Removing The Fuel Rail And Injectors

[humanz 3]

How do you remove the fuel rail? I've undone the three bolts I can see attaching the fuel rail to the inlet manifold and the rail feels like it should be free but the injectors are not pulling free from the engine. It's there a trick to getting the fuel rail and injectors removed together? Or did I miss something along the way?

[Anthony 1,003]

The injector seals will provide a fair bit of resistance - if you've removed the bolts holding the rail on then using an open-ended spanner to gently lever the injectors out usually works.

 

Be wary of doing this with the manifold fitted though! It's far from unheard of for the seal to be stuck in the manifold to the point where the pintle cap comes off and drops into the inlet tract and - if you're unlucky and the inlet valve is open - into the engine itself. That'll quickly turn a straight-forward job into a complete pain.

[humanz 3]

Ok. So knowing my luck I better reconnect everything and get someone who knows what they're doing to do it for me.

 

Is removing the inlet manifold straightforward? Will I need to apply some sort of gasket sealer type product when I'm replacing the inlet manifold?

[Anthony 1,003]

Removing the inlet manifold is pretty easy and all obvious enough. Providing that you're reasonably competent and note/picture where everything goes you should be fine.

 

You will need either a new gasket or some form of sealant when refitting.

 

You'll get away with removing the injectors in-situ probably 80-90% of the time, but there is a small but real risk of the pintle cap dropping off. It's happened to me, although in my case thankfully the valve was only partly open so the pintle cap didn't fall into the engine and I was able to carefully extract it.

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

As anthony says- its probably safest to remove the inlet manifold- it saves fishing for an injector cap in your cylinder bore.

 

As for the inlet gasket i fitted a new one recently and after a second one it still leaked coolant- some hylomar around the coolant holes sorted it out.

[humanz 3]

Haven't tried removing the inlet manifold yet, but I figure that's the way to proceed. But, Telf, I'm a bit confused....How can coolant leak from the inlet manifold?

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

There are 2 holes in the casting of the head that are sealed by the inlet manifold gasket. Hence when u take the manifold off out come the coolant.

 

If you jack the car up at the front hardly any will drain out.

 

Anyway - on mine at least it proved a small problem to reseal, even witha new gasket.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Telf

[humanz 3]

Well, I ended up chancing it and popped out the injectors without taking off the manifold. The caps didn't pop off and I hope they don't when I have to do it again in another few weeks.

On a side note, how much fuel should be coming out of the injectors? I expected to see a spray kind of effect when I tried to swing the engine but only got little dribbles. And all four injectors did the same thing. I'll start a new topic if this is unexpected.