PM service to the next without road calls or returning to the shop. When it comes to water in fuel, he says he is still a firm believer of adding a pint or more of isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) to truck fuel tanks at each PM service and more frequently during extremely cold temperatures where fuel line freeze-ups may be a problem.
Alcohol absorbs water. Stuart now has his own business advising fleets with hands-on management leadership.
He says that while there are a number of good fuel additives on the market, most of them are alcohol- based and more expensive than buying cases of isopropyl alcohol at the local drugstore. “I have never had problems with it affecting seals or O-rings, and it quickly absorbs water, emulsifying it into the fuel and carrying it to the fuel filter which, hopefully, will contain it and eliminate ice crystals from forming. on filter media during sub-freezing temperatures. “I’ve seen actual cases where tractors with 200-gallon fuel tanks would arrive back in New England in the winter loaded with water. I thought it was bad fuel. I discovered the hard way that some of
these rigs fueled over 1,000 miles away, and by the time they reached Massachusetts, the remaining fuel in their tanks had climbed to over 100 degrees. With ambient temperatures in the teens, these tanks were
sweating the way a glass of ice water does on a summer day. We drained up to two quarts of water out of these tanks at times. That convinced me that we really needed to trap water before water-laden fuel hit the injectors.
“It used to be that standard OE fuel filters were adequate, but as injection pressures have gone up, and the price of injectors with it, anything but the cleanest and driest fuel is risky. I personally don’t think 12 – 15 micron filters are enough.
About three years ago I started adding secondary fuel filters with water separators and heaters. I’m now shooting for 3 – 5 micron filtration in my specs.
“Did you know a human hair averages about 40 microns in diameter?
Injector orifices today are a lot smaller than that. What we did with our old mechanical injection systems won’t fly today. Consider that 2 microns is 200 times smaller than 5 microns. You can’t even see two microns.
By the time the 2007 diesels get here, we may be dealing with this kind of stuff. It’s already worrisome just thinking about that. The question is, are we reaching the point that today’s fuel, as we receive it, may have to be re-refined to a higher level on the vehicle?”
At Dunbar Armored, a national armored truck service headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., Director of Fleet Maintenance Doug White is making changes in his PM program. He’s changed fuel filtration specs as a result of increasing downtime and failed injectors. Dunbar Armored operates in nearly every state. Many operations have less than a dozen vehicles, making it cost prohibitive to have central shops. White relies on outside vendors and truck dealers, and he uses in-house shops and mechanics for his bigger operations.
Adding to his problems is the fact that almost all fueling is done at in-city “mom and pop” service stations– often a different one every day as armored car routes vary daily. He has little control over fueling
practices. In the armored car business, security is the No. 1 priority and drivers are told to get in and out of fueling stops as quickly as possible. Almost all of Dunbar’s trucks are Class 6 or 7 with the International
DT-466 and 530 the predominant engines. It wasn’t until he surveyed all his locations and had fuel tank sampling done that White found out many, if not most, truck tanks had accumulated water. And fuel filters were not always being drained or changed because of their awkward location under the firewall.
They were hard to get to, and mechanics often got a diesel bath when changing them.
White also surveyed injector replacements to learn how many were high-engine-hour replacements (armored cars never shut off) and how many weren’t. He put his supervisors on alert to collect bad or failed injectors. That’s how he discovered he had a problem that he thinks may be water-related.
He currently has experts analyzing several injectors to get an independent and impartial answer. He thinks some blown injector tips may be caused by water in the fuel.
In the meantime, White has directed that all fuel tanks be drained of all accumulated water at each truck’s PM service. He also is looking for an alternative OE fuel filter because the present one “isn’t doing the job.” And to make life easier for all service personnel, he plans to spec fuel filter locations on a frame rail where they’re visible, easier to get at and at a level where mechanics won’t get a diesel shower when they change them.
In July, he started installing the new (edited, to save the administrator the trouble) fuel filter, which uses cyclonic action to spin out up to 97% of water and solids. That’s before fuel reaches the standard OEM spin-on filter element, which is built into the (edited) mounting manifold. In addition, it has a built-in filter restriction gauge that shows when the filter element needs changing because of pressure drop.
This eliminates many premature filter changes. A translucent collection bowl with a drain is built into the base of the water separator to show the amount of accumulated water and contaminant removed from the fuel before it
passes on to the spin-on filter element.
White is initially installing a dozen of these (edited) units in trucks located in different parts of the country. He wants to get regional feedback as to how bad his fuel situation is.
White reported that with the first two units, the bowls had nearly filled with water within two weeks.
“I’m learning a lot in a hurry,” he said. “If the failed injector analysis tells me that watered fuel is my main problem, I think I can get that under control.
“I just hope a lot of damage hasn’t set in already.”

Mad4amax: How does one know how much "diesel experience" a dealer has??? Is this a question we should ask of the service manager? For instance, do I walk up to the service manager and ask, "How many injector repairs has your diesel mechanic done?"

Or should I start with, "Do you have a diesel mechanic?" and then the question above? What ever happened to the ratings of dealers service dept? Did it ever get going?
-Well I guess their is not really a sure way to determine if they are experienced or not. Have you ever seen any diesels in their before? If you have been their 5 times for misc. non diesel concerns & never noticed 1, you may want to research the shop before handing them the keys. It would not be a bad idea to ask the shop manager. But probably the easiest & most reliable way would be to ask guys in the area. Next few times you refuel your truck & a nice Dmax is filling up also,"sharp truck, Had any problems with it?"(yes/no)"where do you get it serviced?" Bingo Gold mine of info! If he is half as nice as the guys on this site he will probably answer ?'s you hadn't thought to ask

Just joined the injector failure team. Took it in this morning and they tore it down for replacement of 8 injectors. Had some fuel in the oil. Will have injectors tonight and replaced tomorrow. My truck is not alone in the shop, one sitting next to it with same problem. 98500 miles on mine. My truck ran well like it was new, some smoke only at idle with it in drive, and really did stink from the exhaust.

My question now is: once you have the injectors replaced once: are the replacement injectors warranty continue through to the expiration of the orginal 7 yrs. or 200,000 miles?
--DURYMCGEE is 100% correct about the warranty & better to change fuel filter @ 10k(I was going by GM recommendations @ 15k)Like changing oil, you can't really change it to often!
The 7yr 200k special policy/warranty is for fuel injector overfuelling, which is what caused the fuel to get in your crankcase, also can cause hard start, no start,excessive smoke, P1093, low power.

Just a little more fuel for thought. With 98500 miles on my D/A I have changed my filters 10 times. I have traveled alot across the states including Alaska and Canada. I have fueled up 98% at truck stops, trying to get fuel at stations that have alot of turn around on fuel. Some filters have been changed with only 4K miles on them. The first filter was the original one from GM. The next two were Napa filters, the next 6 were Parker Racor, which I was told filtered down to 2 microns. the last one which the injectors went out on was the recalled filter from GM. (I heard the replacement GM filter is down to 4 mircons.) I was trying very hard to keep away from the injector problem.
How I knew to change filters was, I was lacking power in pulling a load or running empty. I would tromp on it and if it didn't rev over 2500 rpms and just bog down I knew it was the filter, so I would change it and the power was back to normal.
I have talked to several trucking fleets and they are saying the fuel is not being cleaned like it should be.
Maybe I just prolonged my injector failure. I have seen some failures with a lot less miles then what I experienced.
What have some of you been using for fuel filters?
Has anyone use the Nicktane setup? Is it helping to elimanate the injector failure?:grd:

I put the Nictane set-up on my truck at 18,000 miles, and still had injectors fail at 60,000. I feel good that I have secondary filtering, but I think the problem lies with GM on this. Your lucky you have an 02, I replaced my 01 with an 03 and basically screwed myself out of the 200,000 mile warranty, Thanks GM!