Acetone

[Willow place]

Just been talking to a Spanish motorist as my test is almost due and mentioned the cleaner that appears to clean up the injectors on a diesel , and his comment was not to bother with the over the counter stuff, just put a large dose of Acetone in the tank ! He claimed it works every time .

[old onions]

Originally Posted by Willow place

Just been talking to a Spanish motorist as my test is almost due and mentioned the cleaner that appears to clean up the injectors on a diesel , and his comment was not to bother with the over the counter stuff, just put a large dose of Acetone in the tank ! He claimed it works every time .

There are several things that worry me about this:

1 Is acetone compatible with diesel fuel , or will you get a 2 phase system? Not sure if I have ever tried ketones and diesel as a mixture, so beware. A 2 phase system will bring all sorts of unwanted problems which will make your current dirty injectors pale into insignificance.

2 Acetone is a strong solvent. It might work on carbon deposits (but never tried, so again beware), but I would be much more inclined to use a combination of agitation (an ultrasonic cleaning bath) and solvency to remove a build up of carbon. This would of course involve removing the injectors from the head.

3 Because acetone is a strong solvent it will also dissolve rubbers, hoses, filters and also affect some metals in the fuel system from the tank to the engine, not to mention any lining/coating of the tank itself.

For the above reasons I would really not recommend this method. I suspect it would give give you so many side effects it would just not be worth doing the experiment.

[oragex]

Acetone or lacquer thinner is the perfect way to destroy an injector. I did use acetone on one of my petrol injectors and when I put it back the Check Engine light started flashing with the car in limp mode - I had to throw that injector. It's one of those garage and internet (bad) myths. To clean a petrol injector use a quality carburetor cleaner or Seafoam - not sure how safe it is for diesel ones