Xylene or Toluene ?
 

Hello everyone,

My 1988 300e need to have it's fuel injectors removed and
cleaned. Originally, I was going to remove them and have
them cleaned ultrasonically. However, the only place that I
could find that did this type of work refused to do so because
the injectors were mechanical. They said that cleaning them would
be a waste of time and that I should just purchase new ones.
(that was odd since he did not even look at the injectors)

Anyway, I vaguely remember some one telling me that you
could clean mechanical fuel injectors by removing them and
soaking them in Xylene or Toluene. But I'm not sure about
the effectiveness of this procedure.

Has anyone ever done this before?

Thanks in advance,

bluebenz

I use Xylene in my V12 Jag....works great...i use 2% mixture...

That could have been one of my answers. I spent some time poking around the internet to see what the professionals use to clean injectors ultrasonically, and it was essentially a xylene-rich mixture. Other solvents were added (e.g., ethanol), but these other solvents didn't seem to be significant for cleaning.

Though xylene stinks like crazy, it seems to have much the same effect as mineral spirits, pentane, or heptane, all of which are relatively mild, non-polar solvents.