twoskinsoneman

I recently performed maintenance on my injectors and thought I would share.
I first removed the injectors. This took about 15-20 minutes.
Disconnected neg terminal on battery. Removed 4 bolts holding fuel rail to intake manifold. Pulled up on the rail to pull injectors up. Then removed injectors from rail.

First off... The box I used to measure injector output and to exercise the injectors during cleaning was an invention of Makerdino and can be found here:
http://hackaweek.com/hacks/?p=1156
All credit to him. I used his design and built the box using mainly Radioshack parts he suggested.

This isn't really necessary but I wanted to take a precise measurement of the injector output before and after cleaning. Using the box is precise because for 1 (or 5) seconds it pulses the injector on for 39 milliseconds and off for 39 milliseconds. It's very precise and does not fluctuate. The second part is having a constant fuel pressure delivered to the injector.
As you can see from the pics I used a plastic pressure vessel from Lowes. I filled it 1/3 with denatured alcohol and pressurized the container with 20psi shop air. So I had a constant 20psi on the fuel to the injector. I then measured the output of a 5 second burst from the injector weighing each shot with my ammo-reloading scale. I did each injector 3 times and recorded the results. I also shot a 1 second burst onto a paper towel to have a visual of the pattern the injector shot.

For the cleaning I removed the basket filter (using a screw in a vise) and o-rings and discarded them. Then I submerged the injectors into the Chem-dip in the sonic cleaner. For 1 hour (each) I cleaned the injectors in the sonic cleaner while using the box to open and close the injectors. This insured the internals of the injector would receive the benefit of the sonic cleaning.

After 1 hour I wiped off the injector and installed a new basket filter.
This is the kit I used:
I then redid the test using the pressure vessel and 5 second burst to check to see if there was any improvement.
Oh I also hand painted the injectors to avoid corrosion as the sonic cleaner removed the paint.
Over all I did not have much improvement.
I installed new o-rings and spacer from the kit.
I re-installed the injectors (about 20-30 minutes) and took the truck for a drive. The engine ran smooth and no problems indicated.

I understand this is a very quick write up so if there are any questions I will be happy to answer them.

02sport4

How much does it cost to build the tester

MCpllabelle

This thread should be a sticky.

twoskinsoneman

Cost about $30-40. Radio shack is the most expensive place to buy capacitors, resistors and stuff but I didn't want to wait for ordered stuff. You could build it for less of you ordered the stuff online.

F33lmyWrath

Please share data from testing!

twoskinsoneman

My test results are pretty arbitrary using the 20psi and 5 seconds of 39 milliseconds on-off burst.
Each injector output was .1515 to .1645 ounces.
After cleaning the output was the same and none of the spray patterns changed after the cleaning.
I have to conclude that none of the injectors really needed cleaning. But I wouldn't know until I did it so I'm happy about it.

Jbrew

Excellent write-up man!

Thanks for the contribution. One that will be VERY helpful!

Jbrew

That's just it, you would never know for sure unless doing this for yourself. Since it eliminates all possibilities of chance. It's the best way hands down.
No worries now ehh lol.

Yea, cool, - kudo's

twoskinsoneman

Thanks! It was a lot of fun. Figuring out how to maintain constant pressure and building the test box was great fun and if it ever helps someone in the future, bonus!