Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

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Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby elaverick » Thu 10.05.2018, 08:55

The saga of the 2 cylinder Elan continues. After some stellar help from the LEC members, I had the car sent off to Tom Day Fuel Injector specialists. They pulled the injectors and found that one of them was running at 60% of capacity. Unfortunately a cycle through the sonic cleaner wasn't enough to bring it back to life, and they didn't have enough experience with the Elan to know where to get replacements.
Never fear, thought I, as I'd recently been reading up on the upgrades to the fuel injectors that a number of members had attempted. A quick check on eBay and I found a set of 4 RC Engineering PL8-550s in the states for around £200 with shipping (far cheaper than the $400 and then an obscene $250 shipping cost if I'd have gone direct to RC). One final check of the guide on the upgrade page and I noticed (thankfully), that I'd also need a 3 bar MAP sensor. Again not a problem after a quick google. So after checking that the injector people were happy to fit these, I put my order in and settled down to wait for the delivery from the US...

..except then I started to think about the MAP sensor, and decided to do a bit of reading up on the forum (I know, I know, totally the wrong way around to approach this, but I just wanted the car back on the road, and exuberance over took me). So from trawling the old threads, I've come to the following conclusions:
Most people moving to the 550's are doing so to give their aftermarket turbos a safety margin and prevent them from running lean at high boost.
The 3 bar sensor is going to be under reading the pressure by 1/3rd, and so to compensate the injectors will run for a shorter time but due to their size deliver a greater volume of fuel, and the two things are roughly equivalent and so balances out.
With the above in mind, the difference is only just equivalent, and the map sensor will only affect length of time the injector runs for, but not necessarily the timings. This means I'll be running slightly rich, and leave me more open to pre-detonation.
The MAP sensor will be reading everything at 1/3rd of actual... this includes the boost pressure, so while the dial will read 0.6bar, it will actually be running at 0.9bar (ish).

So firstly... are the conclusions I've drawn above correct?
Secondly (if they are), am I at risk of damaging the turbo if I'm pushing our stock to 0.9bar?
Thirdly, is there any problem with the fact that I'm just doing this to an SE? The S2 as I understand it, would have had a closed loop by standard, and presumably the O2 sensor inputs would better allow it to moderate the fuel/air mix, does this lack of safety feature compromise my setup at all?

Is there anything else I should be looking at or considering to help reduce the chance of this all going horribly wrong? Or should I just cut my losses and try and source a single PL2-320?
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby Brit-Car-Nut » Thu 10.05.2018, 14:00

I believe most people going to the 3BAR upgrade also had to put in a larger (3BAR) fuel pump.

I wouldn't consider that solution. Best to put the correct injectors in.

Rock Auto US has:
STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS FJ559 {#17089116, 8170866110, 8171027250} Intermotor; w/ O-ring: $103.00 EACH + postage --- £76.45 if you order them from the UK. I have no idea of postage. USPS Priority mail from the US for 4 should be $45.00

Here are some RC PL2-320injectors available from eBay US

6 "Low Use" injectors:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/222695753658

4 new injectors:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263370316961?

I bought a scrap M100 last year and decided to get it running and driving to see what was worth harvesting. 2 injectors were seized (one was actually broken in half) so I put in a new set of Delphi injectors. The engine runs fine and it drives and shifts pretty well for a car that sat in a breaker yard for 8 years.

I would be happy to look around and see what I did with the two functioning injectors I removed. If I can find them (likely), you are welcome to them for the cost of shipping which is probably around $45.00. I would suggest that you get them cleaned so all of the injectors are reasonably matched.

Changing the entire injection system would make it difficult for anyone to diagnose issues later down the road.

There was a company selling new sets of Delphi injectors on eBay US last year but they have run out of stock. I have a set of those but honestly, I was holding them for future issues with my current project M100.

If you really want them, your cost would be $350.00 since, if something failed, I would eventually have to source replacements at a much higher price myself.
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby ElanBRG » Thu 10.05.2018, 18:42

elaverick wrote:obscene $250 shipping cost if I'd have gone direct to RC


For you guys having parts shipped from the US to the UK, ask the vendor to check USPS prices. They are much much lower than UPS or FedEx, which is what most vendors use for domestic shipments, but they stink for going to the UK.

I just sent a large body part to the UK that would have costs $500 from UPS or USPS, but it was a $100 with USPS, and they provide the same tracking all the way there.
Last edited by ElanBRG on Thu 10.05.2018, 18:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby Brit-Car-Nut » Thu 10.05.2018, 18:52

ElanBRG wrote:
elaverick wrote:obscene $250 shipping cost if I'd have gone direct to RC


For you guys having parts shipped from the US to the UK, ask the vendor to check USPS prices. They are much much lower than UPS or FedEx, which is what most vendors use for domestic shipments, but they stink for going to the UK.

Do you think USPS shipping stinks or FedEx/UPS?

I use USPS for all of my shipments to the UK but one of the UK parcel brokers (P2G, Interparcel, P4D) for packages I have coming to the US.

USPS Priority Mail is usually around a week unless it has to go thru Customs who then hold it up for as much as 14+ days. UPS and FedEX charge a broker fee and collect duty regardless of the value just because they can. Give me USPS any day.

Unfortunately, USPS has been raising their prices world-wide and it is getting hard to justify shipping charges that are close to the value of the item being shipped. The cost to ship the shift cable kits is a good example of excessive cost and long delays in Customs.
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby ElanBRG » Thu 10.05.2018, 18:55

Brit-Car-Nut wrote:
ElanBRG wrote:
elaverick wrote:obscene $250 shipping cost if I'd have gone direct to RC


For you guys having parts shipped from the US to the UK, ask the vendor to check USPS prices. They are much much lower than UPS or FedEx, which is what most vendors use for domestic shipments, but they stink for going to the UK.

Do you think USPS shipping stinks or FedEx/UPS?

I use USPS for all of my shipments to the UK but one of the UK parcel brokers (P2G, Interparcel, P4D) for packages I have coming to the US.

USPS Priority Mail is usually around a week unless it has to go thru Customs who then hold it up for as much as 14+ days. UPS and FedEX charge a broker fee and collect duty regardless of the value just because they can. Give me USPS any day.

Unfortunately, USPS has been raising their prices world-wide and it is getting hard to justify shipping charges that are close to the value of the item being shipped. The cost to ship the shift cable kits is a good example of excessive cost and long delays in Customs.


FedEx and UPS stink for shipping from the US to the UK. From UK to US, my vendors have always used DHL, which has been very reasonably priced and super quick.
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby Brit-Car-Nut » Thu 10.05.2018, 19:05

DHL is reasonable, but the "brokers" manage a bit of a better discount and I usually ship fairly large, heavy boxes so anything I can save helps. DHL doesn't originate shipments from the US anymore.

I usually get 5 or more quotes before deciding on any shipments from the UK to the US. USPS is still the best from US to UK but UK Customs always slow things down. Rock Auto offered USPS for anything I have ordered, but I never checked if they would ship US to UK by USPS. Rock Auto also has an ongoing 5% discount code easily found in a Google search, so that helps offset the shipping cost a bit too.
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Re: Replacement Injectors (a few questions)

Postby elaverick » Tue 15.05.2018, 21:16

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
@Brit-Car-Nut:
Interesting point about the pump, I hadn't heard anyone expressly call out the pump as a requirement, and from what I'd read, the general consensus appeared to be that the fuel pump was strongly overspecced and could handle far greater through-put.
Also thanks for the kind offer of the spare injectors, I've always loved the generosity of this site.

Having given it some thought, with regards to the advice you've offered, and then my later concerns that I'm going to end up breaking something else by over stressing the old components, I've decided to go with some new PL2-320s from a UK supplier (wish I'd found them first).
I'll just have to try and dispose of the 2nd hand PL8-550s back on to eBay and hope I can find an interested buyer for close to what I paid for them.

Thanks once again for everyones assistance.
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