Hi all
i was wondering...is it ok to use fuel injector cleaner?
i have an STP Super Concetrated Fuel injector Cleaner.I am at 10.000 miles and i read that this is a good time for cleanung the injectors but i have to be sure it won't hurt anything.
suggestions please? thanks

 

The guy at Autozone told me to use Sea Foam. He said the STP type products weren't very effective, and I think the Sea Foam is even cheaper than those others. There is also another product called RxP that I have used. I emailed the company and they said RxP has been used in rotaries very successfully.

 

Chevron Techron (the concentrated stuff in 12oz bottle) is good stuff.

really don't need it since most high quality fuels today contain tons of detergents to keep the injectors clean, but it doesn't hurt to put a bottle in once in a while, if you don't mind burning up $10 for very little, if any, actual benefits :o

 

there are some fuel injector cleaners that are VERY effective, im not sure on the names someone else can chime in...they tend to cost a little more and be a bit harder to find, but they work great.

i know thats not much help...the reason i am posting is this :

of the easy to find fuel injector cleaners i like the RedLine product, it says something like 1 bottle treat 25 gal. of gas, but I have always just added a full bottle to the gas tank, then filled the gas tank to full. I havent used it in the RX8 but it worked great in the miata, I ran it eveytime I changed the oil.

On the rx8 I have done the following since new :

Buy the Lucas Complete Fuel System Treatment, you can find it in 1 gal bottles at Advanced Auto Parts, and im sure others. It costs 22 bucks, but at 1 gal (128oz) its a great deal. They say 2oz per 10gals, since I fill up when the light comes on (around 14 gals) I put in 3oz eveytime I fill up the car with gas. I also only use www.TopTierGas.com , Chevron is my current choice, but Shell is also good...and Ive heard that Texaco now adds the Techron to their gas. When you break the cost of the injector cleaner down. It comes out to be about $0.52 each fillup, you cant beat that. It might help, it might not, but i feel good that im doing a little extra to help the motor out. When it comes time for my oil changes, I run the same 3oz of injector cleaner but only run about half a tank of gas...rather than full.

Things to rember :
1)To get the best mix, ad the (any) injector cleaner to a low/empty tank of gas, THEN add the gas, this helps mix it all up.
2)Dont worry to much on getting the perfect mix (ammount of injector cleaner to fuel) this stuff does burn up, and as long as you dont go overboard, you will be fine.
3)obviously this stuff doesnt help clean out valves, but it may help clean the injectors, fuel lines, ports and rotor face/housing.
4)your rx8 has 6 fuel injectors, that only come on at specific RPM points, so to get the most out of it, make sure your getting into the upper RPM range...it will help clean out all of the fuel injectors and the higher temp/loads will help with carbon build up

EDIT: Had to fix a link, still not sure why it isnt working, im pretty sure that is the site.

 

Techron (Chevron and now Texaco) and VPower (Shell) are supposed to be the best 'in-gas' detergents around. While all todays gas contains cleaning agents some of the major car makers have gotten together and had their engineers look at what the minimum ammount of 'cleaning-agents' really is. They found that many of todays blends of gas are not at this minimum level, or the agents in the gas arnt fomulated corectly to give the right benefits.

Also, there there are many blends of gas accross the country (less now than in the past) but gas in atlanta is differnt than gas in dallas, even if they are both the same brand name of gas. Even some citys have 2 or more blends of gas depending on what part of town your in. They do this so they can taylor make a fuel to the polution problems of a specific area.

Obviously california has its own gas, but even in areas with no emissions laws, there are set requierments for the fuel formulation.

 

I just used the Lucus brand fuel line cleaner and it seems to have worked just fine. What the other guys say about detergents in your everyday gasoline is true and cleaning out the line with some extra detergents (to clean out water and carbon build-up) can't hurt... I've seen some success with it (at 18K miles) so go for it!

 

thanks a lot for your replies!!!
i'll try to find one of those brands you told me.