New here and looking at buying a 03 with 161,000 miles on it. Runs good trans has been done and it already has lift pump in tank. Is the milage an issue on these and how common are injector problems? Thanks

 

I've run mine with pressure for the last 94,000 miles. There are now 194,000 miles on the injectors with zero issues.

 

That would be a Great Truck to get... 161k is not an excessive amount of miles... If its been maintained you should get at least that many more miles out of the mighty Cummins...

 

So far no negatives,that is good. Was owned by a older person since new and was used to pull his camper between wisconsin and florida.

 

You may want to check if it's the ho version or not.

The so version had the 47re tranny. The ho has the 48re tranny. You made refernce to the tranny being done. I wonder which one it is.

Anyway, you can tell ho vs so by looking at the vin.

If the 8th position is a 6, it's a so

If it's a C, it a ho

Chay

 

It is a so with 47re. I am a trans guy so that is not a issue. I will let the 2yrs run out on the warranty on it then make changes if needed. My biggest concern is all the injector talk,are they as bad on the so as ho. Most threads I have been reading involve the ho version?

 

Most of the problems with CR injectors is filtration. The factory setup is not sufficient, need to add a 2 micron filter before the injection pump. Water and debris will kill these injectors, more harmful than pressure IMO.

There is no difference between SO and HO injectors, both 03/04 trucks have 8 hole tips, wasn't until 04.5 that they were changed to 5 hole tips, and they actually had more failures. The injector bodies are the same on 5.9s from 03 to 07.

 

My '03 has 220k on it. No injector issues thus far.

I use a 5 micron filter; it's a baldwin. Search this site to find the part number.

The original filters were 10 micron, so this is a big improvement.

A 1-2 micron filter would be better of course.

When I was researching which truck to buy, I ran into info about duramax's with crackng injectors leaking dieel into the crankcase. Fords? Way too many stories about cavitation pinhole leaks in the cylinders, bad head gaskets (6.0), injector wiring harnesses, etc etc. Plus, their system for injection is crazy. High pressure oil, high voltage injector solenoids, etc etc. Too much trouble and maintenence.

Our work uses Fords's new trucks...lots of failures on the dual sequential turbo setups.

Anyway, I decided on the the Dodge. It looked like the easiest to upgrade too, with the smarty jr only $300 or so for another 100hp.


Chay

 

My 03 has 125K and runs like a scalded dog; no issuses, just getting ready to do the front balljoints, u joints and hub bearing units.