I just changed COP #7 on my 2001 F-150 5.4 and am having difficulty in lining up the two bolt holes on the fuel rail. I pressed the fuel rails back down on the injectors but the holes are lined up too high. It seems like the rails are not pressed down enough on the injectors. However, I pressed as hard as I can and it does not go down any further.

Have any of you encountered this problem when trying to re-install fuel rails and how did you resolve it?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

Did you lube the o-rings on the injectors? One or two of them is not going in all the way.

 

yea, strange problem..

 

Ran into the same problem on mine while doing my cop upgrade. Used a wooden dowel and tapped them home carefully.

 

Yea , mine could be a little hard to seat down in there , but it always went. Did you oil the rings at all? just a little right before you press it down to seat.

You prolly got it by now

If not good Luck.

 

HELP!!!!!! LOL

All was going well, I was able to push down hard enough to get the two fuel rail bolts in. However, after I started my truck, I immediately smelled fuel and saw fuel pouring out of #5 and #7. I pulled the fuel rail again and noticed that on #5 and #7, there were o-rings on the injector, they were stuck up in the housing of the fuel rail. I used a small piece of mirror to look underneath the housing of the fuel rail and noticed #5 was also torn a bit. I easily pulled the bad oring on #5 and put a new oring on the injector. MY PROBLEM is I cannot get to the underneath of #7 fuel rail housing to pull that oring as well. Any ideas on how to pull the #7 o-ring out of the fuel rail housing??

It's no wonder why mechanic shops charge so much for replacing those hard to get to COPS.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all of your help and comments.

John

 

One more thing, can the fuel spillage cause problems with the COPS on #5 thru 7? That area took a bath with fuel coming from the two injectors. I did put paper towels down where I could stuff them but I was not able to get to all areas.

Thanks,
John

 

WOW John

Glad I never had this problem. I'll try to help . When I do this theres enough slack in the lines to flip the rail up onto the manifold. I suggest to give yourself the most room to get at the rail port for #7 is to pull the entire rail bolts - all 4 bolts. Shift the passenger side rail towards the firewall to give you more slack on the drivers side.

You need a little hook to get the O-Ring out. If you don't have a tool like that , make one out of wire - coat hanger might work.

You might have to disconnect from the feed and return lines if that doesn't work.

This sucks , good luck with it.

 

Yes , blow them dry with compressed air. I lost COP #8 that way. Dry them up the best you can.

I hope you have compressed air, it's really the only way besides letting it sit and if the chambers have fuel in them - Your F-ed without a blower attatchment ..

 

No compressed air, do you think paper towels would work or is it too late? This occured two hours ago.

Oh, and one more thing. What's getting in the way of me lifting the rail high enough to get under number 7 is a large piece of piping coming from underneath and going over the fuel rail. It has a large nut on it. Is unscrewing this nut and moving the piping out of the way even an option?

Thanks,

John

 

Yea , that's the EGR tube. Your going to have to take apart whatever you have to in order to get that O-Ring.

Gas is HELL on the boots if the chambers have fuel in them. Pull the COP's dry them out and go heavy on the grease before re-installing. You have a spare boot still on the bad COP , you might need it.

Shove paper towel into the chambers to make sure theres no fuel in them. If you have a shop vac you can use that in "blower mode" to help dry things out as well. Just swap the hose to the exhaust outlet. Clean the filter first and reduce the end piece of the hose down to 1 1/4 if possible - Hey it will work, just sounds funny to me..

Seperate the EGR tube and pull it back enough to do what you have to do. You'll prolly need a pipewrench and cheater bar to get that loose.

I feel for yuh , this isn't fun - you have to cover the bases on this with the COP's especially or you'll be tearing it down again..

 

Most of the time I pull the TB and rail off mine when going thru the COP's and regreasing. I check my plugs to make sure ther all tight because of blowout issues people have had . #3 and #4 have been loose in the past..



Yours prolly looks more like this -

 

Jbrew, I will take your advice and pull cops 5 thru 8 and dry things out. I DO NOT look forward to trying to get to #8. I might take my chances and not pull #8 because it does not look like much fuel made it to the back. But I cannot see it very well back there so maybe there is fuel on all of them. Do you have any tricks to removing cop #8? Or does it require a special tool?

I tried an adjustable wrench on the EGR nut and it did not budge. I will get after it tomorrow morning. I am done for the evening. Now it's time for a few beers to replace all of that fluid I lost today in my HOT garage.

Thanks again for your help. Hopefully I'll have a good report tomorrow afternoon.

John

 

Yeah - jbrew's a real asset here !

John - spray some penetrating oil on the fitting before packin' it in ...

Good luck!

bubba

 

About penetrating oil, yes I need to add more mechanic tools product to my garage. Mechanic work is my new hobby. I enjoy it but I am somewhat green. I took about 20 years off. As a teen and into my mid twenties, I did all doable work on my cars. Then I starting buying new cars every four years. Then I realized that is a waste of money and hear I am at 45 back at working on my cars again. I am a little rusty so I am sure there will be more days like today for me......

Thanks,
John