Injector cleaners

[Nina Lucia]

Our old but reliable Volvo Penta 2003T its a bit smoky, blowing white smoke, not steam, and I notice there is something like oil or diesel stain on water coming from exhaust. Shall I try one of those injectors cleaners like Liqui Moly?

 

[Malish]

won't do any harm but I doubt it will fix your observation. What are your engine hours and your pattern of usage, have you run the engine hard to give it an 'Italian tune'?

 

[Nina Lucia]

won't do any harm but I doubt it will fix your observation. What are your engine hours and your pattern of usage, have you run the engine hard to give it an 'Italian tune'?

Because its probably original engine, we hardly ever run it hard, Italian tune worries me!
I did replaced exhaust elbow recently, with another second hand one but in much better condition, same with turbo. Heath exchanger was completely cleaned and rebuild few moths ago.

 

[Momac]

I use a fuel additive at every refuelling but not to cure a fault. However it does seem to help with smooth running.

 

[ylop]

Usually, the instructions are something like don't expect to see any benefit until you've burned something like 50-100L of fuel at the correct dosing - how long will that take you? For me it could be a season! Not saying its a bad idea, but with long term treatments like that its really hard to measure its impact - which of course could be good for marketing!

 

[ithet]

The VP200x series tend to suffer if they are not worked hard enough i.e. gentle use and stationary running for battery charging. The cylinders glaze and burn oil. I bought a boat with a smokey 2002 and over about two years of harder running it gradually improved.

 

[sigma38dave]

Take a look at Forte products, there’s one called I think ‘diesel fuel complete’, you add it directly to fine filter on engine rather than to the fuel tank.

It helped reduce (black) smoke on our 2003 drastically, along with a new air filter. We binned the housing and bought a cone filter for it.

Edit link
Advanced Formula Diesel Treatment - Forté

 

[Nina Lucia]

Thanks, I'll definitely look into it!

 

[Refueler]

Our old but reliable Volvo Penta 2003T its a bit smoky, blowing white smoke, not steam, and I notice there is something like oil or diesel stain on water coming from exhaust. Shall I try one of those injectors cleaners like Liqui Moly?

Think you have a bit more than just injector factor there ...

A good thrashing for the next few outings can help clear up some of it ... as some call it - Italian Tune-up.

The Perkins that was fitted to my 25ft was from a Rustler that guy didn't like the smokey bit ....

After fitting to my boat - and sure enough it smoked !! So a few outings of wide open throttle when away from others and wash was no problem - boat does 9kts full throttle ! .. and she started to clear up.

At cruising revs (5kts)- she's sweet and clean exhaust .... but being wrongly propped - at full throttle - I get black soot all over transom ..

I do get a touch of rainbow on the water when I start her - but that's basically from the little bit of unburnt fuel that exits from starting ..

 

[rotrax]

Our old but reliable Volvo Penta 2003T its a bit smoky, blowing white smoke, not steam, and I notice there is something like oil or diesel stain on water coming from exhaust. Shall I try one of those injectors cleaners like Liqui Moly?

White smoke is often a sign of leaky injectors. Overfueling. Try a can of gubbins and a good long thrash, but dont hold your breath!

 

[Boater Sam]

White smoke is often a sign of leaky injectors. Overfueling. Try a can of gubbins and a good long thrash, but dont hold your breath!

White smoke is unburnt fuel due to misfiring or steam. Over-fueling or overloading produces black smoke, not white.
Leaking injectors will eventually lead to bore scoring or piston burn out.

 

[Jim@sea]

Whenever I smell injector cleaners I think the main ingredient is Acetone.

 

[Refueler]

Whenever I smell injector cleaners I think the main ingredient is Acetone.

I have never checked what's in Cleaners - but they are solvent based.

In a motor that is purely suffering from average use - cleaners can assist with keeping engine running sweet - but are useless when engine actually starts to be seen to be in need of 'tlc' !!

An old 'Farmers' trick was to throw a dose of gasoline into the diesel ... (usually to winterise the diesel - but also as a 'cleaner') .... probably does as much as any tin of cleaner !