Clean Your Fuel Injectors at Home

7991LXnSHO said:

I have had to read the MSDS for the entire chemical isle for different reasons at more than one place I worked, and it amazes me that a name brand is more important than what is actually in the bottle to too many people. Even if it has been too long since Chemistry class, Wiki and Google make it easy to see what you are putting in yourself or your vehicle.

Mineral spirits is another name for paint thinner. So you are getting something better than mostly Kerosene/lighter fluid in 44K.

B12 Chemtool is much stronger. Please the MSDS or current ingredients off the can. Just the xylene beats paint thinner as an industrial strength solvent. And it’s often on sale for less!

I expect this kind of reaction to science from my antique Chevy groups, but not EFI folks. The fans of old Chevy’s argue about oil (Zinc & Moly content vs. brand loyalty) and if the one and only brand of 13” tire that is close to the original size is what should be used.

At least you are not arguing the letter cams are the only thing to use. Try B-12 Chemtool next time 44k is not enough. It looks like the GM cleaner was switched to a low VOC formula, so that’s not going to be as aggressive as it used to be.

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I did decide to send my injectors out for cleaning. At only 70k and after checking them for ohms, they're all about the same. My car sat for 10 years and noob that I am, I didn't drop and drain the tank out. The guy I bought it from ( original owner) loved the car but wasn't really a car guy, so preventative maintenance was done but not for a long time. I think they're just really dirty, 'cause the rest of the motor certainly is!!

For me in the south it would be a rare event to find a good fuel tank on a Ford that's 25 years old are older. Food for thought, mechanical fuel pumps can pump trash in fact its a trash pump a little contamination in the tank was not a big deal. Electric pumps are a different animal any rust will eat the pump alive... I get 8 to 10 older fuel injected vehicles in every year they just put a new pump in the tank the pump is now trashed. Any rust in the tank will eat a electric pump up even just one small spot of rust, dirty injectors would be the least of your worries..

HoboNC said:

For me in the south it would be a rare event to find a good fuel tank on a Ford that's 25 years old are older. Food for thought, mechanical fuel pumps can pump trash in fact its a trash pump a little contamination in the tank was not a big deal. Electric pumps are a different animal any rust will eat the pump alive... I get 8 to 10 older fuel injected vehicles in every year they just put a new pump in the tank the pump is now trashed. Any rust in the tank will eat a electric pump up even just one small spot of rust, dirty injectors would be the least of your worries..

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I know that corrosion is an issue, but even after sitting for 10 years in the DC area in a parking garage with old fuel, the tank wasn’t as bad as I thought. I wonder how much crap I attempted to run through the engine though. I’m replacing the pump and sending unit because, well, the sending unit died and even though the pump hasn’t shown any signs of weirdness, why not?

Some sediment and stuff, but nothing I wouldn’t expect for a 31 year old car that sat a long time and had indifferent maintenance done.

Noobz347 said:

That's not really the issue. The issue is combustion buildup over time. Something that for example, an in-tank additive will help to [shape] but not fully remove. In order to restore an injector to its full pattern, it would need to be removed, dismantled, agitated and leaned inside and out.

Even then, a flow test can reveal that some injectors are not quite up to snuff. I've seen and replaced out-of-the-box injectors that had horrible spray patterns and inconsistent flow issues.

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It all starts out with good clean fuel, good clean fuel is hard to beat you can bank on that... My point, injectors are designed to work with nothing else but good clean fuel as is the rest of the fuel delivery system... We are now and have been for the last 10 years seeing the tank, lines, pump and hanger deteriorate/rust/contamination, new/rebuilt/cleaned injectors are any cleaner are not going to resolve that issue...

My injectors are on their way back to me. It'll be one week since I mailed them out Friday last week, so I expect them Monday. The following is from email sent by the shop that did the flow and cleaning (www.injectorrepair.com).

Your set of eight OEM Ford injectors flow tested bad right out of
the box (after an initial exterior cleaning / de-greasing). During the
initial flow test; one of the injectors was significantly clogged. It
was not the injector that you had labeled #8. Good news was that they
all held pressure (no leaks).

The engine would not have been able to run well with these
injectors.

I see this all the time esp. with engines that have sat for a
long time unused, or were run with E85. After an extra long session in
the cleaning tank and back-flushing, I was able to get the injectors to
like new function (good spray pattern and flow rates).

An Injector Flow Balance of under 5 % is considered necessary for
proper engine performance. When I sell refurbished sets, I try to get
them flow matched at one to three percent flow balance.

The closer the flow rates of the injectors are to each other, the
better the engine will run, and the engine will run smoother and get
better miles per gallon.

The microfilters were clean. After removing the microfilters, the
injectors were clean on the inside. No noticeable debris came out of the
injectors when I back-flushed two of the injectors. The discharge tips
were clean for a used set of injectors.

Attached are pictures of some of the multiple flow tests I ran on
your set of injectors. Picture # 1269 is of the initial dynamic flow
test (before cleaning). Picture # 1273 is of the final flow test after
the ultrasonic cleaning sessions. I ran all tests multiple times.

Your injectors final flow tests improved, and were great !! The
dynamic flow test ( 12 ms pulse width / 2400 rpm / 25 seconds ) had flow
rates of 48 to 49 cc.s across the board. The injector flow balance is
now very close to
2 %. Good to go.

They all performed flawless in all the tests.

All of your injectors held pressures over 80 psi without leaking
a drop, and their spray patterns were good.

They are 100% ready to be put into service.

If you have any questions, give me a call or email anytime.

Take care, Jim
Injector Repair LLC

I'm sure I could have gotten OK results cleaning them myself, but probably not as good as this place did and not with the technical background. It was worth it to hear how these injectors were from someone who deals with these things all the time. Can't wait to get it all back together and running! This place is up near Schenectady NY for the east coast folks.

Jim Linder was the injector guru he closed shop : ( Hope it works out good fer'ya... Its still good to bench test fire them before you install them... Click click click : ) and check the resistance value : ) Keep that stored in the back of yer noggin...

I was finally able to get the car together and run it. It runs like a completely different car now, way more responsive and smooth, even with the miserly 2.73 rear end!! All for around $160 with outbound shipping, I have my original injectors working in original condition.

gearhead77 said:

I was finally able to get the car together and run it. It runs like a completely different car now, way more responsive and smooth, even with the miserly 2.73 rear end!! All for around $160 with outbound shipping, I have my original injectors working in original condition.

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Damn after reading the last three post I was super happy and getting ready to get his information to inquire about doing mine. Sad to see that he has closed shop but I certainly wanted to get mine done. Now I need to see and do some research on who I can send mine to. Dan @ Pro Dyno in North Carolina see if he can go test them mother s and I think he said cleaning but he but that doesn't include fixing if they need to be fixed. I probably would prefer to send to someone just in case they need as little attention they can go ahead and do what needs to be done

7991LXnSHO said:

Techron is 1-5% “trade secret“ and a little bit of Naptha (that is a little stronger than mineral spirits). So it is really pretty mild sauce that is mostly petroleum distillates. (Like kerosene or lighter fluid.)

http://shop.sclubricants.com/pub/media/sds/chevron/Chevron-Techron-Concentrate-Plus-Complete-Fuel-System-Cleaner-20oz-MSDS.pdf

If you want to put something in the tank that is worth the money, you can get something that contains 60-70% much stronger cleaners and thinners, (or you want to cause cancer in Californian Rats), get B-12 Chemtool.

https://www.berrymanproducts.com/assets/3A-5M-0112-1112-1165.pdf

You can read and learn or continue to pay for marketing In blissful ignorance and blind devotion to various name brands. I prefer to know what is in my supplements and medicine concoctions, so why not the car’s additives, too?

Edit, NG 44K is largely Nsptha and Stoddard solvents (turpentine), so it is partway in between for strength. I do not feel guilty having sold plenty. But Techron and PEA are weak snake oil.

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Looks like they only sell the service kits? If they don't do any cleaning or anything who are to go to people to send injectors to to get them checked out and cleaned and whatever else needs to be done possibly?

I got a guy in Tulsa the did mine for $140. Flowed them, broke them down, sonic cleaned them, replaced the filters, pintle caps, and o-rings. Flowed them after cleaning. My 42's started at 39 lb/hr and ended up at 44 lb/hr at 43.5 psi.

If you are interested I can send you his contact info. He is a retired nuclear engineer that worked at power plants. I think I could have eaten off the floors in his garage it was so damn clean.

AeroCoupe said:

I got a guy in Tulsa the did mine for $140. Flowed them, broke them down, sonic cleaned them, replaced the filters, pintle caps, and o-rings. Flowed them after cleaning. My 42's started at 39 lb/hr and ended up at 44 lb/hr at 43.5 psi.

If you are interested I can send you his contact info. He is a retired nuclear engineer that worked at power plants. I think I could have eaten off the floors in his garage it was so damn clean.

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oh wow Aero and I forgot to reach out to you lol. That doesn't sound bad and sure I'll want to give him a shout. Read this post I just made on fb and let me know what your thoughts are to what Dan @ Pro Dyno said as to the size injectors with using my stock ecu for the 95.

I think I'm just going to send my extra set of 24s to get tested and cleaned for this 331 build. For my mild NA non-track build I'm going to hope and expect maybe around 350 rwhp. Just talking to a tuner near me who has done many of many of 94.95 specifically with stock ecu, he echoed some things to me about my specific situation. He is a little bit further he is 3 hours and 41 minutes away in my actual tuner is an hour and 45 minutes away but I like calling Dan at Pro Dyno because he always answers the phone and will advise you on things, ect. I like Chris Tuten at the Muffler Shop in Columbia as well but he's a lot busier and harder to get direct phone conversations with him usually.
I will however reach out to him just to hear what he has to say about the 47 lb 4 holes with stock ecu. So Dan's point about the stock ECU in reference to processing speed of it and running that large of an injector and especially the four holes, in the cars that he has done in similar situations with a real large injector the ecu's processing speed makes it more difficult to make a difference in being able to I guess to utilize what you're trying to achieve with it; there was also something he said about idling. With the 4 hole he's said he hasn't t see any difference in flow pattern or benefits or anything with using the stock ecu.
The builder has said that his builds a specifically mine, will call for less fuel and timing anyway and he's been saying that actually I would not need a 30 in that 24s would be perfect. So since I have another set of 24s I need to send them off get them tested clean and check to see if they need new pintle caps possibly maybe a few of them. Dan did say that what do you know will work if I was going to do anything and buy something he said finding a lightning meter in 42s he knows that works is what he would advise to do if I had to buy with using the stock ecu.
If you are anyone can point me in the direction of some options to send the injectors to get cleaned/checked, ect. let me know.
Thanks
Pic for post only...
The injectors probably have about 280k miles