Why do fuel injectors get dirty?
Fuel injectors can become clogged with fuel varnish deposits when gasoline contains inadequate levels of detergent to keep the injectors clean. To reduce the cost of gasoline by a few cents per gallon, some gasoline suppliers reduce or even eliminate the amount of detergents in their fuel, or they use less expensive (and less effective) additives. Commonly used additives in gasoline include polyetheramine, polysibutylamine succinimide and polyisobtylene. Some of the additives that keep injectors clean may form deposits on the intake valves. To prevent this from happening, additional additives called ?fluidizers? may be added to the fuel. Over time, fluidizers can form additional deposits in the combustion chambers. This may raise compression and increase the risk of detonation (spark knock). To keep fuel injectors clean it takes about 1,000 parts per million (ppm) of dispersant-detergent in the fuel. Yet, as much as 85 percent of the gasoline sold in the U.S. contains only about 1/10 o
