Fuel Pouring out Exhaust 2.5 Subaru Power

[MarkWard]

A new customer brought his Subaru powered vanagon to me to figure out. I was hesitant to get involved because I don't have a lot of experience. It has been at a shop for 3 months and aside from the trip from Delaware to Florida when he purchased it has been broken down. I feel sorry for the owner.

Anyhow, raw fuel is pouring out the exhaust like an injector is wide open. Unfortunately, unlike a WBX injector setup, these injectors are side fed with a cast aluminum housing that holds the injectors and supplies fuel. The fuel lines that supply the housing are hard lines. In other words, there is no simple way to examine the spray pattern and I don't have adapters for my injector tester for this size injector.

I pulled the injectors hoping to find a pinched O ring, since these are new rebuilt injectors installed by the other shop. Thought there was enough fuel it could be bypassing the injector completely. I noticed there is a "pin" in the center under the retaining cover that on one injector is pressed in. The other three injectors look like all the images I find on the internet.

Could someone with real Subaru experience give me some info on this pin. I'm inclined to order replacement injectors, but don't like to throw money at a problem with no idea if I am on the right track. Here is the pin I am talking about.

If I ever ended up with a subaru powered vanagon, I would convert to a top feed type injector. I see kits, but are more HP related. The engine is supposed to be from a 96-97 Legacy. Has a throttle cable. I suppose the ECU could be holding the injectors wide open, but I am getting an injector pulse when I check with my noid light, and all 4 injectors physically are clicking.

Thank you. Mark

[crazyvwvanman]

Don't know if this applies here, but is there a vacuum hose from the intake to the fuel pressure regulator?
On other engines I've seen regulator failures allow lots of fuel to get fed into the intake.

Mark

[MarkWard]

Thanks Mark, yes the fuel regulator is connected to the intake and looks new. Probably the other shop replaced it. No fuel in the regulator vacuum hose. I'm not talking gas vapor cloud out the tail pipe. I have raw fuel running out the exhaust even at some of the connections.

[Team WorldTour]

I can't imagine it's running on all four in its current state.
I say swap the one injector out. I think it will solve your problem.
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[MarkWard]

I was actually running it on 2 cylinders with the spark plugs removed from the other 2 just to see if I could zero in on which cylinder might be flooding out. I have the plug wires shorted to eliminate a chance of spark. The injectors I pulled do not look like the ones in my World Pac catalog. I was more interested in if someone new what that center pin actually was and if somehow one was mashed in, would that somehow hold the injector physically open.

[jordauto]

Just some thoughts; my injectors all have the little pin sticking up. If the damaged looking one is causing excess fuel, then that cylinder and spark plug should be washed clean. Have you installed a fuel pressure gauge and checked pressure? What about bleed down? Does it hold fuel pressure with the engine off? If it doesn’t, I would pull all the spark plugs, and put a jumper on the fuel pump so it runs and then look into the cylinders and see which one is leaking. It sounds like you’ve checked the wiring to the injectors and have an injector pulse, instead of a shorted injector driver circuit. Sounds like a fun challenge.

[Vanagon Nut]

Mark. I hope this isn't misleading info but I was curious.

Injectors you have are JECS? A46-00 or A46-00 WT ?

I'm seeing applications for them in Subaru and Nissan engines.

Neil.
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[MarkWard]

Devil hates a coward. I took my tiny flush cuts and pulled the pin out to match the others. Installed the injectors with new top O rings, the others were torn. A little CV 2 grease, slid the injectors back in and installed the hold downs. Buttoned everything up and it fires up and idles. Fuel is burning out of the exhaust, but that seemed to have fixed it.

I would say the shop that changed the injectors, had a hard time getting them in and probably accidentally shoved the center pin in not knowing it. So, case closed on the injector pin.

Personally, I don't like how you can't pull the injectors, energize the fuel pump and fire the injector to visually see that they are working.

[jordauto]

The injectors can be a challenge to get seated in, especially with new o-rings. I’ve seen guys trying to hammer them in. I’d be tempted to replace that one injector in case it’s damaged internally. Glad you got it solved.

[MarkWard]

Replacing the injector would be up to the owner. My preference would be to put in new ones as a matched set and get rid of these rebuilt ones. Have an oil filter on the way and will dump the diluted oil tomorrow and do some dyno time to see if the van stays running. Still not sure what the original problem was that got it to the other shop. It's easier to break down on the dyno vs on a road test.