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Since you seem to be going to 'feel the fear and doing anyway' all I can say is be extremely careful, as when I came to doing this job on my own Car 'Cherry Blossom' I had my heart in my mouth the whole time and knew that one false move could ruin my Car
Although in my Case it was different as the Car wouldn't Start because the Injectors were blocked, which left me with no choice but to remove them where each and every one of those Injectors felt as if they'd been Welded into the block and if I thought getting them out was hard, then getting them back was a 'Nightmare'
Where the only saving grace was that on my pre-facelift, the Fuel Rail is much more substantial and as such not so easily damaged as the delicate pipework on yours but echoing what 'Greg' and 'Grant' have said, take your eye off the ball for a Second and you could very easily drop one of those tiny Injector Nuts down the bore
In which case it 'could' be 'Game over' but in any event you could be using one of those Magnetic Sticks a lot more than you would think, where from my own experience I couldn't have managed without it
Also curious to know the reason for wanting to remove the Injectors, on the assumption that the Engine runs fine, as if you only want to get them Tested you could be waving goodbye to £600! as I had a quote of £50 each! and so decided to pass that one by! as my Car runs perfect just as She is
As for the Storage Unit, do you have enough room to either take the Bonnet off or tie it right up in the Air because if you take the Injectors out, then you may as well replace all the Spark Plugs, as there would never be a better time to do that job than when you have the Fuel Rail out of the Car
Where replacing all the Spark Plugs is also another 'Fun Job' that took me 3 days to do!
Which left me so traumatised, that I had to go for Counselling and still having 'Nightmares' about it to this very day!
As the P.O. Shop had done them up so tight, that I had to extend my Torque Wrench with a Scaffolding Pole to get some of them out, where all the time I was scared I would break something, or strip the thread in one of the Spark Plug holes
As another thought on the subject of what you are contemplating, have you considered it possible that the Previous owner may have already done the 3d's as that Sparkling engine bay seems to indicate that your Car has been really well looked after
The PreHE spark plugs are a walk in the park, sooooo simple, even with ALL the junk installed,and the A/C compressor in there.
They are angled, 3 to the front, 3 to the rear, on each side, whereas the HE has all 12 angle towards the apex of the "V".
Paul,
I suggest a short spray of WD40 or similar down on the lower seal area of each injector, and leave it soak, do the same in a few hours, or next day. That will ease the Injectors out of the Inlet manifold holes.
Thanks for all your feedback, it's all really encouraging.
I had a couple of hours free today, so decided to pop down to the car and try Greg's suggestion of trying to lift the rail with the injectors on one side and see if it worked.
I started by removing the fuel injector & cold start injector wiring plugs on Bank A, followed by the connecting pipes of the fuel rail to the FPR and also to the cold start injector.
I then removed all the injector retaining plate nuts and washers. My slim fingers also negated the need for the expected magnetic stick! I then gently loosened the retaining plates, took a deep breath and wiggled the fuel rail upwards. Perhaps more by luck than skill, it all lifted , although I then discovered how much fuel was still left in the rail!
Flushed with success, I decided to press on and see if the manifold would come off as easily. After removing the A-Bank FPR (which also had a surprising amount of petrol still in it!), and then the earth wire retaining screw at the back of the manifold, I then turned to the various vacuum pipes. The distributor vacuum pipe and clamp was easy enough, as was the large balance pipe between the 2 banks. The ones that intrigued me were the 3 pipes on the rear end of the A-Bank inlet manifold - 2 small vacuum pipes and a large pipe. I couldn't easily see where they went. One seemed to go down by the transmission housing so I guess is the feed to the transmission modulator? I don't know about the other one? Or the large one, which was a pig to get off, such that I left it until I could pull the whole manifold off and then wiggle it free.
I then set to with the 12 retaining nuts and washers securing the inlet manifold. And I confess that the magnet did help me with the washers!
With everything off, I gently tried to lift the manifold...Which just came straight up! I was then able to remove that large pipe at the rear of the manifold and JUST wiggle the throttle linkage past the inner wing brace bar.
After promptly putting some rags in the ports, I stood back and surveyed my handiwork....
A few things struck me already:
- I can see that a good degree of maintenance has been performed relatively recently but I know it's the right thing to get everything up to the same standard
- Two of the injectors came out with the lower seals intact, four of the seals just split with most left inside the manifold. Definitely need replacing
- The fragility of the injector wiring loom is very apparent. I'm so pleased that I'm going to replace that
- All the inlet manifold gaskets remained in situ on the head. They look in perfect condition but I'll replace them anyway with cut-up X300 gaskets
- I'd love to find something that will really fit securely in the ports such that I can more easily thoroughly clean the V without worrying about anything going down the ports
- The outer edge of the cam cover gasket seems very dry but there is definitely oil lower down. Assume this is the carrier joint?
- I'm pretty sure I'll assemble inlets and rails on the bench then install as one. However, I can already see it will be quite difficult to secure the manifold nuts with everything built up
- With the (relative) ease that the rail and then manifold lifted and the fact that pre-HEs can be done one side at a a time, I'm now minded to try and lift the B-Bank as one unit. Would anyone like to agree or disagree with that?
Good for you Paul. I would advise a single-piece solid old shirt cotton rag tightly screwed into the ports. Do not forget the injector ports either. The oil weep below the cam cover is the tappet block join which is unsealed OEM and a known leak point. This cannot be fixed permanently without cam removal. I would either ignore it, or you have to adopt the GiF bodge, which works but is unsightly for the purist!
Great save on the injector loom and the rubber seals - just shows how right you were. Labels on ALL the loom plugs mind!
Greg
Bloody well done indeed, and I reckon 4 beer call is warranted.
Greg is right on the tappet blocks, and mostly it can take up slightly with use, and fresh oil, NO idea why, it just does. Ours became a 3rd car, so sat for ages between runs, and leaked, then became 1st car for Son, and the leak stopped, now at 640000kms, and still weeps a tad, and the care factor is less than zero.
I see no reason NOT to lift the manifold and rail as one, I think you are well and truly in the :comfort zone" now.
Those A bank vac hose are 1) Trans modulator, 2) A/C system vac supply, 3) Brake booster vac (the big one), and there should be a siamese of it on the B bank.A 4th spigot, some have them, is generally capped.
Last edited by Grant Francis; 02-19-2020 at 02:12 AM.
Reason: spelling still sucks
When I woke up this morning on my birthday, I thought " I wonder how fast I could strip off the B-bank in one lump?".
Well the answer is...really quite quickly!
That large vac pipe on the rear of the inlet manifold put up quite a fight so, as before, I left the clip undone and decided to pull the pipe as the manifold came off.
With injector wiring all disconnected and the balance pipe connection to the AAV disconnected I started on the manifod nuts. As some of you will know, it's much more difficult UK get to them with the injectors and rail still in situ. It does make me wonder if I'll eventually re-assemble it all on the bench or perhaps put the manifold on and then the injectors and rail afterwards. Thoughts?
Anyway, with the constant support of the magnet, all the nuts and washers came off and Bingo, the whole kit and caboodle lifted off! That v12 does look so much better with the cam covers visible, doesn't it?
Shirts stuffed down the ports and I left it.
Off now to London to celebrate my birthday with my daughter. I must have the unenviable record of the only person to take the RH inlet manifold off when I was 59 and not get the LH manifold off until I was 60!
Happy birthday Paul. I can see no reason at all why you should not assemble the entire manifold and injectors off car and then mount them as a unit each side separately, as you took the second one off..
Congratulations
Last edited by Greg in France; 02-19-2020 at 05:44 AM.
02-15-2020, 04:38 AM
