so i am sure this has been covered but i have been reading a lot about the injectors and i have rebuilt this motor twice already but not once did i ever pull the injectors or replace anything to do with them from what it sounds like i should have already replaced things???

 

FI cleaning should be done at least once in 100k miles. one or more just start to have issues by 200k from what I have read. I had mine done by witchhunter @ ~200k and the CSI and two others were in trouble, but cleaning up fine. So yes you should have had them done at least once by now.

 

Just pulled mine at 175k and have sent them out for servicing by witchhunter.com. Removal was pretty easy, just lots of hoses and plugs. I did a short write up but you probably don't need it if you've rebuilt your engine before. Waiting to get them back and hoping they are all serviceable. Sky, were yours all in good shape after servicing? Expensive little suckers to replace.

 

Mine were all in good shape when I got them back. What surprised me was how close togther they were in flow rate and quantity of fuel. Witchhunter did a very good job on them considering how bad two of them were when he got them, and the CSI looked awful. I really expected one or more to need replacement. But a couple of thousand miles later they are still running strong.

So yes I would use witchhunter again on my next job.

I did buy a "matched set" from LC Engineering for a 22RE but after seeing six "junkers" run that close after coming back from Witchhunter; well I will not be doing that again due to cost.

 

There is no recommended replacement interval for injectors, or even a recommended service interval. (Of course, no one, not even Toyota, makes recommendations much past 100k miles.)

I get the sense that they will last forever unless abused. Dirty is another story, but at 250k miles I saw no need to "clean" mine. If you regularly get dirty gas, this might be an issue. And I can't say whether "injector cleaner" would help in that case (but a whole lot easier than pulling an injector).

If you really feel the need to service the injectors, examine the connectors carefully. As plastic exposed to heat, they do degrade, and you may first lose the clip part. They can be picked up fairly easily on eBay, but since you don't have the crimp tool (and probably don't have enough wire once the bad connectors are removed), you'll be making soldered splices on pig-tails, an issue in itself.

 

One of mine was leaking a little fuel so I pulled them all, and since witchhunter provides all new rubber and pintle caps, which I needed anyway, it seemed a good route to go.

For the connectors, I would probably use some aluminum wire to wrap around the plug instead of going through the trouble of replacing them. I don't think any of my injector plugs broke. Some of the other plugs did though, while removing them to get at the injectors.

BTW, what's CSI?

 

I tied all my injector connectors tight with zip ties after they all broke 4 years/50,000 miles ago. No issues since then.

 

You don't watch that show?

Cold Start Injector

 

Ha, got it.

I was hesitant to use zip ties because they're plastic and susceptible to heat. I think they would break eventually.

 

I agree with this; however I think gum, varnish, and assorted debris that gets past multiple filters adds up over time to reduce performance. Also as time passes varnish buildup may cause injectors performance to vary from each other conspiring to make it look like something broken when in fact its just dirt doing dirt things. So to have FI's cleaned & serviced somewhere between 100 & 200k makes sense, based upon written accounts.

 

It's not all true anyway. Toyota does recommend a service interval atleast.




http://autoshop101.com/forms/h22.pdf

Having acknowledged that, I still put mine back in after carefully cleaning the filters on the input ends of them and installing new o-rings. Then ran a couple tanks of fuel injector cleaner treated gas through them, and called it good. They had ~218,000 miles on them, and the engine still runs great at nearly 230,000. So I can't really see why I'd need to fuss with having them "professionally" cleaned at this point.

 

True; but you are taking care of your equipment. My 22RE injectors clogged up at ~220k with a steady diet of Shell brand gasoline, and the LC Eng injectors improved performance significantly for such a worn engine. My other one was used and abused with 200k on it with only nominal maintenance. It runs much better after a professional cleaning than with a few cans of injector cleaner ever did for it.

So its more of a "knowing what you have" and taking care of it than sometimes dealing with an unknown amount of maintenance and having poor performance and chasing gremlins. Not all of us start with pristine engines and are original owners. Sometimes you get a used engine and only the lord above knows what its real condition is.

If I pick up a used engine it makes sense to do a timeing chain /belt pumps & have the injectors cleaned, since now you what is really good & the rest will last longer & perform better.

 

For those of you that have had injectors cleaned/reman'd, could you tell a difference in power/driveability?

 

I had mine done by Witchhunter. Big difference. If I had known before I would never had traded a set with LCE.