Ditched the L-Jets and went o-ring

[JavelinZ]

Well my '77 280 had, for several months an issue with the number the #2 injector. There was an intermittent misfire that was causing an idle issue, plus it was making it hard to get through emissions. The injector was cycling properly from listening to it, which led me to believe that it wasn’t atomizing the fuel properly. If I removed the plug wire the miss became steady, it was also steady if I removed the injector connector. So I narrowed it down. Well I started trying to explore my options since I didn’t feeling like throwing $300 at new injectors that I already wasn’t fond of when they did work. A few months later my #5 injector started leaking fuel externally so now I had an actual safety issue on my hands so the Z got parked.

 

Luckily my previous job called me back for the summer so I had access to a mill and a lathe and some other machining equipment. This made a fuel rail conversion a more feasible idea (since Pallnet temporarily halted making his fuel rails). Which figures whenever I need stuff I always hit walls that make everything harder, oh well. So I researched on here some more to find out what was necessary. I knew about the Toyota 23250 45011 injector that came in the 22re 4-cylinder. Yet I still had some unresolved questions as to whether this would work or not. So I took the plunge anyways. I found everything I needed to know to do the work on the rail myself here on HybridZ.

 

Materials Required:

2 ft. of aluminum rail stock (I purchased mine locally from Arizona Speed and Marine @ $10/foot)

(6) 23250 45011 Toyota injectors (purchased from Motorman $25/each)

End mill and reamer ( Actually a reamer isn’t exactly necessary an endmill can produce a smooth finish for the o-ring to seal.)

3/8†pipe plug fitting and hose barb fitting (I chose to tap for 3/8â€npt -6AN is also an option.)

 

The pictures pretty much show what all is required.

Here's the old fuel rail after I pulled it out.

 

This is #5 clearly the tip was corroded oddly; enough this injector wasn't the one causing the misfire. Go figure.

 

Here is the engine bay with the ugly rail removed. I cleaned the injector ports so the new o-rings would seal good to avoid a vacuum leak in the intake

 

Before I cleaned the ports. You can see where they were leaking.

 

These are the cutting tools I bought to do this. Gold finish on the tap and "F" size drill bit is a TiN (Titanium Nickel) plating. Not necessary for cutting aluminum but it helps a lot when cutting hard metals like steel and stainless

 

This is the 13/32" 2 flute center cutting endmill I used. The reamer was a 27/64" straight flute.

 

Here is the bridgeport I used to machine the rail. The DRO (digital read out) is accurate to within +/- .0005in.

The rail is 20in. long so the vise being wider would have helped keep chatter and part flex down. We did contrive a 'cornballed' clamp setup to help prevent movement

 

I drilled and bent the brackets at home 3/8 holes at both ends. Bent to a 37 degree angle to mount the rail. The Channel locks are for keeping your fingers from getting messed up if the drill seizes while your drilling.

 

Here's a comparison of what I did. The rail is tapped on both ends for 3/8 pipe thread. The other piece is for a second rail I later machined for my Dad's car which is also running this same setup now.

 

I drilled and bent the brackets 3/8" holes at both ends. Bent to a 37 degree angle to mount the rail. The Channel locks are for keeping your fingers from getting messed up if the drill seizes while your drilling.

 

Here it is installed:

Dang birds!

[JavelinZ]

Now improvements, when I did this swap I was just looking to get rid of the miss and the fuel leak. I didn't expect the to run smoother, quieter,and dare I say faster. I used to be able to hear the L-jets ticking going down the freeway now it's just dead quiet. From a light traffic used to pull ahead of me and it took me longer too catch up. Now I've actually noticed that I'm keeping up with traffic and usually pulling ahead and my driving style and shifting is the same as before. So I know I gained some power back by doing this. Just revving, the engine responds more smoothly. So I thought I would post this writeup for those guys running the stock setup who aren't ready or can't afford an aftermarket ecm. So here is an alternative to the L-jets. I also did this conversion for about the same price as a new set of L-jets($300). Another reason I did this was safety as my Dad had one of the boomerang rail half connecting hoses on his Z rupture on the freeway emptying his nearly full tank. Luckily it didn't catch fire. So all around this swap is an improvement. So if your interested in doing this the information can be found here; port spacing and bracket angles, as well as sources for the injectors. I've been running this for a couple months now and all is well.

 

(Oops! I was moving between tabs and programs while I was typing this could a mod move this to the fuel delivery thread for me sorry guys.)

Edited August 21, 2010 by JavelinZ

[subridersix]

Now improvements, when I did this swap I was just looking to get rid of the miss and the fuel leak. I didn't expect the to run smoother, quieter,and dare I say faster. I used to be able to hear the L-jets ticking going down the freeway now it's just dead quiet. From a light traffic used to pull ahead of me and it took me longer too catch up. Now I've actually noticed that I'm keeping up with traffic and usually pulling ahead and my driving style and shifting is the same as before. So I know I gained some power back by doing this. Just revving, the engine responds more smoothly. So I thought I would post this writeup for those guys running the stock setup who aren't ready or can't afford an aftermarket ecm. So here is an alternative to the L-jets. I also did this conversion for about the same price as a new set of L-jets($300). Another reason I did this was safety as my Dad had one of the boomerang rail half connecting hoses on his Z rupture on the freeway emptying his nearly full tank. Luckily it didn't catch fire. So all around this swap is an improvement. So if your interested in doing this the information can be found here; port spacing and bracket angles, as well as sources for the injectors. I've been running this for a couple months now and all is well.

 

(Oops! I was moving between tabs and programs while I was typing this could a mod move this to the fuel delivery thread for me sorry guys.)

[subridersix]

Looks like you did a beautiful job. I'd like the dimensional information for injector spacing and so forth. I think this is a project worth trying. Is there anything you would do differently after running this mod for a couple of months?

Bob

[JavelinZ]

The injector spacing can be found doing a forum search. Here's a link to one:

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/70721-l28-injector-spacing/page__view__findpost__p__669437__hl__%2Binjector+%2Bspacing+%2Bfor+%2Bfuel+%2Brail__fromsearch__1

 

There are other posts that have this information along with hole drilling sizes which is important because there is a certain interference that you need to have to properly seal the o-rings in the rail. The information or links to it can be found with some searching here on hybrid.

 

I can't say that I would do anything different. It's still running great so no complaints or modifications there.

[Josh280z]

I'm going to be doing this mod, my injectors are toast and why not gain some power/reliability/simplicity in the engine bay.

[Tony D]

Nice write up. Thanks!