Update and progress
I got to thinking hard about this and figured out a test procedure to eliminate the injector rebuild as the root cause. First though, the reason I did not remove the hydra was because there are 0 reports of it causing these issues and it was not part of the delta before to after all the work that I did - which yielded the problems I'm now having. The Hydra has been on there for 3 weeks with no codes. Thus, It was unlikely to be a cause.
Anyhow, as I stated, the largest delta is the shimming of the injectors. Of course, I also installed new o-rings, check balls and springs in each injector. Yet, those are all factory replacements - not modifications. Adding the shims is a modification - all be it a seemingly minor one.
I
was getting P1271,1273,1272,1274,1276 from the IDM. of course there's also the 1316
Here's the deductive process I used to find the root cause:
1. Pull the driver side VC.
2. Set #2 back to the original poppet/armature measurement by removing
all shims.
3. Reset DTC codes
4. Start the engine - gotta do this or else it won't actually throw the codes.
5. Shut the engine off
6. Run the buzz test.
Result: P1271,1273,1274,1276 (No more p1272)
Repeat steps 2-6 for injector #4
Result: P1271,1273,1276 (No more p1274)
Repeat steps 2-6 for injector #6
Results: P1271,1273 (No more p1276)
...At this point it's reasonable to conclude that doing the same procedure for #1 and #3 would resolve the p1271, 1273 and finally p1316.
I pondered this a bit and
rubber ducked it with my smarty pants wife. Initially these results do not seem logical. From researching it, I believe this indicates that the armature was hitting the bottom of the solenoid when the armature is shimmed even just .002 or .001 in some cases. The wear part is the poppet seat, not the armature's top surface, the spacer or the solenoids mounting points. The overall gap from the solenoid bottom to the adapter top cannot shrink. It begs the question, how the heck is shimming to a tight .002 causing this when the factory gap is .004?
I believe the answer is lateral play in the poppet piston and cylinder and also the solenoid's ability unevenly pull on the armature which, when shimmed, might have a less stable base of support. That is, when compared to the top of the poppet valve alone.
If the armature can flex even a tiny amount it could hit the solenoid. If over time, the solenoid develops uneven pulling force, I believe it could cause that.
Combine all that and you'd get these results. This is why shimming the actual solenoid is needed - something I did not do.
Well, the Bitterroot kit doesn't mention that and doesn't come with solenoid shims. It just says
don't shim more than .002 or you'll get codes. ..I didn't
I'm left with the choice of shimming the solenoid the same amount as I shim the armature and hoping for the best or replacing the injectors with new ones.
PS. ...also, before doing this I pulled the wire loom off of the 42pin on the body side and the IDM plug all the way back, inspected each wire, cleaned the plugs and IDM port, put the loom back and re-taped. There was only on slightly abraded wire where it had previously rubbed the VC and been repaired. The PO had also installed additional wire loom. No other issues in the harness.
I hope this helps someone out
JB