Fuel Injector Maintenance Cycle

[Peter Abbott]

I have a 270 HP Cummins 6BTA in a 2005 Nordic Tug. The engine has about 3400 hours and is typically operated at about 1400 RPM. I have done the maintenance for the past 10 years and the engine is operating without issue. Fuel burn has not increased and the engine starts and shuts down smoothly. Having said all that, I am wondering if there is a recommended time to remove and inspect the injectors or if they can be left alone for as long as the engine is performing up to specs. The reason for this question is some dock chatter that suggested injectors should be pulled at 2500 and routed to the shop for cleaning. Any one have any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

Topic

[Tony]

Thanks Philip. Sounds good to me.

Stop worrying?!? My first boat ever is a 39ft cruiser with 16.6 ltrs of turbo charged diesel… i worry ?????

[Philip]

Fuel additives are generally frowned upon as dock fuel has everything needed to keep things good. Once you start adding things to the fuel you asking for more problems that your trying to prevent.

There is a whole lot of advertising money convincing you that you need the stuff but stick with good filtration and stop worrying.

Phil

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Tony

[Tony]

Hi

I hope this is not a hijack, but if injectors do not need ‘routine’ maintenance, is there a recommended fuel treatment / injector cleaner that is worthwhile?

Thanks in advance

Tony

[Peter Abbott]

Rob, Thanks for this insight. The off engine filtration is a pair of Racor filters. They were 2 micron elements when the boat was new, presumably to deal with an contamination related to the initial boat build. I replaced them with 30 micron per the builders recommendation, but in past years have used 10 Micron. The filter head has a vacuum guage, and the filters operate in parallel, not series.

[Tony Athens]

Rob is 100% on his response…………Without exaggeration, I have at least engines in my local care with 10000 to 30000 hrs and have untouched original injectors in them without issue.. Without exception, they all use a Multi-stage fuel filtration system..

Crap fuel is what takes out injectors– Basically they don’t just wear out, and as to cleaning as a “routine” ??– Just more dock talk.

Tony..

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donald roth

[Rob Schepis]

Injectors are 100% dependent on the quality of fuel being fed to them. If 100% as to fuel quality you still have thousands of hours to go before even thinking about them. 3,400hrs and all is good … I think the dock talkers should be the ones listening to you. BTW, what is your off-engine filtration setup?

[Author]

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