Things have been a bit quiet on the UAV (Urban Assault Vehicle aka Volvo) front recently. Treated it to a new set of HT leads from Rock Auto and an new air filter recently but have been having a bit of a problem with rough running, smell of petrol bad starting etc all of whic pointed to dirty fuel injectors.
Tried Redex and not much improvement, then someone on the Volvo forum reminded me of a Jeep Cherokee upgrade where the injectord from a Dodge/Chrysler neon are fitted in place of the originals. I told matey on the Volvo forum what i knew of that conversion and the benefits as i knew them, he decided to give it a go and when i deicded my injectors were past their best, i followed suit.
While doing some other general stuff, i recently noticed my air filter was as black as the ace of spades adn having found a nice BOGOF deal on ebay for £4.99 delivered per filter and get the second free if you order both at the same time, i bought 4 and fitted one - the rest are in my stash ready and waiting!
However, i've also been experiencing a strange fault recently. Strong smell of petrol when i open the car, pig to start, runs rough as a badgers behind, eventually clears but is generally a bit "lack-lustre". Suspecting the injectors, i added some Redex when i fueled up which seemed to improve matters - somewhat!
While changing the air filter, i noticed a strong smell of BP Ultimate coming out of the air inlet trunking to the throttle body. Shouldn't happen!
As such i came to the conclusion the injectors were well past their sell-by date, or given the pong, smell-by date!
After a bit more investigation and circumstantial (but strong) evidence, i decided to take the plunge and hunted for a set of six 0 280 156 045 injectors that among others, are fitted to the later 960 and a whole plethora of other cars.
The set i found first, at a very good price was from an Omega 3.2 V6 so i put in a Best Offer and a few days later, they landed.
Here's the story on them :
Firstly, big thanks to Phil for reminding me of this upgrade and secondly, for giving me the inspiration to do it on mine! Finally got round to doing it today, after the injectors landed the other day :
Just to get a "base" figure, i went out the other day armed with my trusty Gunsons Gasteseter and took a reading at idle - i was expecting (hoping for!) 1%CO at idle as that's what i'd previously set it at last year just before the MoT.
It showed 0.9%CO which could well be down to the nice new, clean, air filter! Then, for no apparent reason, it shot up to 2.6% and started running like a hatful of monkeys a***holes :
In other words, how it's sometimes been running lately and stenching of petrol at the same time - if i've left the car alone for a while, it's been a pig to start (hot or cold) after that, especially if it stinks of fuel when i get in.
When i was doing the air filter i kept getting a whiff of BP Ultimate from the inlet trunking and to be honest, that was the final piece of the jigsaw for me. Told me one or more injectors are leaking when they shouldn't be - the high CO reading simply confirmed that!
Here's a close up of the squirty end of the new injectors - note the 4 spots - those are the pintles that inject the fuel. Only one on the old ones.
Third injector from the left, the pintle is partly withdrawn as if injecting - should be out! Proof positive my theory was correct!
Anyway, back to the actual job of replacing them!
First, i popped off the clips from the injectors, noticing that injectors 2, 3 and 4 were a bit tighter than the other three. More of this later!
One bank of injectors disconnected ^^^^^ and the other bank :
Right hand bank fuel rail unbolted from the inlet manifold :
Left bank and FPR unbolted :
New injectors ready to go in after giving the "O" rings a vital bit of lube to help them "slip in nicely" - oooooo-errrrrr missus!
Right bank of new injectors in place :
Left bank looked the same from the other side!
All bolts etc replaced (except one i dropped, it might surface one day unexpectedly but not a problem for now) and i decided that seeing as the new injectors had the grooves for the clips, i would fit them anyway - "belt & braces" so to speak.
Fired up and it coughed and spluttered a bit until the fuel rail had fully pressurised then it ran perfectly on all..................... errrrr............ five!
The problem was #3 injector - i hadn't quite pushed the injector connector plug fully home!
Pushed it fully on, the click i heard previously thinking the wire clip was going over the lugs was in fact the wire clip popping off the lugs! D'oh!
Anyway, fired it up again and it ran nice and smooth on all 6, still slightly hesitant at first which i'm fairly sure was down to the injectors probably being a bit dry, then it smoothed out to smoother than it had been on the old injectors.
The "proper" test drive came at walkies time. At first, it didn't seem that different then i pulled out of the cul-de-sac i live in and tickled the loud pedal how i normally would to get to the next junction. I don't usually have to brake for that junction, just ease up on the loud pedal - 'nuff said!
Being a bit more gentle, at least until i had room to be a bit more adventurous without speed humps, potholes and pedestrians getting in the way, i noticed it was much smoother and i now had throttle response - instantly!
Before it always responded but was a case of sending the engine a polite request by carrier pigeon and hoping! Now it's much more "now if not sooner".
Generally speaking it's much smoother and i can make better progress at lighter throttle openings. The most impressive bit is what i've decided to call the "wall of torque".
Being a 90 degree V6, it always was a torquey unit but now it feels like all the torque is available at much lower engine speeds. It feels like no matter what or when, firstly it responds instantly and secondly, it's much livelier because of the better torque delivery.
This should (eventually) translate into better fuel economy, for now that "wall of torque" is incredibly addictive!
For those that are wondering, mine hasn't taken time to re-learn fuel trims etc because it has no Lambda sensor, no cat and no feedback system - all the improvement is simply down to the injectors!
I will check and if necessary adjust the CO in a few days time once the injectors have bedded in a bit. Next job on the agenda is the valve clearances, it's sounding a wee bit tappety!