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Injector cleaning

TShort

Well Known Member
Like many, I have cleaned the "pills" for my injectors at annual by soaking them overnight in Hoppe's.

Couple of months ago I organized and stored my extra restrictors, thinking I might need them since I am still balancing the cylinders.

I wrapped them in a small piece of paper towel soaked in Hoppe's, thinking this would be a good way to store them.

This is what I found when I opened the small ziploc baggie today:

48937643797_a945d5353d_c.jpg


Needless to say, they aren't going back in the airplane. It seems to have corroded and eaten away the metal.

Makes me have second thoughts about using Hoppe's for cleaning.
 
Simply improper use. Most cleaners are aggressive and given enough time, will eat away at most things. They are designed for short term cleaning activity and nothing more. Anything that will eat away carbon deposits will most certainly eat away at metal if given enough time.

Do not ever store something you want in a cleaner for a long period of time unless specifically designed for that purpose. Ff they take longer to eat away parent material than that deposit, they are deemed an effective cleaner, however the user most take precautions to limit the exposure. This is especially true for cleaners designed to remove stubborn deposits, like a carbon build up. They are tenacious and require an aggressive cleaner.

Hoppes is very safe when used correctly and why it is used by so many gun owners.

Larry
 
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Lycoming is very specific on how to use Hoppes to clean the injectors. I don't have the SB in front of me right now but I think it's no more than 20 minutes.
 
Lesson learned.

I didn't think about it too well, I guess ... when using Hoppe's for cleaning (anything) it never stays on long. For the injectors, a run thru the ultrasonic cleaner in a bath of Hoppe's then back out. When packing them up, putting them in a paper towel with Hoppe's on it somehow seemed like a good idea...

That's a hundred bucks worth of restrictors, and I also now have to wait for a new one to be sent out since that's the size I needed!
 
Assuming you fly regularly, I see no reason to clean injectors for no reason, this falls into the if ain't broke don't fix it category for me.
 
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