How to remove fuel rail?

[Aurora40]

I've got my plenum off, and I removed the feed and return lines from the rail. I also removed the 4 bolts (2 on each side) that hold the rail to the injector housing. But I can't for the life of me get the damn rail off! I don't want to pry on anything and mess it up, so I figured I'd ask here.

I even removed the rail to injector clips on one side hoping to pull the rail up and then individually pull each injector and reattach it. No dice, though. What's the secret?

I'm just trying to remove the injector housings for now, eventually I'll replace the injectors though (they haven't come yet).

Thanks!

Bob

[Jeffvette]

Pry away, just make sure you have a rubber coated tool, or lay a cloth down on the machined surface of the injector housings.

http://www.pnwzr1.net/Registry%20Project/9.JPG

[Aurora40]

Thanks Jeff! That worked like a charm. I didn't have The Club, so I used a breaker bar and wrapped it up. My IH's and plenum are all ready to go now. :) I'll clean up the IH's a bit first, I already cleaned the plenum. Took me about 4 hours to remove it all, not including draining the coolant, which I just let drain as I ate lunch.

I was a little surprised to see the plenum gaskets all soggy in the area of the coolant passages. They were new KW gaskets that have only been on the car for a month or so. They even left gasket pieces/fibers on the injector housing so the surface will need to be cleaned up.

[Jeffvette]

Thanks Jeff! That worked like a charm. I didn't have The Club, so I used a breaker bar and wrapped it up. My IH's and plenum are all ready to go now. :) I'll clean up the IH's a bit first, I already cleaned the plenum. Took me about 4 hours to remove it all, not including draining the coolant, which I just let drain as I ate lunch.

I was a little surprised to see the plenum gaskets all soggy in the area of the coolant passages. They were new KW gaskets that have only been on the car for a month or so. They even left gasket pieces/fibers on the injector housing so the surface will need to be cleaned up.

To go? Where are they going?

As far as the coolant, you didn't get all the coolant out of the plenum before popping it. One way to do it is drain what you have, then use a little compressed air in one of the lines to push it out.

[Aurora40]

I'm sending them to Marc for his upper-end work. I figure the cost and gain is about the same as headers and a cat-back which I was planning on anyway. And hopefully this will cure my issue with the high-idle after heavy throttle situation.

After pulling the TB a couple times, and looking at it countless times, I couldn't figure out where it was hanging up, but the fact that pressing on the throttle assembly would bring the idle down a few hundred rpm makes me think that it must have been sticking somehow.

There were a few drops of coolant that came out when I pulled the plenum. But it's not the drops of coolant I mean, rather the gasket material itself was soaked/soggy. And it didn't pull off the surface cleanly, it tore and thin chunks stayed stuck to the injector housing surface. I was sort of surprised by that given how short a time they'd been on the car.

[Patton]

I really dont mean to hijack ya, I hope I dont... However I have been wanting to ask this question here and it seemed prudent now with you mentioning your plenum gasket.

I am wondering about different material gaskets, Mr. Crowley sells a copper and an aluminium set,... Since you would never need to replace them again, are they worth getting? Are they as effective as paper? And why do they say copper is the best for nitrous? Thanks in advance!

[Aurora40]

You are talking head gaskets. This is just the gasket between the plenum and the injector housing. They are a sort of paper material, almost like a waxy paper. There is no pressure or harsh chemicals going through them, just air or coolant. I doubt a copper gasket would seal properly.

Edit: My bad, just went to look at his site. They are for the injector housing and plenum. I'd have to think, for example, aluminum wouldn't work that great as a gasket. Otherwise you wouldn't need one at all since it's already aluminum on aluminum...

[tomtom72]

I would just throw this out there about metal gaskets. They used to fatigue after a fairly long period when included in factory engine builds. As an example I would cite the old chrysler 225/198 series slant six. They came with OEM S/S head gaskets that would fatigue at about 50K miles causing oil leaks first then coolant leaks and finally compression leaks.

I think that my Z's plenum was pulled by the dealer because I had the later vac control solenoid, flat filter one not the round cylinder(??). I noticed that the gaskets that were on my stuff were paper with a blue outline around all the important sealing areas. Kind of like the old Fel-Pro Perma-Torque type gaskets from long ago. They did not tear at all, rather they came off on one matting surface or the other & I was able to pull them free intact. The K/W Racing stuff was just plain paper. I think that the gaskets I found on the motor were GM gaskets???...but I don't know. I'm gonna buy some GM gaskets and see if they have the blue stuff. I liked them alot as the clean up was a snap & although I would not re-use them, they were in perfect condition after removal. Any one know if the OEM gaskets are like the ones I found on my motor?? I swear by the fel-pro perma torque's on all the chevy sb's that I worked on.
:cheers:
Tom

[Patton]

Oh here I go hijacking,... Please stop me if needed!

Aurora40,
I totally agree,... The aluminum on aluminum on aluminum concept didnt "seal" well with me. However the copper sounds nice save for possible oxidization... I dont know, for some reason I feel the paper would be the best. Just bite the bullet and replace them when needed.

Tom,
Yes, the kurt white stuff is just plain paper. I didnt use it and was pretty dissapointed. Call P&G chevy at 1-888-870-0280 x214 They have the straight up GM gaskets at great prices. I used the online catalog at first and got the wrong gasket, but I called them and they rectified it at no cost to me! Great people. So to answer your question directly, yes they are the grayish blue cardboard type gaskets with the blue soft plastic/rubber strip that outlines the entire thing.

[Aurora40]

Tom, I also had gaskets like you described. I don't believe my plenum had been pulled, though. I suspect these are the GM gaskets. The GM TB gasket I used recently also had that blue ring around the coolant holes.

My original plenum gaskets were in pretty decent shape too, after 15 years. Not reuse-them decent, but not bad at all. I think I'll be buying GM plenum gaskets as well.

Oh, I also can't find any round filter to replace... My car was a June 1990 build, when was yours built?

[Locobob]

Pry away, just make sure you have a rubber coated tool, or lay a cloth down on the machined surface of the injector housings.

http://www.pnwzr1.net/Registry%20Project/9.JPG


Hey now! You're giving away my best trade secrets. :mrgreen:

[tomtom72]

Hi Bob, U can get the old type solenoid filter for the first design solenoids from K/WRacing.com. They are not cheap! I ordered one & it took a while and I was putting it back together before it came, my fault not KWR's fault. I ordered it after I got all the parts from P & G chevy & they only had the later flat filter for the following design solenoid. The filter was old & fell apart when I opened the bag it was in. Not P & G's fault, what ya gonna do with NOS! That I just put down to the risk of a 15 yr old car. I do not know my car's build date but it was ordered by my orig owner and delivered in June 90, early in the month. I'll see if I can find some paperwork with the date & let you know, my prod # is 2233.

I was surprised that P & G had the old type solenoid, I plugged in the P/N for the early solenoid into the locator on there home pg. & it came up good so I ordered it. To my surprise it came & was in fact the old type w/o the attached filter. Reason I suspect the selling dealer was into mine is that almost all the plenum bolts had not been tq'ed. You know none of them had that "snap" when you tried to first loosen them & the fact that I had the new type solenoid installed...that cooked it for me...I could be wrong, though.

You can make a filter for the old design solenoid from a old C3 vacuum in-line filter. I had one in my tool box "spare small parts" drawer. It looks like the vacuum check valve in the sec vac hose, only 4x as lg. It has a screen inside it and no check valve, I don't remember where it went on my 72 shark but I cut it in 1/2, left one 1/2 w/the screen & saved the other half for later. I found a pc of vac hose to fit it & the solenoid nipple and cut a white floor polishing pad up to fit into the 1/2 I was gonna use, a little RTV to hold my bubba filter material in place & enough lenght on the vac hose to go over the top of the solenoid & back toward the vac hose block that plugs into the solenoid & just let it lay on top of that connection. Wa-la, instant bubba filter. I tried to make gentle bends & no kinks in the vac hose as I went over the top of the solenoid. I also made one from just a pc of the same vac hose and a round pc of white floor pad. I RTV'ed the hose into a hole I dug 1/2 way thru the floor pad but I liked the looks of the first one better. I think either would have been okay but the one with the C3 part looked nicer, so I used it.:mrgreen:

:thumbsup:
Tom P.S. I'm with you guys on the GM gaskets, I like those!

[Jeffvette]

Tom P.S. I'm with you guys on the GM gaskets, I like those!

Actually when you start porting and have larger openings and you start to trim the gaskets. The GM ones becomes a PITA.

[Aurora40]

Actually when you start porting and have larger openings and you start to trim the gaskets. The GM ones becomes a PITA.
I was just about to post a follow-up. I was gonna send Marc my gasket extras since they won't do me any good in stock port size. But then I told him I'd rather him use the GM ones or whatever he uses, as the sogginess of the KW was a turn-off.

He replied he uses the KW gaskets as they are easier to trim. Apparently that rubberized ring is a real pain to try to trim. He suggested to put some oil around the water hole on the KW gaskets. So I'll try this out when I get my intake back.

[Jeffvette]

Heard it from me first :D