Off with her head?

[lostandwandering]

I removed the injectors along with the throttle housing and air plenum for cleaning in the hopes of eliminating an off idle hesitation. Despite what I thought was a good thorough cleaning of the top of the engine I found sand & dirt around the injector O-rings and I can see some of it in the intake tract and around the valve seats. Can it be cleaned out without removing the head? How? How clean does it have to be? Does anyone have a recommendation of a good place to have the injectors cleaned?

[BuddingGeezer]

How clean does it have to be?

The cylinder lining is Nikasil, a chrome nickel alloy. If this lining gets scratched, you can throw away the engine. The Nikasil can be replated, but it would cost a bunch. Example on the net: 161-250cc= $339 X 3= $1017. that doesn't count engine R&R, tear down and rebuild and shipping the block to the repairer.

Nikasil and sand don't mix. You decide how clean it needs to be. The head ain't that hard to remove.

I have cleaned K bike injectors by clamping a 6" piece of garden hose onto the injector, filling with carb cleaner, low pressure air to blow the fluid through the injector. A nine volt battery will open the injector. They ran like new.

Ralph Sims

[jcridge]

I removed the injectors along with the throttle housing and air plenum for cleaning in the hopes of eliminating an off idle hesitation. Despite what I thought was a good thorough cleaning of the top of the engine I found sand & dirt around the injector O-rings and I can see some of it in the intake tract and around the valve seats. Can it be cleaned out without removing the head? How? How clean does it have to be? Does anyone have a recommendation of a good place to have the injectors cleaned?

FYI,

Next time you remove the T/B's use a garden hose with a tight nozzle to wash the top of engine, then use compressed air to blow everything else.

If you can see the dirt on the back of the valves, you will have to assume that a few of the valves are open and dirt is now in the cylinders.

I would use a vacuum with an adaptor down to 3/8 - 1/2 hose to allow you to get in and around valves and in thru the sparkplug holes.

Do you have a cylinder scope? Do you have a way to make sure there is no dirt in the cylinder bores after you are done cleaning?

If not, I would 2nd the motion to remove the head.

If you cannot see any dirt using a scope then I would be ok with firing it up. Just don't move the pistons until you have completely removed all dirt, or it will trap dirt between top ring and cylinder wall.

By the way, you were on the right track removing the hesitation...I did the exact same thing, with the expection of the dirt and the bike runs as it should now.

Cleaning the injectors, I would use Sea Foam for a tank or two.

On the IBMWR site there is a thread on using Ford injectors for better throttle response from improved spray pattern over stock injectors. This is one of my planned winter upgrades. You can get rebuilt Ford injectors cheap.

[lostandwandering]

Thanks for the replies Geezer & jcridge, your answers are what I suspected but I thought there may be another way. BuddingGeezer you said removal of the head was fairly easy but it appears to me from the Clymer manual that its a rather involved and lengthy process that I may have to have the dealer complete; this looks like an expensive lesson for me.