hello derohanes, and merry christmas

if i remember correctly fuel injector removal goes as follows:

1 depressurize the fuel system by removing fuel pump relay and then cranking the engine. then you can loosen the fuel lines from the rail, just make sure to mark them so you dont mix them up when reassembling.

2 remove the black air intake crossover pipe

3 "Also, I assume I have to remove the rail before I can remove the black plastic cover that is on top of the fuel rail. "

the cover comes off before the fuel rail does. pry off the black cover of the fuel injector wiring harness, and in the vicinity of the fuel pressure regulator you will find a bolt(10mm or 8mm ) EDIT: and there is another 10mm bolt near the firewall, holding down the remainder of the black plastic , after removing the bolts you will be able to move the black plastic channel out of the way.

4 as nulu mentioned earlier, the fuel rail is held in place by 5 allen head bolts. two near the thermostat housing, one in the middle and two near the firewall . the removal of these bolts is a major pain in the but. i use a combination of tools to get the job done. an allen socket in conjunction with a flexi-head socket extension along with a few different sized extensions will be very useful for the job.

as for the bolts near the fire wall, i use a modified allen wrench which i have sawed off and bent a little bit, and i use a small 10 inch pipe as a breaker bar . removing the oil filter cap may help create some more space as well.

5 after the 5bolts are removed, just grab the fuel rail by each end an pull up , the fuel rail should come out.

6. each fuel injector is held to the fuel rail by a little metal clip, which you slide off to remove.

as far as the injectors go, you may not need to replace them. have a reputable shop flow test them for you, before you shell out 600 dollars for new ones.

i had a rough startup issue , i pulled my injectors an took them to be tested, found out that my injectors were working properly(proper spray pattern) but when the injectors were pressurized and off, one of them leaked a bit. so,i replaced it and all is well now.

what kind of issues/problems are you having with your M104 that you suspect the injectors?