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And you would be correct. Smoke test had some smoke coming up from the underside of the intake manifold. Looks like I'll be learning how to rebuild the injectors...
Picture attached. I didn't take a picture during, which is my bad. I grabbed a siphon pump from the local Harbor Freight ($4.99) to do the pumping with. I used a 3" test port from the PVC isle at the home improvement store ($0.72), which had just enough depth to it for the hose clamp to hold it. I took out the MAF, and put it on the end of the intake hose where the MAF is. Then I used duct tape to tape a cigar to the top port of the siphon pump.
Gentle pumping wasn't enough. Went through half the cigar thinking I had no leaks. Then I went at it with a bit more gusto, and sure enough, smoke wafting up from the intake manifold.
Picture attached. I didn't take a picture during, which is my bad. I grabbed a siphon pump from the local Harbor Freight ($4.99) to do the pumping with. I used a 3" test port from the PVC isle at the home improvement store ($0.72), which had just enough depth to it for the hose clamp to hold it. I took out the MAF, and put it on the end of the intake hose where the MAF is. Then I used duct tape to tape a cigar to the top port of the siphon pump.
Gentle pumping wasn't enough. Went through half the cigar thinking I had no leaks. Then I went at it with a bit more gusto, and sure enough, smoke wafting up from the intake manifold.
OK, sounds good but I might be thinking about it all wrong. If smoke goes into the air intake through the MAF, won't it just find 2 open intake valves since not every cylinder will be at TDC?
Not meaning to sound ignorant, I'm just trying to get it into my head how smoke would go through the closed fuel lines that way to test fuel injectors??
To me, I would think that you'd remove all of the spark plugs, turn the ignition key to On but not Running, to use your borescope through the spark plug holes to see if any drips were dropping from your fuel injectors into the cylinder area onto the pistons... if you wanted to test for leaky fuel injectors.
I could be all wrong here. I've only tested the fuel rails+injectors after removing them from my motor. I sprayed carb cleaner into the fuel port on the fuel rails to charge up the injectors to see if any leaked when they weren't being signaled.
Then I used a 9 volt battery with 2 wires one at a time to each injector to make each injector click so that the carb cleaner came out of that injector.
I wasn’t testing the injectors for a fuel leak. I was testing for an air intake leak. Pumping smoke in the air intake, looking to see if any escapes anywhere. The intake side of the engine should be all sealed up, so you shouldn’t see smoke come out anywhere. Because smoke came up from under the intake manifold, either the injector seals are bad, or an intake manifold gasket is leaking (or both). That’s letting unmetered air in the engine, which the computer tries to compensate for by adding more fuel to the mixture. And it eventually throws the ‘too lean’ codes.
so in I go to put new seals (and pintles and baskets) on the injectors, and replacing gaskets since the intake manifold has to come off to get to the injectors.
I Just read this whole thing and figure is prob what is wrong w mine since I got the same 1171 code, not 1174 thou but other was 0171, 0130, 1590. I need to try this smoke and or vacuum test too. I keep learning so much. Unfortunately I’ve already thrown wayyyy Too many parts at mine lol but hey once I get it 100% then mostly everything will be new 🤷*♀️*♀️
Thanks guys....again!
Pintle cap question:
Attached is a picture of an injector I just rebuilt (bottom), and the next one I was starting on (top). You can see in the picture that the new pintle caps are slightly different than the old ones. Anyone that has done this before know if this will matter? The old pintle caps extend just slightly beyond the end of the injector. They seem to fit well, and snapped right into place. I double-checked the kit I ordered to be sure it was the right one.
First time on this job, so a bit nervous as it is, without variations from new to old...
Little bit of an update here. I moved forward with the injector install and got it all put back together. It started right up, which I'll claim as a success. I have a couple things to deal with though, before I'll know really how successful it was.
1) The coolant pipe that seats in front of the manifold is leaking coolant. Not a particularly small amount either. I did put a new o-ring on it when I put it back together, and it is snugged down to specifications. I'll have to take it back out of there to see if I can tell what's going on. I do not believe it was leaking before I took everything apart, so I'm sure it's something I did. I wasn't even going to take it out, but felt like I should clean up some cable and hose routing that wasn't right while I was in there.
2) It was idling too high when it started up. I let it run long enough that it should have come down off a high idle. It just stayed idling about 2000rpm. Perhaps that's a side effect of how off all the fuel mixtures were previously? I'll have to read up on high idle and see what I can come up with.
3) Discovered while disassembling, the brake vacuum booster connector on the manifold is not in great shape. Very likely another vacuum leak there, and also probably why the brakes felt a bit stiff. Not looking forward to replacing that, but I think it needs it.
In case anyone is still following along, good progress today.
I got the coolant leak fixed. I had mangled the o-ring on the heater pipe when re-seating it. Fortunately the original o-ring was intact, and I was able to find a new one that matched at the auto parts store. Paid closer attention on installation this time, and no leak that I can see.
After an initial high idle on first start today, second and all other restarts (so far) are near normal idle speed. The rough idle is gone and running very smooth now. For anyone interested, I'll attach a couple pictures of how I removed the injector baskets. I can't claim the method as my own. Copied from a video I found. Worked well with a gentle wiggle and pull, after threading it in.
I still think I need to fix the brake vacuum booster connection on the intake. Brakes were good on a test drive, but I just can't see that connection being leak-proof the way it is.
All my fuel trims went to what I would call 'normal'. I started with all of them pegged at 25%. I'll attach an updated screen grab of what I'm seeing now. Similar with the O2 sensors, in that I think they are showing much more 'normal' voltages now.
The engine seems to be idling 800-900 on the high side at idle. I'll keep an eye on it as I get a few more test-drives in. I'm seeing a pending code of P0505, so there might be something lurking there still. When I check the fuel system status, it's still showing System A is closed loop and System B is open loop. I'm still not certain I can translate that into anything I should be looking for. What is 'System A' and what is 'System B'?
There's still a laundry list of little things to address, but getting it idling and running smooth was the highest priority, in terms of peace of mind from purchasing it. The journey continues, now with the added benefit of being comfortable getting it out on the road for some test drives...
03-10-2018, 08:27 PM
