Thread: Pintle caps in engine, now its dying

Hey guys,

So I was rebuilding my injectors and all three rears came out without their pintle caps so they were clearly in the intake manifold. I decided to start it up and try and burn em out. Well that didn't work. First thing I noticed: Fuel trims were -25, smell of gasoline, and a lot of white smoke from the tailpipe at idle, in addition to 192 misfires (I think the max my Aeroforce reads) and a rough idle sound/feel.

I drove it... thought maybe I could power it through it. I was wrong.

Now I see that there is a lot of oil coming out from the front exhaust manifold, I'm not sure what the rear looks like. I've also got a CEL that flashes when I accelerate by my Aeroforce won't read any codes. Since I drive for work (150 miles a day) I'm going to rebuild it but I'm not sure how far I have to go, I'm thinking head gasket and new heads (ported) since I'll be in there.

I'm hoping theres no bottom end damage as that is outside of my scope and I would hate to pay for that.

Any advice?

2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 135k miles

Its just a plastic disc that doesn't look like it effects spray pattern, it looks more like an o-ring retainer. Regardless it sounds like I'll be pulling the heads, thanks Scotty.

Ok, I'll do the compression check before I do anything else.

Its difficult for me to work on my car as I live in an apartment complex where I'm not allowed to, so I take it to a friends to do work.

Another thought crossed my mind as I'm mostly just sitting around thinking about the problem right now.

Is it possible that I have fuel injector(s) that are stuck open? Would it explain why my fuel trims are negative maximum and I smell gas like crazy from the exhaust? While rebuilding the injectors I had difficulty removing the filter baskets and may have let a piece get in there. I was also tapping them on a hard surface to remove filter debris and to seat the filter. How sensitive are the injectors?

Originally Posted by natelapolla

Hey guys,

So I was rebuilding my injectors and all three rears came out without their pintle caps so they were clearly in the intake manifold. I decided to start it up and try and burn em out. Well that didn't work. First thing I noticed: Fuel trims were -25, smell of gasoline, and a lot of white smoke from the tailpipe at idle, in addition to 192 misfires (I think the max my Aeroforce reads) and a rough idle sound/feel.

I drove it... thought maybe I could power it through it. I was wrong.

Now I see that there is a lot of oil coming out from the front exhaust manifold, I'm not sure what the rear looks like. I've also got a CEL that flashes when I accelerate by my Aeroforce won't read any codes. Since I drive for work (150 miles a day) I'm going to rebuild it but I'm not sure how far I have to go, I'm thinking head gasket and new heads (ported) since I'll be in there.

I'm hoping theres no bottom end damage as that is outside of my scope and I would hate to pay for that.

Any advice?

2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 135k miles

Update: So I failed to mention that when reinstalling the rails, I touched the alternator post and sparks flew so I wasn't sure if it was something electrical damaged. Turns out it was: but not the wiring. I shorted the injectors themselves into a stuck open position, and even after telling the repair shop this is probably the case, they still used 2 hours of labor diagnosing the problem. Injectors on cyl. 1 & 3 had to be replaced (so all 6) and the final cost was $775.

I learned my lesson, I will always disconnect the battery when working on the car.

Jeff I was told that 4 were running at 14ohms the other two were not. I think it was the alternator post sparking that caused the problem, as it seemed like electrical damage form the diagnosis. In the end I have 4 working injectors, any ideas on what to do with them? I saw ZZP sells the 33# ev6 injectors as an upgrade for the cobalt, perhaps try selling them on a cobalt forum?