Removing Fuel Injectors for servicing

In an attempt to resolve Juan's 80's pinging problem he decided to get his injectors serviced. To do that requires removal of the injectors from the fuel rail and to do that requires removing the plenum from the intake manifold.

http://www.rceng.com/ is the URL for the company that is performing the servicing of the injectors.

It took about 3 hours to get the injectors out - including a trip to the local hardware store to pick up a large spanner.

The trick to this job - is remove the bonnet first. You'll be amazed how much more room you have to work with. You have to remove the bonnet to be able to swing the large spanner to loosen the 32mm nut that holds the EGR valve to the hardline.

You have to remove the EGR valve to get the plenum off.

With a Supercharged 80 life is a bit easier since the throttle body is already out of the way and all that is required is to remove the intake runner from the S/C. The picture shows the studs (you have to remove the nuts) that supports the EGR on the plenum. The other arrow points to the rear of the EGR where the 32mm nut is. We found that to remove the EGR valve it was necessary to remove one stud - the one that is visible in the picture. It may be possible to get the EGR off with removing the stud - but it seemed impossible at the time ;-). There are 4 bolts below the plenum that you can barely get to, but easily get to once the plenum has been partially lifted off the intake manifold. The 4 bolts attach two brackets to the plenum. A plethora of hoses & valves and bits are mounted on those brackets. The bolts must be removed so that the plenum can be removed - the brackets & bits remain. Note, we couldn't find a 32mm spanner, so we bought a 1 1/4" instead - worked perfectly fine. Prior to removing the fuel rail, loosen the fuel cap (and leave it loose until you have finished the entire job) and depressurize the fuel rail. To depressurize remove the fuel pump relay and then start the engine and let it run until it stalls (due to lack of fuel).  The fuel pump relay is in the front fender on the DS, just below/behind the ABS modulator.

This picture shows what things look like when the plenum has been removed. The white arrows point to the 8 bolt holes. You have to remove all 8 bolts to pull the plenum off - and it has to be lifted vertically off since there are some guides on the intake manifold. Make sure you have two new metal gaskets that go on between the intake manifold & the plenum. Most of the 8 bolts can be removed from above the engine - with double jointed elbows ;-) But a couple of the rear most bolts must be removed from below - make sure you have a lot of extensions! The blue arrows point to the 4 bolt holes that attach the brackets (mentioned above) to the bottom of the plenum. The '32mm' arrow points to the big nut that needs to be loosened to release the EGR valve. The pressure regulator is pointed to (just for the hell of it).

Juan looks happy to finally have the plenum out of the engine bay. Removing the fuel rail and the injectors is now a relatively simple task.

The injectors were returned from service along with a printout of before & after measurements. The picture shows the injectors with new o-rings and gaskets already to install back onto the engine. The EGR valve shown next to the injectors. A new pressure regulator has already been mounted on the fuel rail (far right of the picture).

Installation was reasonably straight forward. The trickiest part is to get all the injectors (with new o-rings & gaskets etc) to line up with the fuel rail and the holes on the head. It's easier to plug the injectors back into the harness so they wont fall to the ground if they slip out of the fuel rail while you're trying to position it. Once installed - start to tighten the three retaining bolts. Don't tighten too much - check that each injector is seating properly by carefully trying to rotate it a bit left & right. If  they are seated well, torque down the 3 bolts as per the manual.

We also changed the fuel filter, the pressure regulator, the EGR and the VSV. The vehicle runs smoother but there's still a hint of pinging. I guess Juan will just have to live with that.