Injector fuel hoses replacement! It finally happened

YESSS Friends, it finally happend. I replaced the injector fuel hoses. And it was badly needed as the originals were still on it. You almost could see thru the brittle cracks. Don't be a Dodo and get this job done!

I finally had nothing else going on and spent nearly the entire weekend on it. And of course it was freezing cold, which I dislike very much. But it had to be done. A fews week back I was doing a little shoppping and went into the C&A store and by surprise I found a pair of Thermo Jeans. And also a warm flanel shirt. It's the first time I bought new clothes to be used a working clothes. But boy was this comfortable.

In any case, let's start. Earlier in the week I had watch these supporting videos again to for learning and guidance purposes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXovG0zUrTg

But also check out this blog with more supporting video's by someone else, very helpful:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2023/10/clean-and-test-jaguar-xjs-v-12-fuel.html

First items I did remove was the throttle bars, they can simply be pushed out. 

Next removing the gas cable and unscrewing the cableholder and unplugging both cable connectors.

Then removing some kind of air control bar. On both sides I had topped of connectors with a tierap mounted. I have no idea regarding the purpose of it. I guess it's not much of a use since it works OK without them connected. 

Then disconnecting the incoming fuel line and returning fuel line. And then unclicking all the injector connectors. I thought this was going to be difficult as it was unclear how these are fixed. But by using a screw driver I could tilt them slight on one side and with my fingers I was able to disconnect with a little movement. 

Careful though, afterwards I spotted 3 connectors lost the inside gaskets. I spotted them by luck when I  was inspecting the engine bay and I was able able to secure them

Then unscrewing all bolts. Again, be careful not to lose the washers and bolts in your engine bay. Have a magnet stick ready just in case. The removal of the injector rail went pretty easy.

Mind you, I spotted later on that a few injectors had the mounting rubber still inside the injector hole. So have that checked else you will have problem later on when putting the refurbished injectors back in. It's easy to overlook when you are refurbishing the injectors. 

As you can tell, this job needed to be done. Not only the hose was hard and brittle also the furele was heavily corroded.

So it's now just a matter of following the procedure per Youtube video. Just take your time to remove the hose. The one on the injector seems more to take more effort than the on that's on the fuel rail. I used the hacksaw to open up the furele and a knive to cut the hose open. And a screw driver to push it out from the furele.

In order to remove the filter use a screw that fits and goes into the copper. Tap it slightly in so it sits firm and you can pull it out:

I did put the injectors in an ultrasonic cleaner. I had one for my watch hobby so that was easy and it fitted in nicely. Just used tap water and cleaning concentrate. Quite a bit of dirt came of it, I guess the majority from the outside

Then building it up using the new kit:

I bought this clamp tool but it did not work very well for me. On the first attempt the glued protection rubber went lose. So instead I used a large screw and the bench screw and nicely tighten everything together, both the injector protector and the new fuel filtercap

The old fuel filters are entirely made of copper/steel while the new ones are partly plastic. Not sure how long that will last or will cause some issues on the long run?

Just for the records I captured this tag on the fuel rail:

And this tag on the hose, which seems to indicate it's from 18/06/1985
Which is odd as my car is from 1984:

And one refurbished injector ready to be mounted back on the fuel rail. And make sure you put the mounting bracket on correctly. Once the fuel hose is put back in there is no option to change this.

And repeat this 11 more times and presto! 

Clean up the mess:

Putting back the fuel rail went fairly easy, just take your time to position all the injectors and mount the brackets on. And all the other parts. 

I completed this activity in 2 days. The first day dismantling everything and refurbished 6 injectors. The next day I did the other 6 connectors and put everything back again. About 6 hours per day. 

And the moment of truth! I had my fire distinguisher ready but luckily I did not needed it. The car started up pretty quickly, I had turned on the ignition a few times in order build up fuel pressure. And it started fairly quickly but it ran very rough though. I only let it run very shortly a couple of times and inspected for any potential leakage or any other unusal thing. But all was fine. And it started spinning very nicely again. In fact when it became a little warm it ran smoother than ever. And even better response on the gas. I'm so pleased with the result. 

At the start of this project I was considering to uplift the entire fuel rail by spraying it. But I'm glad I didn't. It would have been to shiny/flash in comparisson with the rest. It looks quite OK now.

Now I still need to do the last remaining 4 fuel hoses. Watch this space