Hey fellas,

My fuel injectors are very dirty at the moment. Too much improper fuel in the past. Ran some seafoam but it's still got the symptoms, so I'm pulling them out later and doing a DIY cleaning to see if I can make em run any better. I'm not interested in sending them anywhere.

I wanted ya'lls opinion on my game plan here. Tear me a new one if I'm being an idiot.


Fuel injector cleaning setup

The orbital sander will be leveled to make sure it's sitting straight. After the fuel injector(s) are added into the jar and the carb cleaner is poured in, I'm planning on duct taping the jar to the sanding face of the sander. I'm not sure if the duct tape will be enough, so maybe I'll grab a craigslist sander and just epoxy my jar right to it.
The battery will be connected (and connectors heatshrunk to prevent liquid getting in) to keep the injector(s) open.
Once this is all set up, I'll make sure the injectors have some wiggle room in the jar and turn the baby on. Step out for a smoke and a beer, let it run for a few hours.
Afterwards, spray carb cleaner right through the injector while tapping the battery on/off to check the spray pattern.

Ya'll think this'll be safe-ish? And somewhat effective?

Thanks in advance for any opinions guys. If I end up doing it I'll post clearer pics of the setup for anyone looking to do the same.

 

I mean if they're already on the way out, it cant hurt to try this out and see how they do. Worst case, you were gonna have to replace them anyway. I'd recommend new o-rings but otherwise, sounds like a decent plan to me. For future searchers, what symptoms were you having to assume it was the injectors?

 

what's the reasoning for the orbital sander? Is it like a poor man's ultrasonic cleaner?

 

So, I'm very curious; what makes you think your injectors are dirty? I ask because I've been elbow deep in literally hundreds of engines and never once seen a dirty fuel injector.

 

Yeah I'm probably gonna grab some O-rings for it as well. Saw a set on ebay for like $20 bucks so not a big sink if I mess my injectors up further.
As for the symptoms, the main thing is after a short drive when I return to the car and turn it back on, it'll crank but the idle won't catch. It'll idle real low and just sputter out. What I end up having to do is switch it over to neutral and rev the engine up to 1k or so and just hold it there for maybe 30 seconds. After that I switch into drive and quickly start moving - the idle shudders a bit but it stabilizes and goes back to normal after. This issue first started happening near when I got the car and used low-grade gasoline in it for a few weeks. Seems to match what some IRL car buddies and internet sources have described as possible injector issues.
It's been happening more lately, as I had to get half a tank of regular gas in an emergency on a recent trip. My MPG has deff dropped as well, so I'm hoping this'll help things out.
I haven't popped my injectors out yet, but I was at the junkyard earlier this week practicing and saw a decent handful of injectors that were gunked up.
While I'm doing this I'll also clean out the EGR port since the manifold will be off anyhow.

Yeah, after I posted I realized I never specified what the orbital is for. You've hit the nail on the head with your guess thoiboi, it's a poor man's ultrasonic cleaner hahah. I'm thinking with all the vibration, it'll help shake the gunk off as the carb cleaner breaks it off the injector body.

 

Your idle air control valve might be sticking. If you want your injectors cleaned try a can of BG-44K first.

 

In theory, your plan may work and make the injectors cleaner than they were, before you started the process. Not sure how effective it will be at cleaning the internal parts of the injector, but the ultrasonic method sounds good. If the reason for your concern, is having operated the car on regular fuel, at various times in the past, that alone, should not have created any issue with the injectors, unless the fuel in question was really old, or contaminated, in some way. The symptoms you describe, seem to be related more to the IACV operation, than the injectors. Good luck, I'll be very interested to find out how good a job it does, and if it corrects the problem. Thanks for the process idea.

 

Did a few searches on that stuff this morning - seems like next-level seafoam. I'll definitely give that a shot!

Now that you and some other guys have all mentioned the possibility of it being an issue with my IACV instead of the injectors, I'm reminded of an IRL car buddy suggesting the same after we ran a quick troubleshooting with the vacuum line. I meant to follow the official troubleshooting steps from the manual for the IACV, but I haven't had a chance to work on the car in a minute. I'll take a look into that as well - I'll likely actually knock that out of the way first.
If I end up doing the injector cleaning process, I'll take pics anyhow and show before/after - just for kicks and giggles.

As far as the IACV process goes, I saw a video of someone simply pulling theirs out of their Accord and cleaning it with some carb cleaner before they slapped a new gasket on and stuck it back in. Any one of you fellas with experience in this, does it sound like the same process for our vehicles?

Thanks again.

 

Yeah.. I'm not sure it's the injectors either but I guess it wouldn't hurt.. I have a used IACV for sale if you find that to be the culprit! Got it for my 99 Accord v6 which is the same part number as the 2nd gen TL. Replaced it a few years ago and has had ~30K miles on it since.

 

I think I may have a spare IACV laying in my trunk that my buddy gave me, but with all the spare parts in my trunk I'm not sure. I'll check later.
Appreciate the offer thoiboi but we're on opposite coasts of the US so I'm not about to pay that shipping haha. Do you happen to have the part number though? I remember what the part in my trunk looks like so maybe I can figure out if its the right piece while I'm being super productive at work today...

 

16022-P8A-A03


It's small enough that it should fit in the small flat rate box with no problem. 5 bucks max

 

Think it'll be effective to just pull mine off and give it a good cleaning?

 

Try it! It can't hurt. I tried with mine and it ended up not working so that's why I had to buy a new one .

 

HA! that's great. Probably gonna be what ends up with me but I'll grab a few spares from some decent-looking cars at the junkyard just in case. Can always return them if I don't need em after :P