05's?
 

well the 2004 HO deal fell through and now have an opportunity at buying an 05 but I have heard rumors of bad injector problems. Any truth to this? And is there anything I should be weary of or look for? Thanks for the help guys.

All stock injectors on 5.9 CR engines were junk from Bosch. 2004.5 to 07 5.9 all were 325 HO engines. Check VIN with Chrysler to see if engine or injectors were replaced under warranty.

Ok thanks, are there any certain things to check for when buying a used diesel like this? Like I said I'm new to the diesel world and just getting my feet wet. Trying to learn all i can

Extra filtration extends the life of the Bosch injectors. The lousy diesel here is a reality.
The '05 is the last year of the traditional fusebox.
'06+ ushered in the TPMS system which can be more trouble prone.
The shop I use just replaced the injectors @ 260K on a 2006. i think that's the record.
Along with Bosch rebuilts they installed a FASS fuel setup on the truck.
They reluctantly do Duramax's but refer Ford 6.0+ to a Ford shop for injector work.

Ask the forum members on the various sites for a good diesel shop near you. I'd highly recommend getting a shop to perform a pre-purchase inspection unless you score an original owner with service records, stock unit.

Inspection
 

Regcabguy is correct about fuse box change and filtration. Since oilfield is in your name, do NOT run any red fuel in a CR injection system. I live in NW NM where everyone hear runs red fuel cause it can be free at the rig tanks when no one's looking. I know the temptation is there, but it will destroy the fuel system after a short while. Get VIN first and check history with Dodge 1st and ask them to print it out for you, if all checks ok or shows a history. Before you spend money for a shop to check it out, ask owner to have engine warmed up when you get there. Start engine and remove oil fill cap, if there is a steady stream of white smoke or a puffing of white smoke, engine is damaged along with turbo, injectors, etc. for sure. Cummins released updated injectors at least 3 times and had new #s released before Bosch did, even tho Bosch is mfg. Then check for any aftermarket items such as chips, water injection, aftermarket air cleaners or exhaust, anything considered hot rod stuff, does seller work in oil field too? You can e mail me with further questions if needed for specifics, I call myself Cummins expert cause I started working for Cummins SW in Albuquerque in 1985. All I've done since. I would recommend 03-04 305 HP due to piston design as long as latest injectors in it.

There are many people running red fuel in their trucks with no problems.
The only problem is if you are caught, it could be a large fine.

Red fuel.
 

I know the engine runs fine on it. The rust & water that is present will make it's way thru every filter on the truck, even with a 3 micron filter. I know hundreds of guys who do the same, that's how I know them.

The problem injectors on the 5.9's are in the 2006-2007 years, not the prevous ones. All the Bosch injectors are the same, ther eis no substitue or better ones to be had. The only better pieces are the later production run OE injectors with a fe hardened pieces and bodies. The stock injectors in all the years will work fine IF extra filtration is used and clean fuel is used. Put bad fuel in these trucks and NO injector or other HP system parts will survive.

There is no difference in red fuel and green fuel, it is only the dye. If you are going to fill form the site tanks you had better have multi-pass solids and water filtration or the crud in those tanks will kill the system. Most of the diesel engines running off these tanks have 4 big filters to cut the crud and the systems are not as sensitive as the 5.9 CR to water. Anythign filtered to 3 UM is plenty but if you don't strip the water it is bye bye fuel system. Same thing happens if you fill from a contmainated station tank. The fuel is not the issue, the storage is.

Yep...Damn straight!!!

I believe you gentleman are a bit misinformed. Red fuel is still at 500 PPM sulfur content so dye is not the only difference. Since red fuel is stored in above ground steel tanks that range in temps from -0 to 175 degrees in sunlight. This creates condensation which rusts the shit out of the tank with gallons of water. Rust particles range in size from .01 microns to 1/2". Bosch nor Cummins changes part #s just for giggles, it's because a change was made. Your comment that the later run injectors are better is contradicting your 06-07 comment. Every 325 HP built from 04.5 to 07 were identical injectors. 03-04 305 and 250 HP were different spray pattern and had exact same issue as 01-03 GM, excessive leakage. Bosch rebuilts are cheaper than Cummins Recon, but genuine Cummins are the way to get latest improvements. All the 5.9 CR injectors were basically junk in one form or another. 03-04, leakage, 04.5-07 will stick open and burn pistons down. They clearly are not the 'same injectors'.

That is great info bro. I was not aware of that. Thanks! :tu:

All I can do is shake my head at the myriad of misiformation and misconceptions that still float around the internet. The only thing missing so far is "Ford really owns Cummins". LMAO!! The BS flag is at full mast!!

ALL diesel fuel as of 2014 is REQUIRED by EPA to be ULSD, that includes road diesel, off road diesel, locomotive and marine diesel. By 2010 all but a very few small refineries were switched to ULSD. California and other CARB states required ALL diesel sold to be ULSD from 2007 on. There wer a few excpetions for small refineries to produce very limited amounts of 500 PM diesel for off road, locomotive, or marine use but that was only to give thme time to comply. 99% of the red fuel sold in the US today is in fact ULSD.

There is absolutely no difference in the body design from 03-07 on a CR injector. Nothing. They are exactly the same injector with al the same issues. The only differenc eis the spray angles and number\size of holes in the tips from early to late. They were\are all VCO nozzles with all the same parts inside the injector. The updates to the injector came in late 06, I am sure we have all heard of the "stainless steel" injectors. If you haven't, time to do a little research. That change to composition of the metal in the bodies, the pintle seat, and check ball seat was made to offset the issues of metal fatigue and excessive wear due to the really crappy fuel we have here in the US. Bosch learned and changed with the needs on the CR engines. The harder bodies were also precursor to requests for better high pressure tolerances that were going to be used on the 6.7 injectors. It was prototyped in the process on the 5.9 injectors to test it out.

The issues with the early Dmax injectors were specific to a design fail on those engines, did not affect any Cummins engines. If one ran adequate filtration from the start in 03 there were no issues with injectors and the misconception those years had bad injectors was debunked over and over. The one year that did ahave a bad run of production injectors was in fact 06, it was purely a QC problem when production was moved to some of the former iron curtain countries.

Cummins doesn't rebuild injectors, Bosch does. Bosch has 3 levels of rebuilds they market, what causes the most problems are the cheaper ones that everybody wants. If you want good parts they have to be paid for and most kick about it.

Absolutely nothing wrong with ANY 5.9 CR injector. Nothing, abosultely nothing. The PROBLEM was Dodge NOT taking Cummins and Bosch advice on filtration. Thats it, nothing more. Any hotshotter that has been around long enough with these Dodges will testify that runjning adequate filtration was the solution. Dodhge spced a 10um filtration against all recs when it was known anythong over 3 um of solids accelerated the demise of the fuel system. Even without extra fltration judicious buying of good diesel made a huge difference. The early CR's smply got caught in the switch over to LSD and ULSD when the process had problems.

ULSD is terrible about water holding and it has taken a few years to get that beat into heads. You see the results of that on the new Dodges with 3 um multi-pass filtration to limit warranty claims. All it take is a little experinece with the medium duty truck scene to understand just how bad the LD truck market was screwed by the lack of filters. :)