Honda S2000 Fuel Leak

[Justin S]

So, went for a drive in my Westfield the other day and could smell fuel. I have a standard S2000 engine in the Westfield. Found a puddle of fuel sitting in the end of the inlet manifold where the egr used to be ( is removed as not needed) Running the car up at home shows no leaks weirdly. Currently I am suspecting injector 4 at the rear of the block nearest the egr area. It has the standard Keihin injectors that have a hole in the plastic housing and although not seen, consider this to be 'potentially' the issue, as rarely known to eject fuel from there . Everything is tight with fuel lines and rail, although I have ordered a replacement injector seal kit for all injectors. Question is , has anyone had this same issue with these injectors? Not wishing to buy a whole set as they are £350 'each' from Honda , so anyone know where I can get one and get the full set refurbished ? They are only 48k miles old, so not that old in the scheme of things. Thanks for any help.

[E-bmw]

Justin S said:

anyone know where I can get one and get the full set refurbished ?

Google is your friend, a few seconds in there with something like "(insert town/city here) fuel injector refurbish" will probably give something like 379,000 results.

[Mr2Mike]

Kit car + fuel smell is very often down to degradation of rubber fuel lines. As many kit car owners have discovered, much of the aftermarket fuel line sold is complete junk that breaks down in the presence of ethanol, first signs being a constant fuel smell, followed by leaks, followed by the contents of the fuel tank lying on their garage floor.

[Justin S]

Mr2Mike said:

Kit car + fuel smell is very often down to degradation of rubber fuel lines. As many kit car owners have discovered, much of the aftermarket fuel line sold is complete junk that breaks down in the presence of ethanol, first signs being a constant fuel smell, followed by leaks, followed by the contents of the fuel tank lying on their garage floor.

That is very true Mike, but the supply flexible hose is the original from the Honda and the only non original is the return fuel line which isnt under any real pressure after the pressure relief valve. But saying that , even though the car has only been on the road for 18 months, I will be changing all fuel lines to Gates Barricade in the winter. If only I was aware of ethanol and the factory supplied fuel lines to cope better with it when I bought the kit.

[Justin S]

Well to update this. I have purchased another injector from a jap breaker and also a set of injector bushes, seals and filters. I have removed the injectors from the rail tonight and the guy I bought the seals from does injector testing and cleaning. So, everything is bagged up and being sent to him in the Wirral . Hopefully by the middle of next week, we may have answers, as I still cant see any reason for the leak. On a rig , under pressure hopefully it will appear.
Also thanks to a Pistonheader , who emailed me and is local with a popped S2000 engine and offered the injectors to sell if I was stuck. Hope to catch up with him soon for some hooning etc .
Will follow up again when the injector guy gets some results.

[Justin S]

Still none the wiser on this fuel leak. Injectors have been inspected and no leaks found . injector 2 was out of spec with flow rates after cleaning, so the reserve injector is now going to be No2. I have new Gates fuel hose on its way, so will change these while de-pressurised. They werent barricade rubber hose supplied with the kit , so will change anyhow. Checked the fuel rail and nothing obvious. The only thing I have found is the fuel return pipe clips into a cast u shape in the inlet manifold and either side of this casting is razor sharp. So, I have filed these edges smooth, incase it has cut the hose, which I wont find out until I get the new hose fitted.

[Justin S]

Since we like conclusions. I refitted the injectors in the fuel rail. I did remove the rail and checked for any visible issues, which proved nothing . The new seals seemed tighter in refitting ( with a spot of oil to ease them in) than the old ones . What I did find was that the pressure relief valve on the S2000 is 5mm pipe and I seemed to not fit 5mm pipe when I built it. So, bought some 5 mm pipe and a 5mm to 8mm reducer , so I could connect to the fuel return steel pipe. Run and test seemed fine and the car does run better now as well . So, I can recommend CP Fuel Injection with the quick turnaround and seems a helpful chap from communication and sensible cost for getting the injectors cleaned and checked. Now to fiddle with the IACV which is notorious in S2000 circles for not idling.