P38 injector clean up

[Blanco]

Finished my compression test (after waiting some time for manifold gaskets) and got the engine running again I was at the back of the car sorting tools when I hear drip drip drip on the cardboard I had down from an earlier spill. ?????

Up with the bonnet again and I have diesel all down the side of the engine, my freshly cleaned sump is all wet and dirty !

Switched off and took the top cover off again, ... only just having refitted everything.  Injectors 1234 all have puddles of diesel around the base and on starting up again 234 are all blowing bubbles!

This is a bit of a puzzle and a worry as the only injector component I had touched was the pipe on 4 which had to be moved to get to the heaterr plug. I am sure I would have noticed a diesel leak of that scale before.

So without really understanding what was happening I thought I had better have a look at all the injectors.

Off with the manifold (much more quickly this time) and off with the pipes..... I did think to take a picture just to make sure I could put the pipes back correctly;

I decided to remove the injectors, clean up the seats, re-anneal the copper seal and re-fit, as time was short that evening I just started tentatively with No.1.

27mm deep socket required, seemed tight enough .... when you get the injector out the copper washer is quite difficult to remove, it squashes in to this groove when you tighten the injector;

..... which means that it isn't very flat when you do get it off, I had to redress it with a block of hardwood ,..

 

I was worried but it seemed OK and fitted nicely back over the nozzle, the washer surprised me in that it already seemed pretty soft but I annealed it anyway.

Turning to the head side of things....

Its hard to picture it successfully but aside from the dirt in the injector recess, there was also considerable coke/soot on the washer seat at the bottom, as if the washer hadn't been in contact at all, that probably explains the bubbles, but I am still not sure how it would come about unless the injectors weren't tightened down properly??

To clean things up I first cut a plug of old washing up sponge to push in and catch the dirt;

.... it also prevented the solvent from going down, cleaning up was quite awkard, one of the best things I found to clean the seat was a splash of carb cleaner and this bodged brush;

So got No.1 back in and the following day set about the remaining 5, only hiccup being No.4 injector which has a built in sensor of some kind;

That necessitated making a window;....

I did try to drill the side of the socket but while it was possible at the 1/2" drive end of the window, down towards the 12 point end it was impossibly hard, so grinder it was.

Worked really well and still very strong.

Only difficulty remaining was to get the pipes back on, having taken a picture I thought it would be straightforward but actually took a little while before I was confident all were correct,  the firing order helped to keep things in perspective. I cut a slot in a ring spanner to nip up the pipes, I had managed to undo them with an open ended spanner but it does get congested at the back of the FIP.

I had only just replaced all the leak-off pipework as part of the heater plug exercise, but I wasn't happy with the quality of it so I managed to buy a bit of Gates fuel hose the right size and replaced them all again.

Whatever the problem was I now have 6 nice clean and dry injectors.

Just got to get back on to the EAS at some point although I have one or two domestic chores before 'Lorenzo' gets here on Thursday.