I am back in black and how sweet it is!!

For the past two weeks my beautiful black Alfa 164L has been sitting in the garage in a (relatively) non drivable state. A couple weeks ago the idle became suddenly very rough and erratic and the car lacked power at speed.

After some diagnosis I determined the problem was due to air leaks around where the fuel injectors slotted into the engine. So I bought a used set of 6 injectors on ebay for CHEAP and shipped them off the Rich at Cruzin Performance in Michigan to have them cleaned, reconditioned and tested. Rich does this for just $15 per injector. Considering the cost of one single new injector is ~$125 this is a major money saver!

Well I found out that 2 of the 6 injectors I sent him were not Alfa injectors at all but Porsche 928 injectors, so I told Rich to just keep those and only recondition the other 4. Those 4 arrived at my doorstep today looking clean and spiffy.

I immediately charged out into the garage and began the process of installing the 4 new injectors as well as new intake tube gaskets and rubber connector tubes I had purchased recently.

As I removed the 6 injectors on the 164 I noted that several of them were not in good shape at all. Missing or deformed o-ring seals and other missing parts...not good!

So I left what looked to be the best two and then added the 4 reconditioned ones to the fuel rail, reconnected all the electronic connectors to the injectors, reinstalled the intake runners, gaskets and connector tubes and screwed everything all back together. Probably 3 hours in total.

Then the moment or truth....I fired her up and she runs beautifully! Woohoo! What a dramatic difference and for a relatively paltry sum along with my time. I can't wait to get her back out on the road tomorrow :)

Here are the reconditioned injectors and the new connector tubes that connect the chromed air intake runners to the air intake plenum.

The 4 old injectors I removed. Note poor condition of these, including parts that were missing(!) and melted o-rings

Here are the chromed intake runners, the intake plenum (with Alfa Romeo written on it) and you can also see some of the orange fuel injectors