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Pintle caps in engine, now its dying

N

natelapolla

Donating Users
Hey guys,

So I was rebuilding my injectors and all three rears came out without their pintle caps so they were clearly in the intake manifold. I decided to start it up and try and burn em out. Well that didn't work. First thing I noticed: Fuel trims were -25, smell of gasoline, and a lot of white smoke from the tailpipe at idle, in addition to 192 misfires (I think the max my Aeroforce reads) and a rough idle sound/feel.

I drove it... thought maybe I could power it through it. I was wrong.

Now I see that there is a lot of oil coming out from the front exhaust manifold, I'm not sure what the rear looks like. I've also got a CEL that flashes when I accelerate by my Aeroforce won't read any codes. Since I drive for work (150 miles a day) I'm going to rebuild it but I'm not sure how far I have to go, I'm thinking head gasket and new heads (ported) since I'll be in there.

I'm hoping theres no bottom end damage as that is outside of my scope and I would hate to pay for that.

Any advice?

2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 135k miles
 


so you went and pushed chunks of plastic and metal into the lim and ran the engine hoping what? you wouldn't kill it?

if this is what you did, you now need a full valve job, maybe pistons if they are chipped up or damaged.

a compression test will confirm the bashed up valves that ate then chunks you ingested.
 
plenty of those plastic o ring retaining rings have fallen off over the years with no ill effects on Plenty of engines that I have worked on. I don't think the l-32 injectors are any different from the l67.
I've only had issues with the manifold side oring body on the L 26 injectors and when those break off at the Sonic weld I just Gober them with rtv and slide it back on
 


Its just a plastic disc that doesn't look like it effects spray pattern, it looks more like an o-ring retainer. Regardless it sounds like I'll be pulling the heads, thanks Scotty.
 
Ok, I'll do the compression check before I do anything else.

Its difficult for me to work on my car as I live in an apartment complex where I'm not allowed to, so I take it to a friends to do work.

Another thought crossed my mind as I'm mostly just sitting around thinking about the problem right now.

Is it possible that I have fuel injector(s) that are stuck open? Would it explain why my fuel trims are negative maximum and I smell gas like crazy from the exhaust? While rebuilding the injectors I had difficulty removing the filter baskets and may have let a piece get in there. I was also tapping them on a hard surface to remove filter debris and to seat the filter. How sensitive are the injectors?
 
its possible they are not working right. you can test them by pulling the rail leave the injectors clipped in, then turn the key to run, if you have a few stuck open there will be a large steady spray from it for 3 seconds, thats the pump priming, then it turns off till the engine fires up.
 
natelapolla said:
Hey guys,

So I was rebuilding my injectors and all three rears came out without their pintle caps so they were clearly in the intake manifold. I decided to start it up and try and burn em out. Well that didn't work. First thing I noticed: Fuel trims were -25, smell of gasoline, and a lot of white smoke from the tailpipe at idle, in addition to 192 misfires (I think the max my Aeroforce reads) and a rough idle sound/feel.

I drove it... thought maybe I could power it through it. I was wrong.

Now I see that there is a lot of oil coming out from the front exhaust manifold, I'm not sure what the rear looks like. I've also got a CEL that flashes when I accelerate by my Aeroforce won't read any codes. Since I drive for work (150 miles a day) I'm going to rebuild it but I'm not sure how far I have to go, I'm thinking head gasket and new heads (ported) since I'll be in there.

I'm hoping theres no bottom end damage as that is outside of my scope and I would hate to pay for that.

Any advice?

2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 135k miles
Click to expand...

Update: So I failed to mention that when reinstalling the rails, I touched the alternator post and sparks flew so I wasn't sure if it was something electrical damaged. Turns out it was: but not the wiring. I shorted the injectors themselves into a stuck open position, and even after telling the repair shop this is probably the case, they still used 2 hours of labor diagnosing the problem. Injectors on cyl. 1 & 3 had to be replaced (so all 6) and the final cost was $775.

I learned my lesson, I will always disconnect the battery when working on the car.
 


I really doubt that's what did it, more than likely you got junk in the injector and caused them to stick open slightly if it was fully open just 1 injector will hydrolock then engine when you turn the key to on. Ask me how I know. lol... anyway if it's running right now then sounds like you are good. I have an injector test stand and used it for many years and noticed how easily the disc injectors are able to get gunked up when they are removed from the car. I used to get sets in that would have half of them partially open but worked fine when they were in the car.

Jeff
 
Jeff I was told that 4 were running at 14ohms the other two were not. I think it was the alternator post sparking that caused the problem, as it seemed like electrical damage form the diagnosis. In the end I have 4 working injectors, any ideas on what to do with them? I saw ZZP sells the 33# ev6 injectors as an upgrade for the cobalt, perhaps try selling them on a cobalt forum?
 
Typically if they ohm out between 12-16 ohms is normal. If they were open or shorted then that would be a problem. The injectors operate at 12V all day long so I don't see how they could have been damaged. I don't think that they would be an upgrade for the cobalt guys as they already run 33/36# injectors stock. Most move on to 60's and 80's as I've pulled several sets from
the junkyard along with the EV1 adapter harnesses.

Jeff
 


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