My Nozzle Swap Adventure: Lessons Learned

Lex4TDI4Life

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 22, 2006
Location
NorCal
TDI
2001 Golf-Ute TDI GLS 5spd Manual
After performing my first nozzle swap the the Ho5G GTG this past weekend, I have learned a few things the hard way and would like to share those lessons for the next newb who attempts this. It should be noted that my car has over 145K mi on it, plenty of miles for carbon and schmutz to get into undesired places.

As those who were there will attest, the swap was a serious PITA for me. I installed a used set of PP520s - the engine would not start. Assuming bad injectors, I got a minty fresh set of PP520s off of IndigoBlueWagon (yes, he had an extra set on him and was instrumental in me finally getting the swap complete). After installing the new ones, the freakin engine still would not start! After having almost everyone there taking a look and helping out, we finally got it started. Special thanks go out to DanEBoy, whose insight was very helpful.

Here are the lessons:

1. Clean the injecter holes thoroughly. I learned the hard way that the injector and washer are very sensitive to small amounts of carbon that build up down there, causing them to not seat properly. This may have been partially due to the miles on my engine. The original nozzles had been there for its whole life and the inectors were probably never removed before. I skipped this step and found compression leaks at 3 of the 4 injectors.

2. Just barely crack the fuel lines at the pump and, once removed from the injectors, keep the lines elevated. One of the reasons it took me so long to get my engine started was that there was signigicant amount of air in the fuel lines. I had to crank forever to get them purged properly. Even when it did start, I had to take it under a couple high-load runs to get all the air out. I think I allowed too much fuel to escape by opening the nuts at the pump too much and allowing the fuel lines to dip back down and leak.

3. Get a TDI Injector Slide Hammer Puller from Metalnerd . For injectors as old and frozen in place as mine, this was highly neccessary. Thanks to our hosts, Peter and Julie, for lending it to me.

4. Make sure your battery is in good shape and have access to a jumper car or charger. This may not be neccessary if you were good about keeping air out of your fuel system. With all the cranking I had to do, however, it saved my tukkus.

5. Do it at a GTG and have lots of generous and knowledgable clubbers help you out :)

Thats all I can think of. I know that all of these pointers exist scattered through other threads. I just wanted to share my experience to help the next newb to tackle this.

-Lex
 
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MikeS_18

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Location
Bow, NH
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, '13 Passat SE, '64 Ford Econoline
It seems like every GTG has its problem car. You got the award this time.
 

Jetter_Sprinta

Veteran Member - TDIClub Contributor
Joined
Nov 7, 2002
Location
Boston, Massachusetts
TDI
2 Peeps sharing 1 UseYerName//an array of cars
Hey, the car left under its own power, that's a good thing;)

So do you think that the initial (used) nozzles were after all faulty then? Sound like it might have went with them if the air had not gotten in the lines.
 

Souzafone

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2004
Location
Freetown,Ma.
TDI
'99 Jetta A4, Whitish
So how are they? I had mine done with high mileage also, by MrChill. I'm glad I let him do it, there were several small problems that would have stopped me cold. We had 1 that wouldn't pop test properly, so he used a spare body he had, and there was water in 1 or 2 others. Glad you got it sorted.
 

Lex4TDI4Life

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 22, 2006
Location
NorCal
TDI
2001 Golf-Ute TDI GLS 5spd Manual
Souzaphone said:
So how are they?
I am loving them so far. Only problem is I have to be a little gentle on the go pedal as my lower intercooler hose keeps popping off of the turbo. I think the problem is that I replaced the spring clamp with a worm-drive when I put in a new vnt actuator. I am getting a proper clamp today since I can't find the old one. The upside of this is that I have now gotten the process of jacking up the car, removing my skidplate and re-attaching the intercooler hose down to 20 minutes. And this was in a dark gas station parking lot! :D



Jetter_Sprinta said:
So do you think that the initial (used) nozzles were after all faulty then? Sound like it might have went with them if the air had not gotten in the lines.
I am pretty sure that the used nozzles would have been functional. I ended up selling them at the GTG for a loss, but it was no biggie.

It would have cost me more to have the old ones cleaned and reconditioned properly than to buy new ones, which reminds me...

Lesson 6: Don't be a cheap bastich. Do it with new or properly cleaned parts. I have read the thread about pop testing new nozzles, but I decided to take the risk. Used ones I would definitely get tested first.
 
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hendomatic

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None At the moment
If you replaced all 4 of your nozzles at the same time I can understand why it was hard to start.

I did my nozzles 2 at a time and the car ran well enough to allow the fuel lines to refill under engine power.

Its a great feeling to get that some tho and enjoy the added pep of uprated nozzles eh?

Cheers

Dennis
 

Lex4TDI4Life

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 22, 2006
Location
NorCal
TDI
2001 Golf-Ute TDI GLS 5spd Manual
Plus my old nozzles were so caked with carbon that I am amazed they even worked as long as they did. This is probably a testament to how much pressure the fuel is under when it goes through the injectors.
 
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