Red Green Method of ultrasonic injector cleaning

[JMK]

Yesterday decided to have a look at the injectors and see how what kind of shape they were in. Most were pretty good but #3 must have had a bit of a leak because there was a build up of carbon around it. As noted in the previous thread it's a pretty straightforward process that you can do, but a couple of things to watch out for, and if you want, you can do your own ultrasonic cleaning with your Oral B utrasonic toothbrush and an old brush head.

So a couple of head's ups and tips:
- You don't need a deep 22mm socket to remove the whole injector. Instead you can use a 19mm to loosen the nozzle holder body and remove it first. If you do, just be real careful that the spring and the shim that sits on top of it does not drop out and disappear under your manifold somewhere. You can actually 'walk' the tip up the side of the retaining nut (the lower injector body) to keep the spring inside as you pull it out, or hold the spring in place with something as you extract it. In my case 3 of the 4 shims stayed in place anyway, but one dropped onto the manifold and luckily I was able to retrieve it with a magnet.
-Then you can use a 22mm (or 7/8") socket to remove the retaining nut, again watch for the metal gasket to drop off as you remove it, 3 of my 4 also stayed in place.
-do them one by one so that you replace the injectors back into the same cylinder.
-sometimes the entire injector will come out anyway, which means you will subsequently disassemble it using a vise.
-Take it to the bench and fill a bowl or pot with cleaning fluid. Place all the parts in, noting the original orientation of the retaining pin that fits on the bottom of the spring, and the distance piece that fits over the nozzle tip for reassembly. Inspect them for damage and condition.
- Fire up you OralB ultrasonic toothbrush and clean all the parts. I also used a soft pot scrubber pad to clean deposits from the plunger and nozzle tip.
- Blow them off with a computer dust off canister.
- You have to reassemble so that the spring retaining pin stays in place, so place the nozzle holder body upside down and insert the shim, spring and then position the retainer onto the spring in the correct orientation which is obvious becasue this little 'cap' must seat in the spring.
- With all the parts back in the retaining nut, hold the nozzle tip in place so it doesn't drop out, and then invert it and carefully place it over the nozzle holder body and screw it back on so that all the parts do not move out of position until it is threaded back together.
-I cleaned out the socket hole with a Q Tip and checked that the metal gasket was still in place, and then retightened using the 19mm socket. As I did not have a torque wrench, I actually undertorqued 2 of them.
- When they are all done, start it up and check for leaks. Due to undertorquing the seats, I had 2 leaks, as noted by EricN who had the same problem. This is why it's best to replace the metal gaskets. I then had to remove the injector pipes again and add more torque to them. On the next test they were all dry and not leaking.

The whole process took a couple of hours and didn't cost a cent. Definetly a 'Red Green' approach to the procedure and it would be highly recommended to replace the gasket and use a torque wrench. Now at least I know that my injectors are in generally good shape based on appearance. For those of you in the Calgary area if you want to get fancier, you can take your injectors to GCL Pump Service and get them tested for $55.00. If they have to do a rebuild it's about $55 labour + parts based on 1/2hr per nozzle at $110.00/hr. However I don't see why you couldn't order the parts from Rocky Mountain Imports and do it yourself as GCL quoted $700-$800 as the final bill to rebuild all your injectors.

[JMK]

Follow up to this. I subsequently tested my fuel consumption. The above operation improved my consumption from 13.5l/100km to 11.8l/100km. I still have to put my ECM back in and see if it further changes things.

[BCDelica]

Great instructions; what kind of cleaning fluid did you use?

[JMK]

Hmmm, think it was just Varsol, although I think other fluids are also or more recommended.

[BCDelica]

Thank you, I found a pint of carb cleaner in my shop and will give it a try.

Cheers,
Kev