Replacing fuel injectors

[BlackbirdM3]

I picked up a new set of fuel injectors and was planning on replacing them this evening. Are there any tricks or things I should be aware of before pulling this apart?
I'm guessing I should pull the fuel relay and crank the car over to relieve the pressure before I try and remove the fuel rail. The new injectors came with new top and bottom O rings, and I have new metal retainers for them as well. I was planning on using a little bit of silicone O ring lube when I install the new injectors. Is this ok, or should I just use a little motor oil instead?

Are there any good write ups on how to do this? I'm sure I can figure it out, but its nice to be able to read over the proper way to do this first. I know there was some good stuff on s14s, but since the site is still down, its kinda hard to search it.

Thanks,
Will

[nando]

use vasoline on the o-rings, no sillicone or motor oil.

[e30s50dan]

no a hard job,just have plenty of paper towel handy

[Ninz30]

yea don't over think it. I did it in a few hours. I used motor oil, but thats cause it was the only thing handy. Its a tight area to work on, so have patience. The Bentley should provide everything you need.

[xworks]

If the flexible fuel lines to the fuel rail are original (feed and return) now
would be a handy time to renew them aswell. It's small money for a
length of fuel hose and some fresh clips.

[BlackbirdM3]

If the flexible fuel lines to the fuel rail are original (feed and return) now
would be a handy time to renew them aswell. It's small money for a
length of fuel hose and some fresh clips.

I'd guess that the flex lines are original. I was thinking the same thing. Can I just run down to the autoparts store and pick up some bulk hose and cut it to size or is this special hose that I need to order?

I guess I'll have to go pick up some petroleum jelly for those o rings.

I wish I had the Bentley manual, but all I have is a pretty lousy Chilton's manual. I've been looking for the Bentley manual but I haven't been able to find it in stock anywhere. Its been about a month since I last looked, I'll have to look again.

It looks pretty easy. I've done injector swaps on a 24 hrs of Lemons car (99 Ford Escort zx2) and it wasn't that hard, took about half an hour. Since I actually care about my car, I'd rather do it the right way ;).

Is there anything known to break off if one isn't careful? (Clips or other plastic parts that can't be obtained quickly.)

Thanks,
Will

[xworks]

Standard fuel hose will do the job fine, just make sure it's rated for injection
fuel pressure (45-70psi) and not carbutettor fuel hose (4-6psi), max
pressures are usually written on the sidewall of the hose.

If you can, try and pick up 4 of these type of clips........



as opposed to these type.........



The first type pictured above give a much better seal at small diameters
like fuel hose.

Be carefull you don't mix up the feed and return pipes while changing the
hose's, most of us have done it at some stage and wondered why the
engine now runs crap.

Take a few minutes to study the run of the original fuel pipes before pulling
them so you can make sure the new ones sit in exactly the same place.
The S14 is a fairly buzzy engine and if a fuel hose is rubbing up against
something it won't take long to chaff through.
Some cars had a type of spiral binding over the fuel hose, if yours does
it's worth removing it and swapping over onto the new hoses.

Changing over the injecters is very straight forward, just be carefull that
any dirt doesn't fall into the fuel rail only to be pumped into your brand new
virgin clean injectors on start up. If the injectors are original and
have never been removed before the O ring's will most likely be fairly seized
in there and it can help to lever with a small pry bar on the underside of
the fuel rail just to pop it up.

May the force be with you.

[BlackbirdM3]

I got the injectors swapped out last night. There was only one questionable fuel line and that was from the pressure regulator back to the return. The long soft lines looked good and weren't cracked, or crusty. The injectors were happy where they were at. Also the electric clips were happy to hang onto the injectors. I eventually managed to extract everything. I ended up having to install and remove the fuel rail and injectors a couple times as a hose clamp was in the way, and I dropped one of the seals for the #2 electrical connector several times (the thing kept falling out.) Once I got everything seated and looking good I reassembled and took it for a spin. The idle is smoother, and it feels like its got better power across the board. I'll give it a good workout this evening setting up an autoX course for a test and tune/school that I'm working tomorrow.

Thanks,
Will