[Engine] Injector Seal Renewal - Bad day at the office!

[PJR_247]

   

Well it was all going so well!
 
The first three injectors practically flew out of their holes, with their copper seals attached, and it's easy to see why. All three were absolutely soaked in oil along their whole length. OK it's messy but there was hardly any carbon to clean off, apart from a tiny amount where the copper seal sits. A good clean for all three, new seals fitted, so far so good. 

Then it came to number 4. Wedged solid in the head, but nothing that nearly 3 hours of gentle persuasion and a whole can of WD40 couldn't fix. The injector was covered in carbon, there was a small quantity in the mounting hole, and the copper seal had not come out. 
I managed to clean the bore and then made up a wire hook to try and retrieve the copper seal. First go with the hook, seal never came out, hook straightened itself. I reshaped the hook forgetting all about metal fatigue. Second go with the hook, copper seal never came out, hooky bit broken off from end of wire! Doh! We're talking a piece of 2mm wire about 4 - 5 mm long.
I attached a piece of garden hose to the vacuum cleaner and stuck it down the injector hole with the vac on full power in an attempt to retrieve the piece of wire, but I am 99.9% sure it's still sitting on top of the piston. 

It would now appear that my options are ....
1) Take the head off and remove the wire hook.
2) Start it up in the hope that it will be sucked out.  Yes it will wreck the turbocharger blades, but it'll be out and fitting a new  CHRA is a damn sight less work than taking the head off.
3) Have another go with the vacuum cleaner and hope it gets sucked out.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Tomcat3]

If you have a telescopic magnet pen use that or attach a small magnet to a bit of electrical wire so when its in the bore you can move it around to find the pesky bit.
Have you emptied the vacuum bag to make sure you havnt sucked it out.

[Gravity]

Solid lump of grease on the end of your wire probe?

Gravity

[polar]

If its steel a small magnet if its alloy i would go with the grease on a piece of wire / thin rod

[Lighty]

I wouldn't try starting it, the wire will likely embed into the head or piston & not come out.
Magnet is the best chance, although I think you will be lucky.

[jj9]

May be obvious but......

Turn the engine over by hand so the cylinder in question has the piston at BDC and then get a piece of tube that fits through the injector hole and cobble this to your vacuum.

You want a set up so you know you have sucked the piece of wire out, so some sort of filter system maybe?

If going down the magnet route make sure the magnet is well fastened as you don't want that coming off in the cylinder!



.

[Gravity]

Buy a  magnet that's permanently fixed to a length of flexi tube.
Plenty on the Bay.
Put a permanent slight bend a couple of inches up from the magnet - hard to do, because the tube, like net curtain wire, always wants to straighten, but possible. You can then insert it down the injector hole and swivel it around inside the cylinder. Probably your best chance of picking up the dropped bit of wire.

Well worth keeping such a tool in the toolbox - along with its sister, the grabber, also on a length of flexitube.

Gravity

[cancunia]

I'm not sure how big the injector holes are but would it be possible to get a USB endoscope into the hole and look at the piston crown? I've used one through a spark plug hole before & the piston crown was quite detailed. In an earlier post it was suggested to put a smaller tube on the end of the vac hose, I think this perhaps has a better chance of picking up a small object. Again, as posted above, a small magnet is probably the best bet, assuming the piece wire is plain steel or magnetically attracted SS.

[PJR_247]

Update.
I went for a slight variation on Tomcat3's suggestion and sacrificed a guitar string and a Kenny from South Park fridge magnet to make a tool.... got the offending piece of debris out first dangle!
Reamed out the seat for the copper seal, refitted the injector, reassembled everything, and gave the priming pump a few squeezes... it started first time!
Going to give it another oil change tomorrow, as it's done 175 miles since the new turbo innards were fitted, then a couple more at 1000 mile intervals. If it's still OK by then it'll be oil changes every 5000 miles.
I've fitted a new cam/rocker cover (whatever you want to call it) as I can only imagine that the oil on the injectors came from the old one leaking, so I've done as much as I can do to try and ensure a few years trouble free running.
Thanks again for all the advice, much appreciated.

[Satellitemark]

So you just killed Kenny you bastard !

Congratulations on getting it out.


Mark


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