Beneficial clean fuel.injectors in Ultrasonic Cleaner

[JLawrence08648]

I'm buying a ultrasonic cleaner. I've been using a friend's on mower and blower carbs and it's been terrific.

I am an old time mechanic, the carburetor era. Though my cars have fuel injection, I know little about them. I don't even know where the injectors are! Squirting in to the top of the cylinders I'm sure. Do they unscrew like spark plugs? Would it be beneficial to remove them, soak them, then turn on the ultrasonic cleaner? Better, qucker performance? Better gas mileage? Better than using a cleaner in the gas tank? Too much trouble for the return?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

You have to de-pressurize the fuel system before removing the injectors. You can do this by pulling the fuel pump fuse then trying to start the car (it will crank but won't actually start). Then, unplug the electrical connector, and then usually a couple more screws or bolts to take off.

 

[maxdustington]

They are very useful, a can of aerosol injector cleaner and a 12v battery might be more effective and less dangerous for fuel injectors. I'm also not sure I would want to put any electronics in there, even with a solvent instead of water.

 

[Kestas]

I've cleaned injectors using an ultrasonic cleaner. I set it up so I could energize the injector while reverse flushing it. It's very satisfying watching a cloud of crud come out of the injector.

 

[Astro14]

Let a pro do it.

Send them here: http://www.hurstinjectorservice.com

They get cleaned, new o-rings & stainless steel filters, pattern checked, flow and resistance checked.

You can dunk them in your tank and maybe clean them, but in replacing the filters you might break something. You can't flow test, check pattern, or measure out resistance. And you won't know if they're completely clean because you can't measure the flow or check the spray pattern.

But the pro can.

 

[Silk]

I used to have an injector cleaner when I had my shop - all high tech and very nice, it did a good job. A good money earner, but in all the time I used it, I only saw a couple of faulty injectors, and very little difference before and after. I felt a bit guilty charging money for doing nothing, and ended up seldom using it.

 

[Trav]

A lot depends on where you are and the fuel used. I do a lot of injectors and some are good and a lot are filthy, if you use only the ultrasonic cleaner in the machine you are not going to deep clean them.
One poster here had a set that Porsche cleaned for him but it still had a hot hard starting issue so he sent them to me from Germany as a last resort. They tested good and seemed to be clean until I put them in the 1200w 4 inducer sweep tank with a powerful solvent then one shot way up and the others showed some improvement.

To make a long story short after cleaning in 3 different tanks all came up more than 20%, he tried them and the car started right up hot, issue resolved.
I find a lot of very dirty filters that restrict the flow and on some DI injectors the filters are burned right out of them literally. The ohms can be checked at home but that doesn't tell you the electrical consumption of each individual injector, the ohms can be spot on but the injector can still be bad.

Bosch and Denso injectors failures are rare but GM Multec, Magneti Marelli and Siemens/Deka have an astronomical failure rate, I did a 1990 ZR1 that had 16 Multec injectors, all ohms were okay but current draw wad bad on 7 of them, they guy wanted to keep it original so he dug up another set so I could match them up. Out of 32 injectors we ended up with 24 good ones so he had 8 spares.
I have a big box full of bad injectors that gets thrown out when its full for scrap.

If someone wants to try this at home I suggest getting getting an EM276 so you can at least pulse them when cleaning and replace the filters (PM me and I will tell you how to get them out) I can supply O rings and filters if needed. The chemicals I use are only available in 5 gallon minimum and cost a lot but simple green is the best and safest cleaner to use if you don't have that.

The best way to do it is to check the ohms remove the filters, stand them up in a container through holes in cardboard with the cleaner about half way up the injector, pulse it with the EM276 and with an eyedropper put the cleaner down the injector and stop the pulse. Let it sit overnight then pulse each one in the ultrasonic tank.
Its not going to give you flow rates or a thorough electrical test so you can tell how good they are but you will get some junk out.

https://www.amazon.com/ALLOSUN-EM27...sr=8-4&keywords=fuel+injector+testor

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
I'm buying a ultrasonic cleaner. I've been using a friend's on mower and blower carbs and it's been terrific.

I am an old time mechanic, the carburetor era. Though my cars have fuel injection, I know little about them. I don't even know where the injectors are! Squirting in to the top of the cylinders I'm sure. Do they unscrew like spark plugs? Would it be beneficial to remove them, soak them, then turn on the ultrasonic cleaner? Better, qucker performance? Better gas mileage? Better than using a cleaner in the gas tank? Too much trouble for the return?

What car do you have and what makes you think injectors need cleaning?

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
I'm buying a ultrasonic cleaner. I've been using a friend's on mower and blower carbs and it's been terrific.

I am an old time mechanic, the carburetor era. Though my cars have fuel injection, I know little about them. I don't even know where the injectors are! Squirting in to the top of the cylinders I'm sure. Do they unscrew like spark plugs? Would it be beneficial to remove them, soak them, then turn on the ultrasonic cleaner? Better, qucker performance? Better gas mileage? Better than using a cleaner in the gas tank? Too much trouble for the return?

if the car is running well why would you mess with the injectors. Sounds like a recipe for more issues.

 

[Sam_Julier]

Originally Posted by Astro14
Let a pro do it.

Send them here: http://www.hurstinjectorservice.com

They get cleaned, new o-rings & stainless steel filters, pattern checked, flow and resistance checked.

You can dunk them in your tank and maybe clean them, but in replacing the filters you might break something. You can't flow test, check pattern, or measure out resistance. And you won't know if they're completely clean because you can't measure the flow or check the spray pattern.

But the pro can.

Astro,

Would you consider doing this as part of routine maintenance or only if the engine is under performing? In all the years of owning Volvo's I've never had an injector issue. Premium gas and 3-4 cans of Liqui-Moly Injector Cleaner seem to be fine. But I'd consider this if I had to change the head gasket on the engine.

Thanks. Sam