Redline Proprietary Fuel Injector Cleaning

When it comes to fuel injection cleaning, traditional ultrasonic cleaning of the injector tips was acceptable but far from optimal. Over time, sediment and plaque can accumulate inside the injector, especially with GDI injectors, which face tougher conditions due to their size and pressure. The usual ultrasonic fuel injector cleaning process involves submerging just the injector tips in an ultrasonic bath to remove carbon and debris from the tip and maybe a bit inside the injector. However, larger particles that can enter from the top tend to settle at the bottom in the injector cavity and can’t make it out through the microscopic pintle spray ports. A quick flush to clear detergent may sometimes help but not always and none of this address’s any buildup inside. In order to properly perform injector testing, used injectors need to be as close to new as possible.

It’s clear that the key to effectively have your fuel injectors cleaned, you need to run a cleaning solvent through the injector instead of just soaking the tips. The ideal approach is to have the solvent flow in reverse for an extended time, which helps to remove larger particles and buildup, allowing them to exit through the injector’s larger intake opening that they came in through. This method would help keep the injectors cool when powered open.

To tackle this, we’ve completely revamped injector cleaning process everyone uses with our proprietary RedlineInjectors POWERFLUSH cleaning machine. The system features a regulated high-pressure pump that filters fluid down to 5 microns through multiple stages, along with a custom electronics cabinet that safely powers each injector with various circuit protections. POWERFLUSH also includes a fixture assembly with swappable collets and cups that securely holds the injectors and directs high-pressure cleaning fluid through them in reverse.

We’re unique in that we created machines specifically designed to reverse clean injectors using a nitrogen-based detergent, which is the strongest option out there for tackling carbon buildup in fuel systems. You can get the base chemical from BASF, it comes in the molecular weight you specify. Then we blend the detergent with a compatible suspension fluid and use it in our POWERFLUSH machine.

The POWERFLUSH step is applied after traditional ultrasonic tip cleaning. Our POWERFLUSH machine is designed to completely clean and flush injectors by running fluid through them in reverse under pressure for a lengthy period or as needed while keeping injector body temperatures cool. It has a second phase at the end of high-pressure air back flush. High-pressure air blown in reverse blows out remaining detergent and particles. This results in the cleanest injectors you can achieve. The fluid is pressurized into the tiny spray tip and comes out the larger filter flowing for up to 10 minutes.

Injectors are built to have fluid flow through them to keep them cool. With our service, the injectors stay cool to the touch even after 10 minutes of fluid flowing through them. In contrast, during regular ultrasonic tip cleaning, many injectors can heat up dangerously within just 60 seconds, especially HPDI other GDI injectors. That’s why cleaning injectors often takes more time than it should involving short cleaning sessions and multiple clean-and-test cycles. For GDI/Piezo injectors, it often means a lot of time and cycles to do safely which is not an issue with Redline’s fuel Injector servicing. No other shop can clean fuel injectors as quickly and effectively as we do.

You might come across some shops talking about flushing with detergent, but what’s really happening is they’re using the same calibration fluid to wash detergent out from the cleaning process for a few seconds. We do that too as one of our steps to prevent cross contamination of cleaning fluid into the testing fluid. It’s called back flushing and usually lasts a few seconds, and it is not detergent. Shops using machines other than ‘Carbon Zapp’ do not have a backflush capability. Even though our machines come with a factory back flush to purge detergent for a few seconds, even that needed some additional engineering, see below.