Bear with me on this post. I know it's long, but I want to get as detailed as posible .

I finally cured all my rough idle, vibration at speed, hunting idle, hesitation on take off and all the little water leaks around the intake manifold (hope they don't come back). Think most of it was the injectors. BUT, I now have a ping. I replaced the injectors with SVO's, cleaned the plenum, runners and intake manifold and replaced the intake manifold gaskets, EGR valve, etc, etc. When I got it back together, it started first time . Topped off the anti-freeze, checked the TPS voltage and set the timing to 6 deg BTDC. Only problem I have is a louder than normal tick. I have a stethoscope and have listened to all eight injectors. All are pretty loud, but the one in #1 cylinder is really loud. I can even feel it knocking when I hold the injector plug. I have unplugged the injector, pulled the spark plug wire and checked all wires to verify I didn't screw the wires up. The injector definitely works. It idles and drives like it used to (crappy) when it's disconnected, but runs great connected.

I did have the manifold off. I looked at the push rods and lifters, but didn't take off the retainers. None were bent and everything looked OK. When I separated the intake manifold, the gasket crumbled into a thousand pieces. Some got into the intake valve area, but I took some vacuum hose and rigged a tube to suck out the debris. Other than that, the heater vacuum check valve that broke and forgetting to reconnect the brake vacuum line , the assembly was smooth.

I know the SVO injectors are loud, but this one is really loud. I have poked around with the stethoscope and can't get anything louder than what I hear when I touch the injector. Nothing but a purr when I touch the rocker arm covers, intake manifold, head. Nothing. And the engine runs like new. It runs as smooth as the wife's Infiniti.

Could something else have happened to cause the tic or is it a bad injector? Or, is it normal?? It's not so loud I can't live with it, but I can hear it driving down the road. I just don't want any terminal problems from it.

 

Well, if you want to be certain it's the injector, try moving it to a different location and see if it stays as loud.

I remember the SVOs on my 305 being loud as well.

 

I'll swap it with another this weekend. Drove it about 25 miles today. Drives like a new car . Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I pulled the entire top end last weekend to do all the work. Can I just pull the plenum and fuel rail to swap the injector? Sure would make it easier.

 

Can the fuel rail be loosened enough without pulling the runners or do I have to pull the runners also?

 

Wanted to close this thread out. After three days of driving, the injector that was knocking bad has quieted down. Still have a ticking from all of them, but much more acceptable now.