Fuel Injector Cleaners - Snake Oil?
 

An MB mechanic once told me: Cars that get injector cleaner have clean injectors and accelerate stronger.

Some people have said that injector cleaners are snake oil

What is your opinion?

Sea Foam is popular among truckers in Minnesota (it's made there).

Snake oil. I take them out every 100K and clean them. At 100K one failed and was cleaned. The others passed pop and pattern test. At 200K, I decided to change the nozzles out and used Bosio.

I use Chevron Techroline as well as additive fuel, its a must when you are driving in areas where fuel quality is bad. I haven't needed any major fuel related service on my cars in US or India. In India its quite bad once you are on the outskirts of the city. Adulteration with naphtha and other junk including dirty tanks are commonplace on highways. The only thing that keeps my vehicle alive apart from frequent fuel filter change is STP Fuel Injector cleaner concentrate. For extreme cases I use Gumout Regane that works wonders.

Search for injector cleaning threads. There is much debate on this. There is speculation that build up in the IP may be sent down stream causing negative affect. I took out my injectors and cleaned them this weekend. After visualizing them and soaking them in berryman carb cleaner for two days I can tell you there would be no way any injecotr cleaner could clean even a fraction of what I took off. If you clean yours do no use any metal on them. Use a green dish srub pad, This was suggested by a local 40 year mercedes mechanic. For 100 bucks, you can buy new monarch injectors from mercedes source, (probably not a bad idea). Also thoroughly clean your pre chamber and ream your glow plugs while your in there, also you can visually check all plugs while injectors are out.

My Mercedes mechanic just recently told me injector cleaners (as a fuel additive) can contaminate the oil and cause break down. I do trust this shop so I'll take his word for it.

Why buy new injectors? Just reuse them and get the nozzles. That is what I did at 200K

I think the only things that make a real, immediate difference ar the "direct" applications where the cleaner is injected directly into the injection system. For gassers, I have a 3M injection system cleaner that plumbs right into the fuel rail. For Diesels it's the purge...

The 3M system cost me around $200 and will do nearly every make of car while the Diesel purge setup was basically free.

I use Diesel Purge periodically. At 241K, none of my inj's have ever been out of the car.

As Evan said, DP should be fed directly to the IP rather than be dumped in the tank and diluted further. At $6-7.00 a can it is my belief it helps keep things clean. It has never been shown to cause harm to my knowledge.

Will it work on K-jet?

Not sure about the K-jet since the cleaning setup is really designed for EFI systems. It might be posible to plumb it into the inlet for the injection pump but I don't know how the high pressure in the can would effect the mixture.

They make a can for TBI's that might be better since it's much lower presure.

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Diesel purge has made a noticeable difference in idle quality/sound and acceleration for two of my cars, and a lawn mower. :D

:joker:
RichC

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I prefer to clean my injectors every 100K and KNOW that they are good.

Edit: Yes, it is easier to do the DP every now and then as PM. Me, I prefer to yank the injectors and make sure that they are good. Several times of PM and not being sure that they are good vs 1 yank and knowing it is good. I'll take the latter.