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Cleaned injectors, now running like crap

exanVZ

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Hey guys,

I took my fuel rail off today to clean my injectors, I used a bit of carby cleaner along with some tube, a syringe and a battery to run the cleaner through them. Changed the o rings and the filters and put it all back together. First time doing this, but i can't see anything I could have done wrong.

Car is now running terrible, hard to get it to start, rough as idle sounds like it's about to stall, and lots of white smoke out of the exhaust. I took it for a drive thinking maybe i just needed to run some fuel through it but it's still the same, very smokey whenever i accelerate, feels really down on power and idling very rough. Also getting SVS light coming on when I was driving it. Was driving fine before I did this :(

Any ideas what I could have gotten wrong? It seemed like a simple job.

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exanVZ

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Quick update, I dropped car off at a mates workshop today for them to look at it and I think my injectors are ####ed, battery may have damaged them irreparably, and on top of that my week old iridium plugs are all fouled.

New question now. It's looking more like i need to replace the injectors, my mate said his workshop pricing is about $95 per for standard bosch replacements. obviously I don't want to spend $800 on standard replacement injectors. His advice was to check ebay, which i've done.

I found this WA seller offering 42lb aftermarket parts, for about $300 for the set. Sounds much more cost effective, and gets me a slightly higher flow injector if I ever need it.

8 X 968 440cc 42lb EV6 Fuel Injectors LS1 LS2 XR8 VN T HSV Ford Holden V8 Green | eBay

If I buy these, does the car need to be re-tuned to run higher flow injectors? It's booked in for a mafless tune in less than 2 weeks, where they can tune it accordingly, will the car run fine with these replacements, or even if i go up to 65lb which is only a little more $$ than the ones above and also available in Perth? Availability in Perth is the main thing.

I'm a bit out of my depth here and need to make a quick decision so i'm not without a car for too long. Cheers.
 

_R_J_K_

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Bigger injectors will need a tune or the car will just run rich.

Also, would strongly advise against getting no name ebay injectors and look for some thing genuine or branded.
 

Dirbatua

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yea get some genuine second hand, you can pick up 2nd hand LS1 injectors for under $150 a set or get some reco LS1 injectors for $3-400 bucks usually.

Guessing you used a car battery or something to pump em, you use a 9 volt battery to clean injectors generally, i've done it a few times with no issues.
 

exanVZ

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yea get some genuine second hand, you can pick up 2nd hand LS1 injectors for under $150 a set or get some reco LS1 injectors for $3-400 bucks usually.

Guessing you used a car battery or something to pump em, you use a 9 volt battery to clean injectors generally, i've done it a few times with no issues.

cheers guys, i just used a little 9v battery like i had seen in many online how-to's so no idea how they got so stuffed, unless i reversed the polarity or something.
kinda depressing :(
 

diysv6

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Are you able to isolate the faulty injector/s by disconnecting each in turn and the run the engine, or are they all faulty?
The faulty one/s may show up as no change to engine idle etc. A Tech2 could give you a hint on where to go from here.

Did you remove any harness connectors or earth loom wires during the exercise?
You may have inadvertently disturbed a common junction for the ignition coils and injectors, or earth point for these commons on one or both cylinder heads.
The SV6 has common earth returns for the ignition coils and the injectors under an innocent bolt on each the cylinder heads.

From memory I used 3 x 1.5v AAA batteries when I tested my SV6's injectors.
I don't think the injectors are polarity sensitive, just a "coil" pull type solenoid.
Must admit that I did power them in the normal current flow direction with the test battery.

Did you get much junk out of the injectors when you forward and reverse flushed them?
 

A9L

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Have to ask why you cleaned them **IF** the car was running okay before. Apart from fluid and plug changes etc, I wouldn't have fixed it if it wasn't broke...
 

diysv6

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Are you able to isolate the faulty injector/s by disconnecting each in turn and the run the engine, or are they all faulty?
The faulty one/s may show up as no change to engine idle etc. A Tech2 could give you a hint on where to go from here.

Did you remove any harness connectors or earth loom wires during the exercise?
You may have inadvertently disturbed a common junction for the ignition coils and injectors, or earth point for these commons on one or both cylinder heads.
The SV6 has common earth returns for the ignition coils and the injectors under an innocent bolt on each the cylinder heads.

From memory I used 3 x 1.5v AAA batteries when I tested my SV6's injectors.
I don't think the injectors are polarity sensitive, just a "coil" pull type solenoid.
Must admit that I did power them in the normal current flow direction with the test battery.

Did you get much junk out of the injectors when you forward and reverse flushed them?

............................................
I don't want to highjack the subject further, but I do want to explain my reasoning.

Sorry to be "overriding my post, but for some reason IE11 has stopped me editing my posts and screen viewing any attachments our members have posted. I have been told by my bank, which bank, that IE11 has massive problems (something about IE11 dropping off early systems which they are no longer supporting). I don't know if our excellent site has a problem as well as "which bank".

My corrections are:

You may have inadvertently disturbed a +12 volt common junction for the ignition coils and injectors, or earth point for these commons on one or both cylinder heads.
The SV6 has common earth returns for the ignition coils under an innocent bolt on each the cylinder heads.
The earth pattern is based on firing order eg. 1,3,5,7 and 2,4,6,8.

That's why I suggested a Tech2, as it may highlight a power feed problem or coil earth grouping.
Thanks for your patience.
 

exanVZ

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Thanks for the suggestions guys, I attempted to clean them as I felt the idle was a little off even after changing plugs and leads, and didn't think it could do any harm.
Anyway, lesson has been learned.

Good advice diysv6, it's possible I've disrupted something, it's in the workshop now so they should be able to pick up on that.

I got a set of injectors and a fuel rail from the wreckers today for $80, and i'm getting these ones ultrasonically cleaned at my friends workshop and then will swap them back on and see how it goes.
Will report back on what the fix is when it's running again.
 

exanVZ

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I got it back on Wednesday, the injectors I got from the wreckers were serviced, re-used my own fuel rail as it was cleaner, and got new plugs anyway, was still a bit smokey until it went for a drive as there was a lot of fuel dumped in it. Running well again now.

Also got it inspected while it was in the workshop as I never had anyone look over it when I bought it, but no issues picked up.

And I asked them to chuck in my new rear springs while they had it too, I was planning to do it myself too, but confidence was a bit shot. No longer scraping on every speed bump or on my driveway.

Thanks for everyone's advice.
 
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