Guy J

Thanks very much Tony and Tracy. Really useful. You were right! The old heat shields are firmly wedged inside. One is completely missing its bottom, that's one of the photos I sent yesterday. I think a tap, as you suggest, will be the best (probably the only) way of removing them. Another has a bottom which is coming away from the rest of the shield, and uncannily resembles a washer! Regarding the length of the injectors, it's identical, including the nozzle, to the old ones, but I wonder if you could clear something up? We have been trying to figure out why the bottoms of these injectors have become detached, and assume it was through the lack of a copper washer at the bottom of the shield, and also overtightening of the injectors, which I see should only be 12 lb ft. But we would be grateful if you could confirm the following. When the atomiser washer and the copper sealimg washer are in place with the heat shield over the injector, the copper sealing washer at the base of the heat shield (if it were a hat it would be just above the brim) is still just moveable. Is this correct? I am assuming that when the securing bolts are tightened to 12 lb ft, it is slightly compressed and forms a seal, but the top of the top hat is not over stressed by being forced onto the injector (and thus detaching from the rest of the shield). Am I correct?

Heat shields On removing my injectors I discovered cylinder 1 injector was without a ‘top hat’ heat shield, just the lip in the hole and nothing beneath, neither was there a heat shield stuck on the top of the injector, as in photo 1. Cylinders 2, 3 and 4 have the lip and then a washer, seated in the hole, as seen in photo 2. This is definitely a washer as we rotated one by 90 degrees. Cylinder 1 piston head had significant scoring, which could have been caused by the washer disintegrating and falling into the combustion chamber. I bought one heat shield to try in cylinder 1, with all correct washers in place and the ‘top hat’ shield is too big to go down beneath the lip, so the injector is not inserted far enough, as shown in photo 3 The outer diameter of the ‘top hat’ heat shield is 17.4mm, and the diameter of the hole bored beneath the lip is 14.5, therefore there is no way the shield will fit in the hole. The diameter of the injector nozzle is 13.8mm. When the top hat shield is fitted over the injector nozzle, there is about 1.5 mm of play. The new injectors are exactly the same dimensions as the old ones, the engine is standard, as far as I’m aware, probably 1980s, and was running, seemingly very well, without heat shields but with these washers balanced in place for quite a few years. What should I do? Guy