I heard this from a Shade Tree Mechanic... sound wierd, but it might work.

[crunchie12268]

My friend has worked at Ford for 20 years and worked for a trucking company as a mechanic.... now he is just doing on the side work. But he said the absolute best way to clean your injectors with them still in the car is using this little recipe.

Run your car until there is next to no fuel left.
Then pour in

2 bottles of Injector Cleaner
one quart of Automatic Tranny Fluid
half a tank of fuel

Then run it until it is empty again and then you are set... he says he is convinced that it is the best way to clean injectors when they are still in the car. Does this sound like it would work?

 

[90mustangGT]

I wouldn't run it until empty, fuel pumps don't like that. Why not add the additives on a 1/4 tank and then adding gas to wash it down. Your car is going to run like ass, might cause other problems. I have heard of tranny fluid used in carburators to clean them. I would just use a bottle or two of injector cleaner and change the fuel filter. If your injectors are that dirty them you need to remove them and clean them manually.

 

[jerry beach]

The tranny fluid will clog your cats if you have them, I am guessing that you dont. Use caution with the injector cleaner too, that sounds like 4 times the normal dose. I have had a fuel pump fail right after running a normal dose of inj. cleaner. I am sure that stuff ate the diaphram out of the pump, I found it in the filter in little pieces. It was prolly ready to go anyway, and thats the only bad experience I have had with inj. cleaner.

 

[ninety15.0]

I also used to use injector cleaner on a fairly regular basis to take care of my poorly functioning injectors but i think that caused my fuel pump to die also. so be careful using too much of it. I have a question though....how do u manually clean an injector. I am currently building up a new 306 and i dont have the cash or the need for larger injectors so i was wondering what would be the best way to thoroughly clean a set of 60,000 mile injectors that have been sitting for a year. They are still on the fuel rail but removed from the intake mani. and motor. thanks

 

[Daggar]

There's two "approved" methods. One is to find a parts store or it's like that has the injector cleaner/test set. The other involves what looks like an IV bag that plugs directly into your fuel rails and runs the car. The latter can be found at mantenance places such as fireston or Sears etc.

 

[HISSIN50]

is your friend a diesel mechanic? you can poop in the tank of a diesel and it will burn it right up. i dont know that i would use his recipe on a gasoline engine but what do i know.

Jason is spot on about running any tank dry (fuel is the lubricant for a FP). besides, there will be a small amount of contents in the tank, even when the pump cavitates. i would not want to leave that stuff in there.

the second solution Daggar suggested is the best way to go, IMHO, if not removing the injectors (pull the FP relay and let the car run off the contents of the can of injector cleaner).

 

[Mike86Stang]

Actually the shade tree is correct but you need to be careful with the amount of ATF you use. I would have to recommend a 1/2 a quart in a FULL tank.I have seen seriously screwed injectors clean up wonderfully using this.

My personal method is 2 bottles of Red Line injector cleaner in a full tank of 104 oct (actually 98 octane @ the local sunoco but it's called 104)

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

i'd say a couple bottles of injector cleaning and a full tank of C16....MUAAAHAHAHAA!!!

 

[PNY PWR]

The atf is also an old mechanics trick to lube the valve train. When I worked at a chemical company we used to mix up some nice fuel system cleaners.

 

[1986LX2002]

always used Seafoam, this stuff is insane!

 

[HISSIN50]

i thought the detergents and low viscosity [in ATF] were used to 'clean' the motor (of varnish, etc) - not lube it?
im probably wrong there too - ive had my lunch handed to me once already on this thread.

BTW, does anyone worry about the effects of the ATF on the FP diaphram?

 

[89tang]

This makes a nice cleaner

How to make your own octane booster (this is the basic formula of one of the popular octane booster products). To make eight 16 ounce bottles (128 oz = 1 gal):

100 oz of toulene for octane boost
25 oz of mineral spirits (cleaning agent)
3 oz of transmission fluid (lubricating agent)

This product is advertised as "octane booster with cleaning agent *and* lubricating agent!". Diesel fuel or kerosene can be substituted for mineral spirits and light turbine oil can be substituted for transmission fluid. Color can be added with petroleum dyes.

The toulene can also be subsituted with xyelene, most places don't sell toulene except for paint stores an such. I've also heard ppl. using marval mystery oil instead of ATF too. But i usually dump a gallon of xyelene in with 4 gallons of gas for an octane booster, never really tried with the cleaning an lubing stuff too.

 

[crunchie12268]

yeah, this guy used to be a diesel mechanic, but he does this to gasoline engines. I don't think I would do this to my car.

 

[Soupy]

I'd perform this experiment in some other neighborhood than my own. I once watched as someone poured a whole quart of straight ATF down the carb of a 70's ish 440 Fury at WOT in an atempt to revive the valve train. I've never seen so much white smoke, it looked like a blown head gasket. The smell was nasty too!

 

[Michael Yount]

"you can poop in the tank of a diesel and it will burn it right up. " ---- Classic! So THAT'S what biodiesel is, I wondered.

I'd add that some additives can harm the O2 sensors. The money you save by not simply buying a new set of injectors, or sending yours off to be cleaned/balance-flowed could be somewhat offset by the $90 it'll cost you to replace the O2's if they're damaged by the stuff you're running through the system. Careful.

 

[bt15]

I've seen guys experience impressive improvements using Marvel Mystery Oil in lieu of the tranny fluid. It certainly will loosen up sticky lifters and quieten a valve train.