Fuel Injectors stuck in head.... any suggestions?

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

I have 3 of the 10 injectors not wanting to budge. Number 10 has had it’s plastic pulling collar disintegrate using the special puller tool, number 1 has one side cracked and the number 6 is intact. I had sprayed some PB blaster on them a few hours before the attempt.

The #1 side cracked was my first injector and I wasn’t paying attention, or rather I thought the creaking sounds were the injector walking itself out… I should have been looking at the injector more closely. You can barely see the crack in the photo, but it’s there:

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The #10 surprised me since I was being very careful and thought I had not put that much torque on it. The others came out hard, but with no damage, I was very careful after #1’s failed attempt.

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So, grab it with vise grips? Heat? Something else? I do NOT want to add a head gasket and redo of the cam girdles to my budget, so whatever I do, those three injectors need to come out cleanly. If all three are toast (as I think 2 already are) so be it. I’ll eat the $500 bucks rather than go backward on the work.

Rest are ready to hit the ultrasonic cleaner once my injector tester gets here.

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Without that plastic collar, my guess is that the metal holders will not work, so I am out at least 2 injectors right now (and man they are expensive).

All BTDT’s are welcome and appreciated.

The

#2

Well I went to check them again and they seemed to be moving back & forth & turning a little easier.

I got #10 (which I thought was going to be worse) and #6 (undamaged) out. Unfortunately whenI was doing the same to #1, while it was moving and behaving like the others, in reality it was not. The lower section is now stuck in the injector tube. I can see this:

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I have some taps I could try, or I could try and drill into the remaining collar and see if I can grab that. I dissected one of the trashed injectors and the remains are the circular dish you can see, and a now empty tube terminating in a tiny spray hole.

There isn’t much room around the outside of the dish to grab, medium needle nose can make it, but it does not budge. Thinking I could us something to grab the inside edge, I had a set of the bits that are designed to help you remove plumbing pipe, but the smallest is too large.

I am leaning toward drilling and tapping, the shavings should be caught by the nozzle at the bottom of the tube, but I would like to grab it somehow to rotate it. Maybe a reverse snap ring pliers or something.

I am also thinking of heating the shit out of it first to see if I can break its grip.

So close…

Ed

#3

I was faced with the same situation about four years ago. I drilled and tapped the injector, threaded a bolt in and then used the injector puller to remove it.

#4

OK, then I am on the right track, what a PITA. I am calling it a night.

Do you remember what size tap you used?

Ed

#5

All I recall is that I used an inverted 3/8" drive socket to capture the head of the bolt in the puller.

#6

Got it. Nice idea. It’s amazing what you have to, or can, do to get out of situations.

Ed

#7

I have been at this off and on for the better part of a day with 2 Milwaukee Cobalt hard metal bits and I barely have a bevel started in the center hole.

Do I need to spend $20 on a solid carbide tip?

I have also cut a couple of slots into the top of this what appears to be hardened stainless and used a couple of large screwdrivers (after more PB blaster) to get it to rotate and it is just not budging.

If I need a solid carbide drill bit then I probably need something a bit better than the taps I have (though I forget where I got the extra M5X1’s I have).

I guess the moral of the story is pop out your injectors every 75K miles or so (unless they have some kind of anti seize for injectors that’s safe for DFI engines.

I’m waiting on the RMS tool anyway, but this is starting to annoy me.

Ed

#8

I went with a relatively slow drill rpm and probably stepped up through four drill sizes to get it to the size for the tap.

#9

Eng, thank you very much for the inspirational words of wisdom.

3 step ups in bits, the removal of that spinny thing with holes in it, tap, screw and use both the hammer (to get it started) and the screw puller and the F’n thing is out (without removing the dang head):

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Now back to my regularly scheduled program (actually that involves a couple of double IPA’s)

Jeez that was a lot of work.

Ed

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#10

Question: When re-inserting the fuel injectors should I use something like this:

Liqui Moly Pro Line Injector Grease

Ed

#11

Found this old thread because I’m in just about the same situation. 4/10 injectors don’t want to budge. 3x days now soaking with various penetrants and carb cleaner. One of them lost the top where to tool grabs it, but it’s not as bad as lliejk’s yet. Hoping it doesn’t get that bad before they come out. Sorry to JimmyBones that a few of these cores will be useless! At least they all twist now. Does anyone have a better solution than vice-grips before I end up with a drill and a tap?

#12

The formula is to help break the seal. The seal is all of the dirt dust oil etc that is acting as a seal on this. use penetration oil then blow out and try to pick out any top layer around the injector. Then work it back and forth to try and get the injector to spin slightly. Remember the injector is in a kind of cage that is holding the injector in place. So that is going to bind and hold it in place. The more you can get the injector to walk the better.

From there your working to pry and pull the injector. Now if your injector slide tool isn’t working. You can go to the next steps. That is vice grips that have a half moon internal grip surface. Use a rubber hose or bike tire to wrap around the injector as to not damage the injector when clamping on it with the vice grips.

You want to clamp on the injector from the side so you can use a leverage point to leverage up the injector while working to tap or vibrate the injector loose. If that makes sense. That has worked like money for me every time the injectors are stubborn…

You want to really vibrate jiggle and wiggle the injector while trying to twist and rotate.

#13

Just went through this and patiently tried every penetrating oil and pulling idea out there. I had 3 of the injectors come apart leaving the lower seal and tube in the head. After a week or two of kicking around ideas we found a very simple solution. There is no drilling required. You need a 7/16 - 30 bottom tap. This will fit perfectly into the cup of he injector that you have left in the head. You should be able to tap 2.5 to 3 threads into the cup. When you bottom the tap keep turning so you can get the injector part to turn as well and loosen up. Add penetrating oil to free it up so that it will turn easier in the head. Remove the tap. Get a piece of all thread or an 8" 7/16-30 bolt. Run a nut all the way to one end. Add a fender washer and a small piece of 3/4 " pipe. Thread the other end into the tapped cup till it is tight. Tighten down the nut on the other end and jack out the injector. After working on this problem for 2 weeks i was able to pull out the 3 injectors in 10 minutes.

#14

I had the same issue with the slide tool breaking the plastic off of the injector body so I made a tool that solved the problem for me. We drew something up in CAD that perfectly clamps around the top of the steel injector body once you remove the O ring. Cut it on the CNC out of 4130 steel and heat treated it. It attaches to the slide hammer tool and got all of my stuck injectors out. Even the ones that I messed up the ends on trying to remove with less sophisticated methods…

If anyone is in a stuck injector situation send me a PM and we can make you one of these tools that worked for me. Once I get my car back together the YouTube video will show the tool in use.

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#15

@JimmyBones you may want one of these to add to your tool collection

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