Clean fuel injectors are a must for peak engine performance, fuel economy and emissions. If the injectors are dirty and cannot deliver their normal dose of fuel, then performance, fuel economy and emissions are all going to suffer. Dirty injectors cannot flow as much fuel as clean ones, nor can they deliver the correct spray pattern that is so essential for clean, efficient combustion. The fuel feedback control system will compensate for the leaning effect once it is in closed loop, but it cannot correct the underlying condition that is causing the problem. The injectors need to be cleaned if an engine is experiencing any of the classic symptoms of dirty injectors, such as lean misfire, rough idle, hesitation and stumbling on light acceleration, a loss of power, and higher hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. Lean misfire may also trigger a misfire code and turn on the Check Engine light on 1996 and newer vehicles with OBD II systems. The code often will be a P0300 random misfire code, or you may find one or more misfire codes for individual cylinders, depending on which injectors are most affected. Fuel Injector Clogging It does not take much of a restriction in an injector to lean out the fuel mixture. A restriction of only 8% to 10% in a single fuel injector can be enough to cause a misfire. When this occurs, unburned oxygen enters the exhaust and makes the O2 sensor read lean. On older multiport systems that fire the injectors simultaneously, the computer compensates by increasing the on-time of all the injectors, which can create an overly rich fuel condition in the other cylinders. In turbocharged engines, dirty injectors can have a dangerous leaning effect that may lead to engine-damaging detonation. When the engine is under boost and higher rpm, it needs all the fuel the injectors can deliver. If the injectors are dirty and cannot keep up with the engine's demands, the fuel mixture will lean out, causing detonation to occur. All vehicles are vulnerable to injector clogging, but the ones that are most vulnerable and most likely to experience such driveability and emissions problems are older ones with pintle-style multiport injectors. Later injector designs are more resistant to clogging. In the early pintle-style injectors, the nozzle shape and orifice size determine how much fuel flows through the injector and the shape of the spray pattern. Most pintle-style injectors are designed to produce a cone-shaped spray pattern. But, if fuel deposits accumulate in the nozzle area, it can restrict fuel delivery and break up the spray pattern, causing a lean fuel condition and many of the problems just mentioned. Fuel Injector Deposits Where do the deposits come from? Mostly from the fuel itself. Gasoline is a mixture of many different hydrocarbons, including oilfins, which are heavy, waxy compounds. The heavier the hydrocarbon, the more energy it yields when it burns. When the engine is shut off, the injectors undergo heat soak. Fuel residue in the injector nozzles evaporates, leaving the waxy oilfins behind. Because the engine is off, there is no cooling airflow through the ports and no fuel flow through the injectors to wash it away, so heat bakes the oilfins into hard varnish deposits. Over time, these deposits can build up and clog the injectors. The formation of these deposits is a normal consequence of engine operation, so detergents are added to gasoline to help keep the injectors clean. But if a vehicle is used primarily for short-trip driving, the deposits may build up faster than the detergents can wash them away. On four-cylinder engines, the #2 and #3 injectors are in the hottest location and tend to clog up faster than the end injectors on cylinders #1 and #4. The same applies to the injectors in the middle cylinders in six- and eight-cylinder engines. The hotter the location, the more vulnerable the injector is to clogging from heat soak. Throttle body injectors are less vulnerable to heat soak because of their location high above the intake manifold plenum. Detergents In Gasoline Help Keep Injectors Clean To save a few pennies per gallon and to increase the competitive and/or profit margin of gasoline, some suppliers have cut back on the amount of detergent they add to their fuel or have switched to cheaper and less-effective additives. Commonly used deposit-control additives include polysibutylamine, polyisbutylene succinimide and polyisobutylene phenylamine. But these same additives also can build up on intake valve stems causing them to stick. To prevent this from happening, additional additives called fluidizers also must be added to the fuel. But, over time, these can contribute to the formation of combustion chamber deposits that raise compression and the engine's octane requirements. Dirty injectors lean out the fuel mixture and contribute to lean misfire, hesitation and even detonation. Cleaning should restore like-new performance. One of the best additives is polyetheramine. It keeps injectors, valves and combustion chambers clean without the help of any additional fluidizers – but it costs more than twice as much as the other commonly used additives. How much additive does it take to provide an adequate level of protection? Industry sources say the recommended level is about 1,000 parts per million (ppm) of dispersant-detergent in the fuel – which costs the gasoline supplier less than a penny a gallon. Even so, as much as 85% of the gasoline that is being sold contains only one-tenth of the recommended dosage, or only 100 ppm of additive. Consequently, using cheap gas contributes to the formation of injector deposits. Fuel Injector Cleaning The benefits realized by injector cleaning obviously will vary depending on the condition of the injectors prior to cleaning and how badly they were clogged. Injectors that are really dirty should show more of a noticeable improvement in performance than ones that have only a light accumulation of deposits. Either way, performance, fuel economy and emissions should all be better after a cleaning. Most high-chilometroage engines, as well as engines that are used mostly for short-trip, stop-and-go driving, are the most likely prospects for injector cleaning. Some experts recommend cleaning the injectors every 25,000 to 30,000 chilometri to keep them flowing at peak efficiency. Clean the Throttle Body and Intake Valves Another component that also may need to be cleaned to remove fuel varnish is the throttle body. Fuel vapor rising up through the intake manifold can accumulate and vaporize around the throttle plate and air bypass circuits, causing a change in the idle air/fuel mixture. Sometimes you can see the deposits, and sometimes you cannot. Either way, cleaning the throttle body and intake tract also may be necessary to fully restore engine performance, idle quality and emissions. An aerosol cleaning solvent works well here. The intake valves and combustion chambers also should be cleaned when you do the injectors to remove deposits that may also be contributing to driveability and emissions problems. Deposits on the backs of intake valves can act like a sponge and absorb fuel, causing a momentary hesitation when the throttle is suddenly opened. Combustion chamber deposits increase compression and the risk of engine-damaging detonation (spark knock). Engines that burn oil typically will have heavy intake valve and combustion chamber deposits that do not respond well to normal levels of detergent in gasoline. Additional cleaner is needed, which can be added to the fuel tank or run directly through the injectors. To remove carbon deposits from the intake valves and combustion chambers, use a top cleaner type of product and follow the instructions, or use equipment that is designed to clean the upper engine. Direct injection fuel injectors have very precise spray patterns and are even more sensitive to deposits than regular injectors. Note: Some experts recommend replacing the spark plugs after doing an on-car injection cleaning or decarbon treatment. The residue that is loosened and washed away by the solvent may increase the risk of plug fouling. Changing the oil and filter is also a good idea following a cylinder decarbon treatment because some of the solvent will get past the rings and end up in the crankcase. Fuel Injector Cleaning Options Should you clean the injectors in place or remove them and use some type of injector cleaning machine? It depends. The easiest route is to clean the injectors in place because you do not have to remove them (which can be a real chore on some import engines). Running cleaner through the injectors while the engine is running also removes many of the deposits on the valves and inside the combustion chambers. This eliminates the need for an extra cleaning step if the engine is full of carbon deposits. The job takes only 10 to 15 minutes, and you can usually tell right away if the treatment addressed the problem (engine runs smoother, idle misfire gone, etc.). When doing the cleaning procedure itself, you must use pressurized equipment to feed the solvent directly into the fuel rail while the engine is running. This means you either have to disable the fuel pump and plug the fuel return line, or install a U-tube so the fuel will recirculate right back to the tank. Disabling the fuel pump can set a fault code on some cars, requiring you to clear the code after the job is done. Easy as it is, there are some limitations with on-car injector cleaning. One is that badly clogged injectors may not pass enough solvent during a normal cleaning cycle to be thoroughly cleaned. Some baked-on deposits can be very difficult to remove, requiring you to prolong or repeat the cleaning process. And if on-car cleaning does not work? You will have to remove the injectors and try to clean them on an injector cleaning machine – or replace them. Another limitation with on-car injector cleaning is that you may have to do some additi…

Fonte: AA1Car.com