Originally posted by mercman:
The best way to clean FI is to hook a can right up to the fuel rail. Any thing you put in the tank is a waste of money. Federal law mandates specific amount of cleaning agents in gasoline. Adding that 12oz of stuff to 15gal of gas is pointless as it will evap before it is passed through the injectors.

jeff




It's wonderful that we live in a society that permits different opinions. I respectively disagree with yours.

My difference in opinion is based on experience. Some of the injector cleaners are very strong. I can very easily tell the difference when road testing a car before and after cleaning.

I agree that if you have really dirty injectors more powerful means may be necessary. Even more powerful than the systems that feed the cleaner directly into the fuel rail from a pressurized can are systems that includes it's own pump and allows you to test the injectors. The most common of these is one made by Miller Tools. These heavy duty cleaning systems were common and even essentual before the advent of deposit resistant injectors (DRI). DRI has replaced the older style injectors and have been used pretty much exclusively since the late 80s and early 90s. DRI means just that, deposit resistant. They still get restricted, just not as badly as before and they still respond to cleaning.

Some cleaners are much better than others. The ones I know work from experience include Techron, RedLine, BG 44K, and MOC.

The cleaners can be so strong that they show up in an oil analysis even a few thousand miles after the treatment when you may have thought that it had all burned off.

I don't care what kind of gas you are using, you will benefit from a can or bottle of injector cleaner in the tank at least every 30,000 miles. Add a bottle RedLine added to a full tank of gas and you will feel the difference long before the tank is half gone.

I usually treat my car about every 10,000 miles along with a throttle body cleaning. About every third time I will do an engine decarbon as well to clean up the intake manifold and valves as well.

Jim Johnson 98 SVT 03 Escape Limited