so i changed all my injectors over the weekend, drove 170 miles from my parents house back to chicago without issues.

start my car this morning and its running rough, smoke coming out the exhaust but not from under the hood, and idle drops occasionally dies. those are the only symptoms for now, its running like it has a misfire now, except with smoke coming out the exhaust. thankfully my work is a couple miles from home, no overheating issues from what i've seen.
it's also strange i drove 170miles after the fuel injector change without issues.

any thoughts?

 

what color of smoke is it?

 

ya it's hard to tell, its more light than dark. probably a light gray color

 

ok, so it's not oil. what does it smell like?

anything else you did while you were in that area? (injectors)

 

maybe its carbon buildup finally being burned off.

 

well, i drove almost 200 miles immediately after the fuel injector change and it ran smooth. so why would the buildup come off now.

what color does oil burn? i haven't had oil burning issues. i'm not sure how to describe the smell, soon as i leave work i'll check again.

thanks guys for all your input so far.

also of note, i have an 00vi and i had to remove the upper, i'm wondering if it didn't seat properly since it's mated to a rotated 4th gen lower, not the most perfect setup but was working fine before.

 

Oil smoke is blue/gray, too much fuel would be black smoke. Sounds like you are burning oil. I'm guessing something to do with your PCV system when you pulled the manifold off. You didn't "mod" anything did you?
"Gray" could also be steam there are a couple of water hoses near the TB that can be accidentally put on a vacuum nipple.

 

okay so the smoke definitely smells like gasoline coming out of the exhaust. and my gas gauge is running down surprisingly quickly

 

maybe one of your coils busted. Somethin aint firing right. U might have to pull each one and see into cylinder. Might jus be coincidence that u jus replaced injectors

 

so i just ordered some oring seal kit for the fuel injectors. i didn't change them when i had put in the fuel injectors (bought used off .org member) which i should have but didn't have to foresight to order them.

hopefully this fixes the problem.

 

I wouldn't rule out your o-rings yet if they were in good condition and not brittle. I suspect one of the injectors is stuck open and is flooding one of the cylinders with too much gas. Disconnect your injectors one by one and see if engine idle changes. I had the problem before too and it was one of the injectors. If you keep driving it, you will have a CEL for your 02 sensor as it gets damaged if kept driven.

 

is that even possible, for the injector to be stuck open??

i pulled the plug to coilpack #1 and it made no difference in idle, the rest did.

so i'm thinknig cyl 5 either has a bad oring or bad injector? it may be possible that the coilpack is bad, but even with that i feel like the amount of fuel lost would not be as much as i'm losing now into the engine. the smoke smells like straight up gasoline

 

Yes, it is very possible for the injector to be stuck open and I can vouch for that. I am pretty sure you are having a hard time to start up your car from cold as well without giving it some throttle.

Also, You said coil #1 did not make a difference and the rest did but the issue is at cylinder 5? If number one made no difference, disconnect the coil and take out the spark plug and see if its soaked in gasoline or smell like it. If so, that's your bad fuel injector.

 

so i had a torn o ring.

do the pintle caps do anything? the fuel injectors i bought used, the majority of the caps were still attached, but several of the small prongs or legs that extended down towards where the injector sprays actually were broken off. i didn't see how that would affect function at all, but wanted to double check with you guys. thanks.

 

If you are referring to the plastic tips at the end that are to help keep the o-ring in place, its not a big deal. It will still hold firmly in place with out it. Now you understand with the torn o-ring how the injector can flood the cylinder with too much gas...

 

Someone enlighten me how an o-ring, that is not inside the injector itself, could lead to too much fuel in the cylinder.
I would think that if the o-ring that seals the injector to the rail leaked, then you would have a fuel leak onto your engine. If the o-ring sealing the injector to the manifold leaked then it sould cause a lean mixture in that cylinder and probably a rough idle.

 

Well lets start by removing an injector..when you remove it, there are two o-rings. A big one at the top and a small one at the tipof the injector. When the one at the top rips or damaged, yes the fuel will push out at the top of the engine and will be visible. Now if the small one at the bottom rips or gets damaged, fuel will pour into the cylinder because there is nothing else there to control the pressure of the fuel in the line...which in thus floods out the cylinder.

 

OK, I get it now. I was under the impression that the fuel was passing through the injector all the way from above the large o-ring but, apparently, it enters the injector from between the two o-rings and then leaves through the tip. I'm a bit embarrased that I didn't know that...after all these years. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

 

:metalmax: