Old school injectors vs. common rail... I made the switch 2 years ago

I was always a diehard for mechanical injectors on my old 7.3, but the shop I work at in Phoenix pushed me into learning common rail systems. I finally swapped my own truck over to a common rail setup after about 3 months of saving parts. The fuel economy is better for sure, but I miss how simple the old ones were to work on when they acted up. Anyone else stick with mechanical stuff even though the new tech is "better" in the specs?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennyh558d ago

Man I hear you on that. My old mechanical 7.3 was a tank and I could fix anything on it with basic tools. Switching to common rail felt like learning a new language at first. The fuel savings are nice but sometimes I miss just cracking an injector line and watching it pulse. It is a trade off for sure. You are not alone in feeling that way.

james_butler8d ago

Oh man, I get that completely. I still run mechanical injectors on my old Dodge because I can actually see what's happening when I pop the hood. Common rail gives you better numbers on paper but you lose that gut feeling of knowing exactly what the engine is doing by sound and feel. My buddy swapped to common rail last year and he's already chasing electrical gremlins I never had to deal with. There's something to be said for a system that doesn't leave you stranded because a sensor went bad.