Talked to an old Cummins guy at a parts counter last week and he made me rethink everything about how I clean injectors

3 comments

3 Comments

Tbh I had to read that twice because that's wild. @wadejenkins you're not wrong about pulling them and getting them tested, but this old timer was dead set on something about how ultrasonic cleaning actually ruins the internal clearances on certain Bosch injectors if you don't know the right cycle times. Honestly blew my mind because I've thrown money at ultrasonic cleaners before and thought it was the gold standard. Ngl he showed me a cutaway of an injector that had micro-cracks from over-ultrasonic cleaning, and it made me question everything I thought I knew.

averyc943d ago

Man I feel that... had an old machinist show me the same thing with a set of Cummins injectors and it completely changed how I look at ultrasonic cleaning now.

wadejenkins3d ago

So what's the secret then, pour some magic sauce down the funnel and hope for the best? I've been around enough old diesel guys to know they love a good story but half the time their advice is based on what worked on a 12-valve from 1995. The fact is injectors get clogged from dirty fuel and heat cycles, no amount of snake oil or backyard tricks is going to fix that. Pull them, get them tested and cleaned on a proper machine, or just swap them out. Everything else is just superstition dressed up like wisdom from the good old days.