Just out of curiousity, how many members on here use after market "fuel injector cleaner" additives? I always use a bottle of Gumout or whatever is on sale when I buy motor oil and a filter every three months. How many think they are just snake oil? FYI I always run 87 octane and make an effort to only purchase fuel from a major company like Texaco or Chevron and change my fuel filter about every two years or 30,000 miles.

 

I have been using a injector cleaner every tank of gas since last summer. How do you know when the injectors are clean??? I suppose they are by now. I figure once I find a good cleaner that works I'll continue with a maintanance amount of 1 oz to 10 gallons to keep them clean. My startup click is completly gone, which I think was comming from the dirty injectors.

From what I've read, most injector cleaners on the market don't clean very well, and some have only small amounts of the chemicals that do clean well.

Chevron has a good cleaner, Techron, which is in their gas, so if you are getting your gas from them you already are using a fuel injector cleaner. We don't have Chevron around here, and I've never used any Techron.

The most concentrated Techron product is Techron Concentrate Fuel System Cleaner, which will be about 10 times more concentrated than the gasoline. The gas alone will maintain clean injectors. The Progard products are the same chemistry, only in lower concentration.

 

I used to use FI cleaners regularly. Then at 110,000 miles, i had my injectors pulled and professionally cleaned. they were filthy and had some kind of loose solid in the screens that prevented them from working at optimum efficiency. The guy that cleaned them own a race shop and cleaned them with a fancy SnapOn machine. ANyway, it took a while and i got to talking to him and he recomended that i DO NOT use the cleaners in the future. He said that they actually do work and they work well. He also said that whatever crud is in your line or tank will be cleaned off and subsequently washed to your injectors clogging them. The stuff loosens it but cannot dissolve it. After seeing my injectors, i am a believer, i don't use it anymore. I never noticed any difference and then one day they needed a serious cleaning.

I don't know how much truth there is to it, but i just thought i'd share his thoughts on it.

 

I use fuel injector cleaner about once a year. If the injectors are not very dirty, I see no difference, but if they were very dirty, the truck runs poorly for about half a tank and then runs great after.