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Okay, well I think I answered my own questions somewhat. As for the $100 in rubber, I decided that I'm going to use the o-rings and seals that I have. They look/feel pretty good and I realized that since I'm going to do my own flow testing I'll be able to see pretty soon if there are any leaks. And further down the road, they're not that hard to get at for replacement, if neccesary. But if anybody has good/bad experiences with skimping on this one particular item, I'd love to hear about it.
On the second issue (the tiny tips broken off) I discovered that the part is not metal, but rather the world's second most brittle, fragile form of plastic. (The first is old vacuum lines; am I right ?). One of them smashed into pieces when I pulled the injector from the fuel rail. It does not hold the tip of the injector on like I had supposed, but from what I can tell serves only to a) keep the small o-ring from falling off before assembly, and more importantly b) protect the extremely delicate tip of the injector from getting smashed into stuff. So I'm going to chance it and go without the caps. PLEASE someope tell me if this is a bad idea !!!
I read previous threads on how to remove the injectors from the rail, and I'll add in my own bits of wisdom. There is a square-ish raised area centered on the axis of the injector; this is what you want to grab hold of. DO NOT grab the electrical connector that points off to the side at an angle. I began by using a pair of straight-jawed vise-grips to grab the square-ish area. To minimize damage, I put a layer of duct tape on the jaws of the vise-grips. DO NOT pull with handles of the vise-grips; you want the pull to be very straight along the axis, not cock-eyed. I did okay by holding the jaw end of the vice grips and pulling (really hard !) on this while rotating the injector back and forth. Nothing magic about the angle (its all circular) but the rotation is important to get the thing moving. After doing 5 in this fashion, I ran into a tough one. Then I switched to what I should have done all along. I already had the rail indoors, off the engine and disassembled from the fuel lines, FPR, etc. So I just put some duct tape on the jaws of my bench vise and clamped the injector in it. Then with two hands free I was able to rotate and pull straight up. Walla. Next time, that's how I'll do all 6.
Finally, as for cleaning, I got the exterior scum, grunge, and grit off with carb/choke cleaner before disassembly. One the injectors were out, I did a carefull touch-up with more carb/choke cleaner and Q-tips. The carb cleaner is great for grease removal, but it tends to leave quite a residue. So next, I dunked the injectors one at a time in a small beaker of isopropyl alcohol ('cause that's what was handy) and swirled them around in that. After six injectors, that stuff was dirty ! Not just the yellow/browncolor, but specks of crud swirling around in the bottom. I noticed that the fine mesh screen that wraps around the injector about mid-way seemed to vary in color a bit. So I took a clean piece of lint-free paper towel with some alcohol and wiped the screen VERY GENTLY. Quite a suprise how much crud there was on that screen. Enough to leave dark marks on the paper. I like to think that this task alone will add 3-5 WHP and at least three hot chicks to my ride. It won't, I know, but I like to think that. Anyway, it's late, and I'm rambling. Hope this was helpful to someone.
Good night.
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