Since one of my next projects will be the injectors, is there any special torque specs or alignments or whatever involved with installing them or just insert and tighten down. I'd like to yank'em out and get rebuilt. I'm sure I could handle the removal, but some people claim there's a little more involved with putting them in.

 

um remove the upper intake, and anything needed to get it off.

remove fuel lines from fuel block. unbolt the block. tug on 1 side and wedge it out. then wedge out the other side. Get new O-Rings for the ends. The injectors themselves have a little C-Slide lock that you have to turn to free the injector.

 

actually with the injectors port ur manifold...

and buy an A/f gauge or make one...

bcos ull never know if the injectors are gona help u or not unless u know wether ur running lean/rich

more fuel is unnecssary unless u have some serious mods int eh intake and ur running lean/....
(dont ya think hunter...that he first needs to get more air in there)

 

Here's the way I do it, and it doesn't involve disconnecting any fuel lines. If you visit my engine swap page at http://www.geocities.com/tomp_3rdgen , you can even see the fuel rail hanging down the driver's side fender.

First, use compressed air to blow off any dirt or other crap that's around the area you're working on. The main spot we don't want dirt is around the fuel rail. Second, disconnect the negative battery terminal, and move it far away from the battery. You don't want to get any sparks while you do this procedure!!

You'd do the usual to get at the fuel rail- disconnect TB linkage and wires (you can leave the TB connected to the upper plenum), such as the throttle cable, trans TV cable, TPS connector, IAC wire, the rubber vacuum "block" at the top of the TB. Then you undo all the upper plenum bolts (10mm), and push down on the TB to break the upper plenum free of it's gasket. The TB will still be held to the car by the thick plastic vacuum line, which goes to the PCV valve and intake manifold. As you pull the TB/plenum forward, wiggle the thick line (seen from the top passenger side of the TB) and it'll come loose. (It's connected via a rubber fitting.)

Now you've got the fuel rail looking at you. Lay rags over the exposed lower plenum ports so nothing falls in. (This would be a good time to shoot the area with more compressed air, just make sure your rags are covering the plenum ports.) Remove the cap on the shraeder valve (rear top of fuel rail). Cover the valve with a rag as you depress the center pin of the valve- fuel will squirt out, that's why we cover it with a rag. This removes all fuel pressure. (Oh yeah- do this on a COLD engine.) Remove the rag and put the valve's cap back on. Throw the rag far away so it can't catch fire on anything.

Remove the two 13mm bolts holding the rail to the engine. Now, here's the key to doing this job without disconnecting the main fuel lines. Look at the two steel fuel lines. They are held to the engine with little clips, and short 10mm screws. Remove all these screws. Remove all of them so that the entire line, between the fuel rail and the rubber fuel hoses, is free. Drew said you might have to move the a/c compressor to get at one clip; I don't think so, I can't remember. This will allow you to swing the rail over the "hood latch" area, and you don't have to worry about finding o-rings or fuel block gaskets or stripping a fitting or etc.

Undo the cold start valve's tube from the fuel rail. I have to look at my spare intake manifold tonight; it'd be much easier to unclip the line at the cold start injector (rear of intake manifold).

Undo each electrical connector. I labeled the connectors with "1", "2", "3".."6", for each injector they were connected to. To undo the L-Jetronic electrical connector, squeeze the metal clip "in", and pull the connector straight off.

Now, take a pry bar, and pry the fuel rail "up", using the intake manifold as a pivot for the pry bar. The original o-rings are STUCK there, so you'll need a bit of force. Just look at things carefully enough so you don't snap anything. Yes, your injectors will "flex" inwards and outwards as you lift the rail up; it's fine. When the rail's off, put an old t-shirt over the whole intake manifold so nothing falls in. I suggest also laying a t-shirt down on the hood latch area, so you don't hurt your new injectors or the fuel rail, and you help keep the rail/injectors clean. I put an old drip pan with newspapers on it over my hood latch area, and swung the rail onto the newspapers.

Undo the C-clips that someone mentioned, which hold the injectors to the rail. The lock will spin only one way. The Haynes manual has detail on this. Fuel will spill out of the rail, by the way.

Pull each injector out one-by-one. Examine the ends of each injector for a missing o-ring, or piece of an o-ring, or piece of a pintle cap. If you find a piece missing, it's either in the fuel rail or intake manifold; try to find it, and remove it!! Lube each o-ring of the new injector with regular 'ol motor oil. Push the injector into the rail, keeping the same connector orientation. Swing the injector lock into place. (You might have to transfer these from your old injectors to your new ones).

Once all the injectors are in, put motor oil on your fingers, and run your finger inside each injector's corresponding hole in the intake manifold. Re-lube the o-rings on the "output" ends of the injectors. You don't want these o-rings to tear!!! Otherwise you'll cause a sealing leak and you'll either have fuel leaking out or your motor will run poorly- and you'll be pulling the rail again.

Position the rail over the intake manifold. Nudge each injector into it's hole, and when each injectors in place, start pushing the rail into the intake manifold. Keep checking each injector to make sure it's in it's hole. When you've got the rail pushed in as far as you can, tighten the two bolts down to 18 ft/lbs. Tighten them incrementally... you know the deal... snug one, snug the other, snug the original one more, snug the other one more, torque the first to 12 ft/lbs, the second to 12, then final torque 'em each to 18. (Range is 15-20 ft/lbs... I usually go to 18.)

Reconnect the 6 injector connectors. Just push them onto the injector, the metal clip will click into place.
Reconnect the cold-start-injector tube.
Reinstall all the fuel line screws you removed.
Reinstall the upper plenum... I'd recommend using new gaskest, or cutting your own, using the old ones as a template. Use an exacto knife and flat black gasket material... a roll of it's $2.50 at Pep Boys.
Reconnect the TB linkage.

The car will take a while to start up after this. You could speed things up by turning the key to "on" (not starting it) so the fuel pump primes, then turn the car off, wait a few seconds, turn the car on so the pump primes the rail some more, turn the key off, etc....

 

Man i tell you Tomp must know his bird now like the back of his hand, he's always given out the best technicle articles and tips, keep up the good work Tomp :hail:

 

tomp didya really type all that out.....

 

Haha, yeah, I typed it all out.. it's no big deal; I'm a fast typer.

 

Ok then. Thanks. Now I just need to find some time to do this and decide if I want to get new injectors and do it all at once or have current ones rebuilt. $5 per injector is pretty tempting.

 

You're all welcome.. see what happens when I get bored? I had my spare set of injectors done by Rich, and they really worked well. I'm tempted to send him my ~190,000 mile injectors for a flowtest, just to see how bad they were clogged.

Depending on the mileage of your car, you might want to score injectors from a low-mileage junkyard car, and don't forget about the GM front wheel drive platforms with the MPFI 2.8.

 

See what you can score from a yard for Opels & Porsches. I'll bet they are the same, especially the Opel ones.

 

I recently was told I had some vacuum leaks in my 2.8 v6 injectors so I pulled the fuel rail and installed some new o rings from a Napa injector kit. In my opinion they went in far too easy, I did have them lubed with oil but they just slid into the manifold with out too much push. Car ran fine for a few weeks then began to dropp power and emissions became more pungent when engine got warmed up. I went back to the fuel rail and pulled the injectors again. They came out with little effort, very loose. The SES gave a 33 low vac and 45 rich code. In the process of troubleshooting how tight should the injector seals feel when installing into the manifold? are these Napa seals just too loose to be effective?

 

Like pizza I can now swap injectors in about 30 mins. I wish I hadn't had that much practice though.

 

Wow. 9 years. I'm impressed.

Last time I did my injectors (learned a lot since I started this thread), they were 'snug'. Not loose, but it didn't take a lot of force to insert them either.

 

I am in the middle of reassembling my Formula after performing this procedure. It works exactly as he stated.

 

The Napa fuel injector kit o rings actually shrank, Part# 735-4584. I still had some left over fresh o rings from the kit and compared them to the ones just taken from the injectors ( noticeably smaller now ) I called Napa to give them a heads up they said they would take care of me and set me up with a better brand for the same price. The o rings were blue in color and more rounded than the original ones. I'm going to spend the extra $$ and get the AC Delco seals. Winter's coming on and I don't want to take the chance and be down into it when it's 20 outside. Thanks for the injector info on this thread, good stuff.

 

Part number interchanging with the GP Sorenson 800-9220 are the rings I always use. They fit tight and I haven't had any problems with them. They're around $10 for a kit of 16 (for V8's).