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Filthy fuel injectors

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Groundpounder17, Mar 21, 2019.

  1. Groundpounder17

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    I posted a thread a couple weeks back about my blown head gasket. I’ve got it apart and started to do some other maintenance while in the motor. My car is a 2014 that has about 220,000 miles on it. Over the last year my gas mileage has dropped significantly but the routine maintenance never helped.

    Now that I have it apart I noticed my EGR and cooler is awfully filthy and my cooler is 95-100% blocked/clogged with carbon. I’m working on cleaning that now.

    When I removed the fuel injectors that look awful...absolutely caked in thick oil and carbon. Is there a way to clean these? Should I replace them?

    I’m thinking it’s a combination of things causing my poor gas mileage.
     
  2. Groundpounder17

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    Here’s an example of what they look like
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    :eek:.

    That’s pretty bad:cool:.

    I’d look to replace personally (y).
     
  4. Groundpounder17

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    Ray, Would that explain my decline in fuel efficiency?
     
  5. Groundpounder17

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    So I’m cleaning the EGR, cooler, replacing water pump, new gaskets, cleaning the intake manifold, cleaning the throttle body, replacing the head gasket, replacing the PCV valve... I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

    What else should I replace while I’m in here? I really don’t want to do this again anytime soon. I’m hoping to make it to 500,000 miles on this car
     
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I'm trying to remember how much the injector projects into the intake port. About the dirty amount? EGR would be mostly responsible for that?

    I've been reading here it's best to use new O-rings (where they connect to the fuel rail), and REALLY take it easy when reassembling, lots of turning as you ease it all back together.
     
  7. Groundpounder17

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    Im taking the head to the head shop tomorrow. It look ok.

    I don’t really want to order new injectors but at this point I think I should. Do I need to order anything else with them or just the injectors
     
  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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  9. Groundpounder17

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    That’s about $10 cheaper than camelback
     
  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The attachment up the page documents how to test them, running them and checking the volume they pass through in a set time. You hook them up to 12 volt battery, and they stress: make/break connections away from the injector, at the battery.

    Could be they're fine, and it's just crud on the outside from the EGR, but the inside passages are clean??
     
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    We've had good results several times sending injectors to a restoration service (in particular, Rich at cruzinperformance in Michigan, though there are other services that do the same thing). Rich will put them on a tester and generate a half page of test data showing how they perform before restoration, then make them all new-like again, and generate the half-page of 'after' test results, and send them all back to you with all new seals, filters, and O rings already lubed and ready to reinstall, and your page of before/after test results.

    Last I checked, he would do that for about $20 per injector, 80-ish for the whole set. I thought it was a darned good deal. There could be a week or so of mailing and turnaround time, but if you're in a big engine project anyway, maybe that doesn't slow you down.

    More recently, somebody posted links to online sellers with whole sets of 4 "refurbished" injectors for, like, 20 or 30 bucks. I suspect that's pretty stiff competition for somebody like Rich, who probably can't match that price with the service he provides.

    On the other hand, I know more about the service he provides than I know about the provenance of the $20 "refurbished" sets on the web.

    Hmmm....
     
  12. Groundpounder17

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    The way the EGR, cooler, intake, throttle body and injectors look as well as the significant drop in fuel economy the last year, im guessing they are clogged
     
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    They come back not-clogged. :)
     
  14. Groundpounder17

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    I’ll check them out. Thanks
     
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  15. Groundpounder17

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    Are cleaned injectors just as good as new?
     
  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If you follow the links in this post, you can see the three sets of before/after test results we got while the PriusChat informal injector restoring study was going on. You'll see that two of the sets (mine and C Clay's) were both nearly flawless on the 'before' test, so there wasn't much room for improvement. The middle set, astrolink's, were definitely causing running issues with his engine, and the 'before' test for those suckers showed exactly why. :) They came back just as good on the 'after' test as any of the others, and solved his problem.

    I actually still have the third set from that "study" (the ones out of C Clay's car, back from Rich, restored) in a plastic bag here.

    Edit: I misremembered: astrolink didn't reassemble his car with the restored injectors from Rich; he was sort of the start of the PriusChat "injector exchange" idea, to save on the turnaround time. He bought a new set to reassemble his car; I paid Rich's charge to restore his old ones, and Rich shipped them to me; then for the next person, I shipped the restored ones (no waiting for Rich), he again sent Rich his old ones and I ended up with them after restoration.
     
    #16 ChapmanF, Mar 22, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2019
  17. Groundpounder17

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    I checked with Rich this morning and due to some family issues he couldn’t help me out right now. I did find a local shop I will try on Monday. They mostly work on diesels but said he could clean and flow test them for me for about $23 each.
     
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  18. Groundpounder17

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    When cleaning the EGR cooler using 20 gauge wire I was in the last row with only 3 tiny boxes left when the wire broke off inside it. It has about an 1/8” protruding but I couldn’t get it with needle nose pliers. Is this a game changer if I can’t get it out?
     
  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I don't think it would matter much, but still I would persevere: maybe try some mechanic's tweezers?

    IMG_0247.JPG

    Also, try Oxi-Clean, strong/hot solution, let it soak for an hour with one end corked. it'll bubble/float the stuff out, as long as the passages are not totally clogged.
     
  20. Groundpounder17

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    I’ve been soaking in oxyclean and boiling water. I’ll try to find some good mechanics tweezers.
     
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