Poor Mans Repair Guide For Chevy,GMC Vortec Fuel Injector spider or CSFI System

I hope I can take some of the Dark Voodoo power away from the notorious Vortec injection spider. If your reading this then  like I did you have been searching  the web and under the hood of you GMC Jimmy, S10, Astrovan, Or Chevy Blazer trying to figure out what to do about that crazy injection system in your truck. Well you have a few choices
1. Buy a new spider set for a small fortune.
2. Buy a "MPFI" retrofit system for about $300.00
3. Try Replacing individual injectors or "poppets" 
4. Junk the p.o.s. the front end is falling apart anyway.

or you can

5. Spend about $16.00-30.00 and a few hours of your time and fix it like I do.

This guide explains how to clean/repair  leaky or stuck poppet valves/injectors. only continue if you are sure that your injectors are getting a signal from the ecu and are actuating. if your not sure, Google it, do your testing and come back.

I am not responsible for any kind of damage or injury you may cause yourself or your car.  Messing around with a fuel system is dangerous, gasoline leaks can and will cause fire and or explosion. Be Safe, Be Smart, Or be Dead.

Step 1 Take a Look at the injector and get you stuff together

At this point you have pulled the injectors from the fuel meter body, you have your injector reseal kit with all of the o-rings napa and everyone else has them .
napa's part is....

Fuel Injector O-Ring Kit
Part Number: BK 735359

Make sure the meter body has no cracks, this can be fixed in a pinch, Google plastic welding with soldering iron.

Make sure the black plastic tubing is not cracked or too brittle to be reinstalled. They need to be able to hold 60lbs of fuel pressure. If in doubt take an old piece of  tubing to the local auto parts store and get some double walled plastic gas line tubing. Ford uses quite a bit of it, as does BMW.

You will need the following in addition to your o-ring kit

1. Carb Cleaner
2.Sea Foam in a can "Deep Creep"
3. A Pot O Boil'in Water and or a Heat Gun "Heat gun is faster but water is safer"
4. A Few pairs of needle nose pliers
5. An air compressor with blow gun.
Optional but highly recommended is an ultra sonic jewelry cleaner  "got mine for $30.00 from harbor freight, for the wife......."

  

Comments

[elgray03]

Sooooooo happy I found this. My truck has been having fuel problems concerning starting and I thought it was the fuel pump (which needed to be replace anyways), but I found out I have a leak in my injectors. I recently replaced the spider cylinder in my truck because my old one was clogged. The one I replaced it with was used from another engine I have. Now the one I put in my truck has a leak. Would it be easier to fix the leak or the clogged injector?

[krhagerich]

It depends on where it is leaking. If you have 2 spiders mix and mach parts till you have a good one.
Thanks

[pddonovan2011]

I love this and I did this and it worked, but cylinder #3 still miss fires. Then I bought the after market MPI Set-up. Also Plugs, wires, rotor and cap. Pulled he distributor, cleaned and lubricated it, then had to rebuild it because it was WAY to sloppy! The timing mark danced all over the place, now it is nice and steady. It DID have 96,000 miles on it! BUT, guess what, #3 Cylinder still miss fires. Now I am going to the Dealer too have the wire harness between the Spider and the ECM replaced! If that doesn't fix it then I plan to build a new motor, built correctly, and that will include a custom manifold with real individual injectors. #3 has to stop miss firing, I don't like it!

[krhagerich]

First check your plug on cyl 3 it is very, very common for this spark plug to cross thread because it is so hard to get to. Next check your compression..If its good you don't need a rebuild. If you have good compression it will come down to a vacuum leak because of bad lower intake manifold gasket..also a big problem with theses engines or depending on what year you have it could be a leaky fuel line "if it enters the manifold from the back of the engine" or leaky fuel pressure regulator. To check this pull the top intake manifold off peek at the lower manifold and if you have any leaks you will see a clean spot where the gas is washing the manifold. Check your fuel pressure as well to see if it is dropping pressure.
They make an aftermarket spider with mini injectors that works great for about $250.00. I have installed full sized injectors in these trucks in the past and to be honest its not worth it.

[im2scary]

THANK YOU! I was going to tear mine apart and try to clean it, as I have over 200,000 miles on my engine and don't want to dump over $300 into right now. This is going to help out tremendously. I'll let you know if it works for me.

Thanks again for sharing this!

[Gathrax]

Gm says to clean em' with some specialized equipment and everyone else says to convert to the MPFI unit. Most people assume your willing to dump $300 into 14 year old truck with 200k on it. Great job on giving some info on a question everyone else seems to disregard.

[krhagerich]

No prob...I'm glad someone actually saw this. Its my first write up. I just did a diy transmission rebuild on this truck. I was told by everyone that I would need about $1000.00 worth of tools. I made all of the tools with scrap metal and some brain juice. running great so good in fact that the transmission shop that told me it could not be done wants to outsource some work to me.

[krhagerich]

Sorry about the poor pics, I will do a video next time I do this.