Midas fuel injection cleaning

[Rhett]

Midas has this fuel injection cleaning "special" for $69.99 right now, and I thought about having this done on my truck. So I went in and asked them about it, and they said they put something in your oil and it cleans the valves as well. I decided not to do that. I can get a bottle of cleaner and put it in my gas for $10 and do the same thing.

The fuel rail is totally separate from the oil. I don't have sticky valves, I just needed the rail cleaned. Of course, I know to remove and properly clean the rail would be a lot more $$$.

How can something put into your oil somehow clean your injectors? This makes no sense to me, and I don't want their additive or whatever it is sitting in my AMSOIL for the next 6 months.

 

[DeagleDave]

well rhett if you really want a weekend job, do the upper and lower intkae manifolds...and while you're in there you can take the fuel rail off, take out the injectors let em soak in mineral spirits over night too! then just make sure to get new injector o-rings! the gasket sets should have new fuel gaskets in em as well! it'll take at least one day to do that.

 

[Rhett]

Yeah I noticed that about the fuel rail gasket over at the Ford dealership when I was getting the upper intake manifold gasket today...
They had an exploded display of the 4.0 OHV motor there and it showed all of the gaskets. The guy mentioned the fuel rail gasket and o-rings but I said "Well I don't think I'll dig into it that far". Keep talkin man you might make me do that after all...

If I can take off the fuel rail without removing the lower intake manifold I might soak the injectors.

 

[DeagleDave]

come on! do the whole thing...trust me once you get in there you'll be thinking damn i can do this! if you do choose to do it though, be aware that the alternator is gonna have to come off, and those bolts are a ***** if they've never been off. and take off the thermostat housing too, makes it easier to get lower intake manifold off. and make sure to get some silicone sealer which will have to go on the back and front part of where lower intake manifold meets the block.

just some thoughts

 

[mosinman]

fuel injector clean

Before you try something too radical, try running one or two bottles of Chevron Techron throught the gas tank. Won't hurt, cost $5.00 a bottle, and just might fix your problem. If not, you are only out 10 bucks. This worked great on my mom's 97 Buick when STP injector cleaner did nothing.

 

[cmayna]

I totally support DeagleDave comments. A few months ago I replaced the lower and upper intake gaskets but did not remove and soak the injectors (only because I felt they were fine). If I was to do it again, I'd spend the extra time and soakem. Yes, If you do the injectors, go all the way baby! and replace and man gaskets.

 

[DeagleDave]

i had more thoughts...hehe

you're probably gonna wanna get some new hoses while you're at it. the big hose from the top of the radiator will have to come off. and at least one of the heater hoses will too. and if they're stock they gonna be super old and you might have to cut the heater hose off. it's worth it IMO. just some more ideas.

 

[mikeh]

Originally posted by Rhett Browning
If I can take off the fuel rail without removing the lower intake manifold I might soak the injectors.

If you are going that far I would definitely remove the lower intake manifold because it is really easy and it makes the whole job a lot easier. Once you get everything else off the lower comes off super easy. Replace all of the gaskets as you put it back together.

Good Luck,
mikeh

 

[aldive]

Try running some Amsoil Power Foam through the intake; the stuff works great.

Contact AgExplorer for a good price on it.Dead Link Removed

 

[Rhett]

I've run power foam thru there before. It didn't stop the ping. I still have a little Power Foam left--I'll manually scrub the upper manifold with it once I have it out of there.

Right now I've removed most of the accessories, the throttle cable and bracket, the plug wires, the vac tubes, etc. I got hung up on the EGR fitting on the driver's side...I need a deep well 8 or 10 mm socket and I don't have...going to get one today. There is also a bracket around the frontmost upper intake manifold bolt that holds some wires and it doesn't want to come off.

One problem I thought about with removing the fuel rail--I may have problems depressurizing the fuel system since I've got everything apart.

 

[Rhett]

Got upper intake manifold off. It's black as soot inside! So is the fuel rail area.

I'm trying to use power foam on it and a light brush but it's not doing too much so far.

 

[DeagleDave]

soak it in carb cleaner or degreaser overnight or for a few hours!

 

[psychotic]

The most i've ever done is bolt ons.... k&n, wiring some stuff, apten chip... i lowered it myself with blocks and flipped the torsion adjuster up front. I've always wanted to clean up my manifolds and stuff like that, but i've always thought i didn't have enough experience. Do you think i could pull off something like this?

 

[cmayna]

Psychotic,
If I can do it, anyone who can handle a wrench and make good notes of what goes where when disassembling, can pull it off. I was scared as heck initially but after reading haynes a couple times it all started to come together. My only advise is give yourself lots of time. Meaning this is a good weekend project. Tear it apart on Saturday and soak the manifold and injectors over sat nite, assemble Sunday while listening to the football games.

Life could be worse....

 

[psychotic]

That is true, i trust my haynes manual a lot. I guess all i need now is time. School + 30 hour a week job, sucks!

 

[Rhett]

Well I had done it before on my 87 Buick, but it had TBI (throttle body fuel injection) and it was a little different. Pulling the manifolds on my Explorer wasn't too difficult, the hardest thing was removing all the EGR fittings, fuel fittings, and brackets and junk from the driver's side of the upper intake manifold. It took some time just because of all of the things that need to be taken off, plus I had never done it before on my Explorer.

I soaked it and it didn't quite get everything off but between that and some scrubbing it is a little better, torqued everything down to spec, new gaskets, injector o-rings, reset computer. Took probably 7-8 hours for me over 2 days and I'm a slow mechanic. Now that I've done it once, I could probably do it again in about half that time.

I just got done airing it out on the interstate, I put in mid-grade 89 oct gas, which caused pinging before, and NO ping at all this time. Next I'll put in some 87 octane, reset computer, and see what happens. 87 oct would ping like crazy before so I am hopeful it will improve. Just the fact that I can run mid-grade with no pinging makes it worth it to me! I must have had an air leak thru the manifold, and/or dirty injectors leaning the mix.