stuck injectors

[charlielucky]

Hi, my 81 fiat is only firing on 3 cylinders. The car has not been on the road for over 20 years so I guess I can count myself lucky it at least fires on 3. I've checked the spark and the grounds and they are all good. This afternoon I decided to try and dismantle the fuel rail and remove the injectors. Wow! I'm pretty sure they have never been removed since new and somebody at least tried to remove them at some point and ended up ruining the retaining nuts. After a long struggle I managed to get all the fuel lines and nuts removed. Unfortunately I just can't budge the injectors from their housings. I've soaked them in WD 40 and will try again tomorrow. Does anybody know how I can ease them out without damaging them? The electrical connections were all so loose that a simple tug on them and they just came off. I did try wiggling the connector to see if the missing cylinder was just a bad connection. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks

[tima01864]

https://hurstinjectorservice.com/

[spider2081]

Unfortunately I just can't budge the injectors from their housings.

The 4 injectors are in the intake manifold. Sometimes the rubber seals stick to the intake manifold making the rail assembly with the injectors hard to remove from the intake manifold. Have you tried twisting the injector back and forth a few times then prying up on the metal retainer that holds them down into the manifold?

[charlielucky]

Thank you very much for the replies. I managed to remove the 4 injectors and the fuel rail in a rather unacademic way. I used a round ended metal bar that was just the right width to let me ease the injectors loose by putting a bit of pressure between the engine block and the manifold. Thank you for the link to the injector service in the US. I recently called into a Bosch service centre here in France and they didn't want to have anything to do with 40 year old injectors. I'm sure there are good vintage injector service providers here in France so I'll let you know how I get on.
Thank you

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I've had friends who got new injectors for their Fiats from RockAuto.com I can't speak for the quality myself, but my friends all said that the injectors were fine (and cheap). Looks like they ship pretty much anywhere in the world and accept foreign bank transactions.

-Bryan

[charlielucky]

I forgot to mention something. When I removed the fuel lines etc, there was no fuel pressure at all in the system. I was expecting to have fuel squirting all over the show! The car hadn't been started for at least 12 hours before I removed the rail so is this normal?

[toyfiats]

I forgot to mention something. When I removed the fuel lines etc, there was no fuel pressure at all in the system. I was expecting to have fuel squirting all over the show! The car hadn't been started for at least 12 hours before I removed the rail so is this normal?

That sounds normal. It's really only pressurized when the pump is on. I know there's a procedure in the shop manual to depressurize the system, but I've never had an issue when I've needed to open a fuel line (other than those from the tank when it drizzles out due to gravity).

[charlielucky]

OK thanks again.

[dinghyguy]

Speaking from recent experience replacing the injectors it is a real pain to get my big hands and wrenches all in the right place without removing the intake manifold. It is relatively easy to get the fuel rail with injectors removed in situ, but then the fun starts. You need to clean the holes where the injectors go, make sure you get all the little gaskets out, make sure the crap coating things does not fall into the clean area. Then you need to carefully measure each injector hose length and plug orientation so you can trim the new injectors hoses to the right length and connect them to the fuel rail. Now the fun part where you get to practice you Italian, reinstalling each injector square into the hole starting from the firewall end and clamp them in place all without introducing crud into the small seal. IF you can do that AND you have all the plugs oriented properly you should be good to go. My own experience was bad, i had vacuum leaks such that i gave up and removed the manifold. Naturally i forgot that the cooling water passages in the block meet the manifold and after i took it off the coolant leaked all over the floor.

The good news was that on the bench I was able to install the new injectors no problem and when i put it all back together the car ran wonderfully.
Oh and with the manifold off i also cleaned the crankcase cyclone trap and replace that hose as well as cleaning up all the bits and pieces. Scope creep but worth it.
cheers
Dinghyguy