I'm removing the fuel rail and injectors to give everything a good cleaning as part of my ongoing maintenance. I've got everything disconnected and ready to pull except I can't figure out how to disconnect the fuel line from the rail. It will not budge. Is there some special trick that I'm not aware of, or do I just need to give it a good pull?

 

I know others have removed the fuel rail before. Someone must know how to properly disconnect the fuel line.

 

Well I feel pretty dumb. Didn't know about disconnection tools. I'll be stopping by autozone tonight to pick one up.

Since I couldn't get the entire rail off the car, I settled for removing each injector. I ordered a rebuild kit off ebay which includes new top and bottom o-rings and basket filters:

Jaguar 4 2L V8 Fuel Injector Service Repair Kit O Rings Filter Seals | eBay

I removed the old basket filters from the tops of the injectors. I was surprised to find that most didn't even have any bit of the filter screen left, just the plastic housing. In the other ones, the filter screens were stained a dark brown color.

Once those were removed, I removed the o-rings and soaked the injectors in a container of seafoam for a few hours. Needless to say the liquid became very dirty and cloudy. Next, I left them in a container full of CLR overnight. This morning they were squeaky clean. Next I ultrasonically cleaned them until all the CLR was flushed out, followed by another soak in clean water just to be sure. They're now drying out, waiting for me to come home and put in the new filter baskets and o-rings.

Once I've figured how to disconnect the fuel line, I plan on giving the fuel rail a good once-over, and replacing the fuel temperature sensor while I have easy access (its natural location near the rear of the engine is hard to get to).

 

I wasn't aware that the injectors had integral filters.

Thanks.

 

Neither was I until I pulled them out!

 

I think most injectors have filters on the inlet end. The injectors in the photos at the links below are the Lucas-Bosch type used in the XJ40-X308, but I was also able to find replacement filters and O-rings in a very inexpensive kit on ebay. I haven't cleaned the injectors on our X350 so I haven't shopped for filters yet.

Welcome to Jag-lovers - Members Photo Viewing Page
Welcome to Jag-lovers - Members Photo Viewing Page

XJ8JR, thanks for your pioneering work on your X350 injectors. Any chance you could post photos of the injectors and filters?

Cheers,

Don

 

Don, I wish I had the resources for your method of flushing the injectors. Very innovative. Unfortunately, I could only give them a few good soaks.

You can see in the pictures below the difference between the new filters and my old ones. 7 of the 8 old filters didn't have any filter left on them at all.

 

Hi XJ8JR,

Thanks for the photos! That's really interesting that the filters were deteriorated. When I cleaned the injectors on our '93 at around 190K miles or so, the filters were filthy and half clogged, but the filter mesh was still intact on all six injectors. Can you think of any reason your filters may have deteriorated, such as fuel additives, injector cleaners, etc?

The filters look identical to the ones in our '93. I wonder if they are a standard size used by multiple manufacturers?

Cheers,

Don

 

I have been using fuel additives perhaps a bit more than I should over the past year, but I was under the impression that using such every few months was ok.

 

I guess another possible culprit might be ethanol - does your local fuel have more than 10%?

 

I'm not sure. I'm in Los Angeles, where driving a car is a pain in the a**, but a necessity.

 

I changed my fuel filter recently and when trying to reverse flush the old one with

petrol it would not flow through which must have been due to the very fine mesh in the

filter. ie you need pressure to get a flow.

My point is that possibly the contamination on the injector filters may be more gum than

particulate.

BTW I was not cleaning the old one to refit it! LOL

 

meirion1,

I'm so glad you said that!

 

Well, I put everything back together last night and started the car. It started up and all was good...until I noticed that there was a tiny jet of fuel shooting out of a tiny hairline crack in the fuel pressure sensor/regulator at the front passenger end of the rail. How the hell did that happen??

Luckily, there's a Ford dealership a few blocks up the street and they had the part available for $125. Switched it real quick and the Jag is back on the streets after a week's slumber. Haven't noticed any difference in performance with the rebuilt injectors, but its good piece of mind at least.