boat owner

Injectors and glow plugs

The next job was to remove the

injectors and the glow plugs. They

were also tight! The injectors are held

in place by a single bolt and sprung

rectangular washers: easy to undo, but

the combination of an aluminium head,

stainless shim spacer and steel injector

is a recipe for corrosion, especially as

they faced the front of the car and

the weather.

I took out the clamp bolts and

clamps. There were two fl ats on the

body of the injector and I used a large

adjustable spanner on these to try

twisting them. It took a combination of

freeing oil, heat from my propane gun,

brute force and perseverance to get

them to move: the car was from the

mid-1990s, and hadn’t ever had a

spanner on the engine! Eventually

they came loose and were removed.

There’s a copper sealing washer on

the bottom of the injectors: these

sometimes come out with the injector,

but sometimes stick. In this instance,

two did – but I knew how to get them

out. I took an 8mm threaded bolt,

ground a small taper on the end and

screwed it a couple of turns into the

washer down the hole, and wiggled.

Out they came on the end of the bolt.

The glow plugs were the same,

stainless in aluminium – yuk! They

have an 8mm spanner head. I heated

the head around them and used

lashings of freeing oil, working them

to and fro until they fi nally came out. I

then took a straight rotary wire brush

and de-coked the head and valve

pockets. I also cleaned up the injector

sleeves with a piece of broom pole

and some abrasive cloth. I found that

a Scotch pad cloth was superb for

cleaning up the metal surfaces and

piston tops.

I spun the valves in my drill and

The glow plug looks like this Removing the glow plug

I also cleaned

up the injector

sleeves with

a piece of

broom pole

a numbered row, then the valve
clearance adjusting shims can be lifted
out of their recess on the valve stem
and kept with their buckets. This is
important, because otherwise
reassembly becomes a nightmare,
with the clearances all messed up.
I used my trusty valve spring
compressor to compress the valve
springs one by one, so as to wriggle
out the collets.

■ TOP TIP: I use a socket that is a
touch bigger than the valve collets
and stem, and place it on the top of
the valve, with the valves and head fl at
on the bench so the valve can’t move,
and give it a tap with a hammer. This
action loosens the collets, which jam
because they are tapered, and makes
using the compressor easier.

I put the valves with their respective
buckets and didn’t mix them up. They
were only lightly begrimed with carbon,
but needed a bit of work and a light
grinding. There was no play in the
stems, but I wanted to change the
stem seals.

Other stuff comes off
While the engine was loose on the fl oor I
also undid the main front pulley bolt and
the fl ywheel bolts. The front pulley is
24mm and very tight. I wasn’t going to
use the injector pump, cam belt or any
of the ancillary bits, so I didn’t bother
with timing marks etc while I
disassembled it. I put two 6mm bolts
through the injector pump pulley into its
locking threads and used them to lock
the engine while I bounced on the
breaker bar. The fl ywheel bolts were
relatively easy to undo.
I then removed the rest of the bits such
as the injector pump and mount, engine
mounts, oil fi ller and fl ywheel housing
backing plate. This is where the car
engine differs, with a dissimilar housing
and the starter motor on the opposite
side to ours.

This is the fl ywheel end of the engine:
the belt you can see is the old steering
pump belt

PRACTICAL

It took a

combination of

freeing oil and

heat from my

propane gun to

free the injectors