Fuel injector cleaner
Guess I posted this under news & views before & it should be under maintenance & repair. I would like to know what some of you knowledgeable people think about fuel injector cleaner, is it a good thing to use, is it harmful , or is it just a waste of money. I used it about 3 times a year in my 92 Accord, car always ran fine but maybe it would of run just as good without it. Bill
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Have absolutely no idea. Probably could have gone 141,000 with no additives.
Just do not know and unless an independent lab would test them we may never know.
Those are the only "official" recognitions I know of..
if you want the good stuff, let the pro's do it. they have the correct solution and equipment to clean your injectors.
what i did before for my sisters camry is i bought techron from chevron gas stations. they cost about C$12/bottle. feed them directly into the intake manifold and it cleans out the carbon deposits. i used about 3 bottles or so. the injectors probably saw only a few drops of the techron but in the end, her car had more power and was smoother. doing this will cause your check engine light to come on so it's not recommended if you are not technically inclined.
another way of doing it is remove your injectors and use techron to clean it. u can hook up your injector with low current, dip the injector in techron and as the injector starts to move, it get rid off any junk.
in my opinion, this stuff that you can buy and add to your gas tank are waste of money. by the time the solution reaches your injectors (along with gas), they wont be as strong anymore.
Avoid the silly octane boosters and anything with methanol in it!
In the last 2 months, 2 co-workers I know have had to have their fuel systems cleaned out due to carbon build up (both 6-cylinder SUVs). Both have decent length (30+ minutes) commutes so it wasn't because their vehicles didn't have a chance to get up to operating temperature and clear out. The vehicles simply get loaded up due to bad gas.
My Civic has 113,000+ miles on it and runs fine, gets 40+mpg ... all with the original O2 sensor. >:^D
A woman I know has a '97 'Lude that started to stall, stumble and hesitate so I added 1/2 bottle of Red Line CFSC and 2 bottles of drygas over the course of a week and the car resumed its former
Occasional use of GOOD additives saves ytou money in the long run. Yes, gasoline is all supposed to come with the proper additives but everyone gets a tankful of old or contaminated gas now and then.
--- Bror Jace
I'd love to use 44K but absent of that I use Techron 2-3 times a year.
go to http://www.bgprod.com/locator.html to find one remotely close, or contact them via email.
ChevronTexaco (Oronite division I think) also sells non-Techron polyetheramine (PEA) fuel additive technology to others, inlcluding some OEMs.
Secret in the trade is who uses what "juice" and how much. Some FAs are little more than drygas (methanol) or stoddard solvent (about like kerosene).
I'd buy only reputable brands from BIG companies, and let price guide me ... i.e. cheap bottle ($2) is not likely to have much active ingedients.
A lot of auto chemicals are almost frauds in MY opinion, packaged on contract by smaller "marketing" companies, but FTC enforcement is limited. People want to loose weight without dieting, and improve their vehicles better than Engineers/OEMs/Laws of physics and current technolgy make possible...
My word and time (not my employer's)
Merritt
Even BG 44k will not clean an abused system. They make profesional grade super solvents for rail flushes. Once you get the intake track [plenum/runners,etc] and injectors CLEAN as brand new then these tank additives seem to work.
The problem most have and don't realize it is severe dirt from EGR/PCV system in intake after throtttle plate! From the injectors down it is usually pretty clean since the gasoline washes this area fairly well.
http://pub27.bravenet.com/faq/show.php?usernum=2240725418&password=&catid=2285&action=showcat
of course it talks about deisels as well as gas but both are the same when how fuel additives work in an engine.
bob in jville
Lubricant Specialist
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com
Bill
Encapsulation is not what you want. It is best to read up on any of the additives before you add them. Some can do more harm than good.
Some are harmful to other parts of the system.
Use isopropyl alcohol and not the cheaper and less effective (and corrosive) methanol.
I don't know why they wouldn't have this stuff in Canada.
--- Bror Jace
If this doesn't work [or well enough] replacement or ultrasonic cleaning is required after injector removal.
Some injector types [pintle] are worse than others, some engine have bad cooling airflow at rear [inline 6 and V8] so the rear units run hotter.......it varies with every engine.
As for "drygas" I guess that's just a commonly used slang term around here for gas-line antifreeze (which is also used). Sorry for the confusion.
--- Bror Jace
At around 180,000 miles started annual rail pressure flushes.
Never replaced an injector [8] and at 12.2 years the idle test [power balance] is smoother than new.
I became obsessive about getting the variance below 12 rpm at 1300 rpm....meaning all injectors are within 1% [actually +- 0.5%] of each other! Instead of the more typical 3-4-5%.