Your thoughts on cleaning injectors

[Brock]

I was at a injector rebuild place dropping off some old cores when the conversation turned to the bubble test. He said all that test confirms is that you have air getting past the plunger and because they get carbon packed over time and instead of spending over $1000 for a new injector, 90% of the time they can be just cleaned out.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Hammerhead]

(10-23-2016 )Brock Wrote:  I was at a injector rebuild place dropping off some old cores when the conversation turned to the bubble test. He said all that test confirms is that you have air getting past the plunger and because they get carbon packed over time and instead of spending over $1000 for a new injector, 90% of the time they can be just cleaned out.

What are your thoughts on this?

About 12 years ago I knew a guy that started his own shop. He got a machine that you connected to the fuel pump to bypass the fuel tank. In this machine they put a chemical, I don't know the name of, and ran your truck in this for about two hours or so. They said it was a chemical developed during WWII that they used to swab the bore on Howitzer cannons and such that burned the powder residue off the bore.

Midwest Detroit Diesel in Saskatoon actually recommended this before changing a problem injector, and 90% was about the success rate they talked about too. They inframed a truck about 6 months after he had this done, and they said they've never seen a combustion chamber that clean before.
I was gone on a two month project when the guy closed his shop, and I never found out where the machine went, or what the chemical was. It had a very distinct odor to it. I knew a couple guys that had it done and they raved about how their trucks ran after so I tried it too. I don't know how "good it was" for the motor, but I couldn't believe the difference in the way it ran after. My truck was about 4 years old, and when I was walking over to it, I thought the new one next to it was running, not mine. Drove that truck for three more years, and never opened the motor (other than the bull gear), so I don't think it hurt anything...

[Nilao]

Kerosene and cresylic acid? My great uncle was in ww2. There's also a home brew solution used in navy ships of the era. The stuff in the civilian world is known as Chen-dip carb cleaner. Nasty stuff for o-rings and seals though. Not sure how a diesel would fare burning it though. Spec 2-117 cleaner, rifle bore is what's in the cans in the garage from his gunsmith in days. I inherited all his stuff when he passed.

[Brock]

I think he was talking more the lines of opening them up and cleaning them. I'd be a little worried putting harsh chemicals through my motor.

[Nilao]

Yeah, I guess this is why Rawze says to run a jug of cleaner through the system once a month.