DIY fuel injector cleaning procedure

[sacrileger]

question to the dsm forum: is there any specific reason why we send our fuel injectors to third parties instead of having our own DIY fuel injector cleaning and maintenance procedure?

one of my fuel injectors failed recently and before i replaced it with a new one i did a cursory search on dsmtuners with keywords "cleaning injectors" to see if there was some maintenance procedure guys on this forum follow in order to service fuel injectors.

many search results casually mentioned that it's best to send the injector out to a third party for servicing and cleaning... here's a couple examples:

1/ https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/off-season-injector-cleaning-flow-testing.519763/
2/ https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/no-start-6bolt-2gauto.522599/post-153723967

i found one post on DIY injector cleaning which i didnt find that helpful and another one with a broken link:
1/ https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/diy-fuel-injector-cleaner.527801/post-153756002
2/ https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/injector-cleaning.370163/post-152212307

and then i came across a post from @19Eclipse90 and upvoted by @steve which also suggested injectors should be sent out to a third party for cleaning and servicing (see quote and link below)

"Cleaning injectors - any foreign material ought to be wiped clean before reassembly, other than lube for the pintle cap into / through the insulator. Same with the O-ring side into the rail.

If you’re talking internal cleaning, spray cleaners aren’t going to offer much help and you’d be better served sending them off for professional inspection and cleaning. I would only recommend this if you are experiencing an issue that you have diagnosed to be directly related to the fuel injectors or if you simply want the peace of mind."

link to this^ quote: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1g-fuel-injectors-1991-eclipse-2-0.546848/post-153919132

so on that account i simply sprayed the injectors with a carburetor cleaner, put all of it back together and was done with it...

however, since i spent some time on youtube looking up info regarding debugging fuel injectors, youtube suggested a vid today on cleaning fuel injectors and that led me to watching about 1/2 dozen vids on DIY injector cleaning...

here's one out of dozens of examples how to clean fuel injectors:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

here's an example how to refurbish a mitsu injector:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

to see what i mean wrt dozens of fuel injector cleaning vids, follow the link below and you will find several dozen ways to clean injectors:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fuel+injector+cleaning

 

[steve]

I'm not sure what your point is so let me try and explain.

Yes we know how to DIY backyard mechanic this, but we recommend people send injector sets out for cleaning and calibration. A good injector shop will also replace any missing pintle caps, clean/replace the filters and replace the o-rings. They also will provide the flow rates of the injectors before and after cleaning so you know if they are well matched and what to base your tuning parameters on.

The cleaning fluid and ultrasonic machines will likely do a more thorough job of removing deposits that you can at home unless you duplicate the process.

 

[sacrileger]

I'm not sure what your point is so let me try and explain.

Thanks steve for the explanation. I took the post of jun 17, 2024 re sending injectors to third parties as authoritative "don't mess with injectors at home, it's not worth it" and the fact that I could not find any DIY injector cleaning procedure on this forum I concluded that it's just something that is not done on the DSM motors, but then I watched a few vids on how to clean injectors and I wondered why we don't have any documentation on how to do it ourselves here.

There's many posts on this forum which suggest that if an injector is suspect, the best way to go about it is to swap them, etc and see if the problem moves to the next cylinder; however, I would think that once the fuel rail is out, it would make sense to service the injectors at home before they would be put back to see if the problem with flow can be fixed that way.

I watched the vids on DIY injector cleaning and wondered if there was a downside to it because guys on this forum simply don't do any of their own cleaning when they run into problems or at least the guys don't mention that any cursory cleaning was done when they are debugging injector problems.

I just thought if it is so easy, as shown in the vids, why not have some cleaning procedure for us who don't send injectors to shops? There are so many ways to clean injectors it's mind warping to figure out which method is best suited for DSM injectors.

My question was simply a question and should not be construed as challenging your suggestion or approval to send injectors out. I understand that a professional outfit will do a great job cleaning injectors but we are just as capable here and can do stuff like that as well.

Could we not have a procedure how to clean Mitsubishi injectors properly at home in our technical documentation? A method that was tried and proven effective for us?

I don't see any harm in asking for such documentation or at least a properly vetted suggestion which of the vids on DIY injector cleaning would be appropriate for us.

That's all

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I can fix dam near anything, but I don't mess with my injectors when it is so cheap to have done professionally. Lately, I replaced a motor that had sat for a year with E85 in it. All injectors were stuck. I sent them back to FIC, the dealer, who cleaned them and found one that didn't flow NEAR as much, so they replaced that 1 injector to match the others and provided the flow data on them, which actually flowed 100cc more than advertised. Good data when you are trying to dial in a tune. Just my experiences. I rebuild the motors and just about anything else but I trust the pros on my injectors. Thanks FIC!

 

[biglady112]

I am on the other side of the spectrum. I clean all of my injectors as well as customer cars when they come through. All I use is brake cleaner, a dedicated connector, compressed air and a battery.

It takes maybe 1-2 minutes to do a whole set and you can see each injector come back pretty quick and watch the spray pattern return pretty quick.

While it does not provide flow numbers. It has worked every single time. I have been doing it for over 15 years this way. I think I have only ever seen one or two injectors not be able to be saved. Both were stock 450cc injectors and the coils just died in them.

Some of us aren’t willing to wait a week or two and are also not willing to spend $25/injector when I can do it myself in just a few minutes.

 

[steve]

Thanks steve for the explanation. I took the post of jun 17, 2024 re sending injectors to third parties as authoritative "don't mess with injectors at home, it's not worth it".

My question was simply a question and should not be construed as challenging your suggestion or approval to send injectors out. I understand that a professional outfit will do a great job cleaning injectors but we are just as capable here and can do stuff like that as well.

Could we not have a procedure how to clean Mitsubishi injectors properly at home in our technical documentation? A method that was tried and proven effective for us?

I don't see any harm in asking for such documentation or at least a properly vetted suggestion which of the vids on DIY injector cleaning would be appropriate for us.

I think you are exaggerating a bit here and I don't know why. Quoting something that isn't an actual quote to build your case is disingenuous and to suggest that my liking a post somehow makes it authoritative is a complete misunderstanding of how things work here. I'm just some old guy who's been hanging around since almost the beginning who tries to help people.

But I don't like it when people tag me and put words in my mouth. I say enough stupid things on my own without help.

I don't think anybody here would mind you making a tech article on DIY injector cleaning if you think one is needed. Just make sure to proofread it before posting.

I am on the other side of the spectrum. I clean all of my injectors as well as customer cars when they come through. All I use is brake cleaner, a dedicated connector, compressed air and a battery.

, that sounds like preventive maintenance to me. Maybe you want to write the article?

question to the dsm forum: is there any specific reason why we send our fuel injectors to third parties instead of having our own DIY fuel injector cleaning and maintenance procedure?

To answer your question. There isn't a specific reason that I know of.

 

[sacrileger]

I think you are exaggerating a bit here and I don't know why. Quoting something that isn't an actual quote to build your case is disingenuous and to suggest that my liking a post somehow makes it authoritative is a complete misunderstanding of how things work here.

My question was simply a question and should not be construed as challenging your suggestion or approval to send injectors out. I understand that a professional outfit will do a great job cleaning injectors but we are just as capable here and can do stuff like that as well.

there was no malice intended, i am not sure why you took it that way when i already clarified it in my previous post... the intent was to show both sides of the spectrum, i.e. 'let pros do it' on one side and 'DIY' on the other side and look for some middle ground procedure that is half professional and works for our injectors... i am sure there are downsides to DIY cleaning procedures posted on youtube but that's something they dont mention let alone talk about...

i had no idea until now that injectors can be easily cleaned at home and if it is so common for guys on this forum to do their own injector cleaning, why not let them share their experience the way @biglady112 did above? i would have jumped on it right away had i known it can be done.. i just did not go look outside for such solution as i am used to finding everything i need on this forum so why not have a few suggestions listed here instead of shutting the conversation down by suggesting malice was done?

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Don't think any of us haven't done the easy clean thing! Compressed air, 9v battery and some BPC or Carb Spray. It's easy. If I ran a shop, I would just have a injector cleaner for customers. I don't, so if it's a spray pattern problem, hell that's not a big problem. I had stuck injectors. I'll leave that to someone that backs their work and give me a replacement if it's needed since the flow rate was noticed that it wasn't doing a good job. I don't think I would have noticed the difference. It's worth the money for me so all flow close to the same. It took just over 1 week to get there and back, so I had other things to do that got done. I didn't wait until the last minute to get the service done though.

 

[19Eclipse90]

Only things I’ll add here:

Since it seems this is what you’re getting at, there’s no one on the site staff that is preventing anyone from posting a proper how-to on injector cleaning. Anyone that feels competent and capable to create that content for the forum is more than welcome.

Regarding the comment you quoted, perhaps it lacked some clarity. In any case, I think you need to consider the context of that thread as well. The original poster labeled himself as a novice and wasn’t sure how to remove the injectors. That likely isn’t someone that needs to be trying to clean their own injectors. As well, if all you have is a spray cleaner, the comment holds true: you’ll be better served sending the injectors off than to spray them. Spraying the outside isn’t going to clean the inside and you won’t clean the inside without additional tools / equipment.

The reason to send them out? I wouldn’t say there is one other than a personal preference, and that my preference shows in that particular post; I like flow sheets . As with any and all posts made here, take what you will and toss what you don’t. No one here can control what you do with your car and no one is going to have their feelings hurt if you disregard something they posted.