Is It Worth Replacing High-Mileage Injectors?

[squeeler642]

Wondering what the consensus is here on the forum about fuel injectors needing replacing, cleaning, or rebuilding after putting lots of miles on them.

I have 375k miles on my truck and I'm not sure whether the injectors are original or have been replaced at some point. I did a 6.0L swap into this truck a couple years back and left the 5.3L injectors in it. It was the 5.3L flex VIN so the lb/hr is sufficient for the 6.0L.

I have off and on felt like this truck has some fueling issues as sometimes the power will go in and out as I am coasting in a low-load situation, and sometimes it will lightly bog in near-idle situations. Not sure if this can be attributed to a tune-related issue or a fueling issue, but I just had it occur to me that a fueling issue could also be (at least partially) to blame. I know I need to replace the fuel filter so I picked one up and plan to do that at some point.

In my research I found several injector shops that claim that rebuilding or cleaning injectors can boost mileage by as much as 15%. Does anyone think that holds any water? Makes sense on some level of the injectors aren't atomizing as efficiently (or whatever) that there would be less efficient combustion, but was looking for anecdotal evidence to that end, if anyone had any.

 

[strutaeng]

Probably wouldn't hurt to get them cleaned. I don't know about boosting mileage by 15%. That's probably assuming the injectors are not running at optimum to begin with, if I had to guess.

OTC sells a gadget to clean injectors, if you aren't aware of that. Maybe someone here has used that? I believe it's like $250-ish?

But the advantage of the folks that clean them is they can also flowrate-match them. I'm not sure how they do that tho.

 

[justirv]

Wondering what the consensus is here on the forum about fuel injectors needing replacing, cleaning, or rebuilding after putting lots of miles on them.

I have 375k miles on my truck and I'm not sure whether the injectors are original or have been replaced at some point. I did a 6.0L swap into this truck a couple years back and left the 5.3L injectors in it. It was the 5.3L flex VIN so the lb/hr is sufficient for the 6.0L.

I have off and on felt like this truck has some fueling issues as sometimes the power will go in and out as I am coasting in a low-load situation, and sometimes it will lightly bog in near-idle situations. Not sure if this can be attributed to a tune-related issue or a fueling issue, but I just had it occur to me that a fueling issue could also be (at least partially) to blame. I know I need to replace the fuel filter so I picked one up and plan to do that at some point.

In my research I found several injector shops that claim that rebuilding or cleaning injectors can boost mileage by as much as 15%. Does anyone think that holds any water? Makes sense on some level of the injectors aren't atomizing as efficiently (or whatever) that there would be less efficient combustion, but was looking for anecdotal evidence to that end, if anyone had any.

If you're having fluctuations in running smoothness, validate you have a consistent, adequate fuel pressure. 375k is a lot of miles, and I can't speak to that. I can say that I've had great results cleaning injectors with an ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[rockola1971]

Wow thats alot of miles on injectors. My logic is, if you got the money spare buy a new/rebuilt set of OEM injectors. If you dont have the money to spare then have yours atleast cleaned. Shop around of course. Injectors when working correctly they spray conical shaped atomized (Mist) of fuel and air mixture downward into the combustion chamber. When injectors get alot of miles on them they tend to get deposits from fuel additives which affects their ability to keep that atomized fuel in a conical shape and end up with droplets and funky patterns of spray. Then there also becomes a problem with the injectors being able to be fully closed when they arent turned on because of the deposits. Very similar to a non sealing intake/exhaust valve. Only with a leaking injector it is adding fuel to your cylinder when it isnt suppose to be when engine is running AND even when the engine is off and that fuel will find its way past your piston rings and down into your oil. Now you have gasoline and oil in your engine for lubrication of bearings, pistons, cam, etc. Gasoline will wash oily film off of components in the routes that oil takes to lube your engine and this is not good because all the metal parts in your engine that are lubed rely on that oily film to remain there constantly to protect against friction and heat as well. Think of oil as an internal coolant also. It draws heat away and dissipates it in the oil pan and oil coiler if equipped.