The cheap injector puller that surprised me after 14 years turning wrenches
I've always been the guy who buys the Snap-On or Mac tools for anything fuel system related. Last month I was stuck on a 6.0 Powerstroke in my own shop in Tulsa, injector was seized in the bore something fierce. My usual puller kept slipping and I was about to pull the heads. Buddy from the next bay over handed me this $40 blind hole puller from Harbor Freight, told me to try it. I laughed at him honestly, but I was desperate after 3 hours of fighting. That cheap tool grabbed on and popped that injector out in maybe ten minutes. It had a different style of collet that gripped the inside lip way better than my expensive one. Now I'm wondering how many other budget tools I've been sleeping on, has anyone else found a cheap tool that outperformed their high end stuff?
One lucky pull on a rusty Ford doesn't mean Harbor Freight is suddenly making pro grade tools. That $40 collet grabbed because it happened to fit that bore, not because it's built better, and next time the metal might just snap off in there and now you're really pulling heads. Guys who turn wrenches for a living don't cheap out on fuel system stuff for a reason, and it ain't because they like throwing money away.