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Injectors

I wanted to refurbish my Delta's inlet manifold paintwork, so I decided to remove the injectors and get them cleaned while doing this.

One thing, of course, leads to another!

cleaned delta inlet body

A carefully blasted inlet manifold

I removed the cardboard 'firewall' and the items attached to it, and the pipework with pressure sensor, then undid the manifold fixing nuts and the pump brace, pushed away the water pipe bracket and eased the inlet tract upwards and out. Removing the fuel rail and injectors was much simpler, so with them removed I took the injectors and fuel rail, with a correct fitment cream top injector set, to our local injection shop for cleaning.

I sand blasted the manifold. Then on the bench I removed the throttle body, secured with 4 x 10mm nuts, and put it aside for cleaning. Then I gave it all a scuff with a scotchbrite pad and a wipe with thinners. I buffed up the raised bright stripes on the top and masked them off, running a blade down them to trim the tape.

I masked off the end pipe and mounting plate, the throttle body opening, and the mounting points for the bracing brackets and injector mountings.

As previously, I gave the unit a light spray of etch primer, I like a good chemical key to a metal substrate. That's why I don't like powder coating, it's a brittle finish just sitting on the metal surface, waiting to crack and fall off. Rant over!

The primer soon dried, then I gave the manifold a light coat of black wrinkle spray, after a warming from the heat gun the coat dried to a lovely fine wrinkle finish, almost like the original.

So, another lesson learned, surprise surprise, a lighter coat of wrinkle paint gives finer wrinkles!

delta inlet manifold

Masking now removed

Ready for stripping down

Lancia delta inlet manifold

Thinner spray makes finer wrinkles!

delta 16v injectors

Next step, injectors

I went to collect the fuelling parts after ultrasonic cleaning, the rail had been a bit bunged-up, but was now ok. As were 3 of the cream injectors, the 4th wasn't closing, so was squirting fuel all the time.

Later model 16v injectors are Weber IW058s, pintle type, top feed units. They are, at 14.5ohms, high impedence, with a single 30o spray, and a static flow of 384cm3/60s. The max fuel pressure allowed is 500kPa, which is KiloPascals, that equals 5bar, calculate a bit and the pressure in psi is max 72. So the standard injector will accept a little higher fuel pressure, however experts say if your injectors are running at 80% duty cycle you need the next size up.

I read that Fiat coupe 2.0 16v turbo's injectors are W158s, this has the same spec as the Delta's injectors, but has a 4 jet spray nozzle. Are 4 jets better than 1? Would the atomisation be finer? The internet told me 4 jets and finer atomisation in fact would be better.

However, fuel injection systems and engine management require a level of knowledge I don't have! I would think inlet tract length, tract angles and inlet valve locations would affect spray pattern requirements. Not to mention opening times and duration. But some 16v engines were factory fitted with 4 nozzle injectors anyway, to further blur any judgements.

So I suppose, as usual, I'll keep to the original spec.

Injectors cleaned

I do try to find alternatives to T.B for parts supplies, Tanc has injectors listed for sale, but I don't know where they are from..

Anyway, an internet search found Mr.Injector in Sussex. He confirmed in a phone call he had W058s in stock, a later email

let me know he didn't in fact have any, but he could offer cleaning & repair, or ASNU alternatives.

The internet is marvelous, but all my unclaimed lottery wins and tax refunds have left me a bit cynical. In fact I expect to be given false information most of the time! So I went back on the internet, Alfa, Fiat, Lancia models all share the same basic injector, but I've not yet found new ones at a reasonable price.

I'll keep looking though!

It so happened that soon after this I was at Autointegrale in Beenham, on other business. I asked Keith if he had a spare cream top injector, of course he did have, several in fact, all over the place!!

He gave me 2 cream top injectors, what a gentleman! so we've scraped through another crisis here, but this'll have to be resolved.

The cream tops are the correct Evo2 injector, the Weber IW058.

It so happened that one of Keith's gift injectors was an IW158, this being the 4 spray nozzle model. This injector had been fitted to a Delta, probably from new. So I'll use the single spray now, to match the other 3 good injectors, and start looking for a set of 4 jet 158s.

Above is shown a section of the Delta's fuel injector. There's a lot of activity packed into a fuel injector, and considering the rate it goes at, and the fine adjustments it's asked to make, they are a very reliable item.

Here are Keith's injectors, you can see in the first picture the single jet item on the left, and the 4 jet nozzle unit on the right. Fitting them into the manifold is surprisingly easy, a good simple design.

lanci delta injectors

The single jet on the left, and 4 jet right. The sprung 'pintle' at the end needs a protective cover

The 2 injector types are exactly the same dimensions

I used the single pintle unit, it came without a nozzle end cap, so I used the cap from the leaking single injector.

My thanks to Steve and the boys at Fuel Injection Services in Burscough, for cleaning my rail and injectors. As always, they did a great job and gave friendly advice.

Steve told me modern fuels leave a waxy varnish on the fuel system components, their Asnu machine cleans and pulses the injector, flushing the cleaning fluid at 2.5bar. So it's a gentle but thorough cleaning.

My car had been idle for 6 months, so was well bunged up.

          Using online injector capacity calculators gives different results, but it seems 210bhp with 4 cylinders needs 447.8cc/min at 3bar pressure. It seems Lancia used several different injectors on our cars, I'd like to find the best model, and then where to buy them.

I'm also looking at the green top injectors, I'd like to try a set of them, when I can find the proper spec!

I just spoke with a man who knows, he told me a single jet injector will spray onto the head casting dividing the two 16v inlet ports. So a multi spray injector nozzle will be better, giving a finer spray and wider spread. That makes sense!

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