Hopefully, this question isn't repetitious.

I bought my 1985 GSL-SE 7 years ago with 79,500 miles on it. It now has 115,500 miles on it. I didn't get a work history with the car as the owner had died and I bought it from her daughter as a fire sale. I have never added fuel injector cleaner to the vehicle and I suspect the car has never been exposed to it.

The plugs, cap and rotor were replaced about 16,000 miles ago. I am going to put in a fuel filter this weekend as the vehicle is overdue for it. The car is idling fine. There is no hesitation or miss to the engine.

What benefits would I see if I used an injector cleaner? Or is it a case if it ain't broken don't fix it?

Is there a preferred fuel injector cleaner?

Thanks

 

If you have the knowledge to do so, taking 'em out and cleanin' 'em yerself would be better and faster. (Cain't you tell I'm frum Texas?)

 

SE cars are very much a case of "if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it". Take my advice, if the car has 115k on it, idles fine, no stumbling on idle conditions, and otherwise drives very nicely - ENJOY IT!

When you need to get your injectors cleaned, you'll know. The car will idle very lumpy, the off-idle acceleration will suck, and your fuel mileage will drop considerably. My stock 84SE injectors made it to 150k miles before needing to be replaced, and this was due to the plastic top becoming brittle and allowing a slight fuel leak, which made me very nervous. Aftermarket replacements were just as bad, and through this forum, I was able to find a few factory injectors, send them off to be cleaned, flow-balanced, and leak-tested, and that fixed the car up right.

Fuel mileage went up, idle quality returned to normal, and no gas smell.

If you don't have any symptoms, don't start a course of treatment. The fuel filter you put in may not affect performance at all, but at least you know it's clean and working correctly without constricting fuel flow. HTH,

 

Thanks, LongDuck. Intuitively, I figured your response would be what informed people would tell me. I have recently found a shop about 5 miles away from me where the owner is an RX7 guru and is in to drag racing them. They don't use any fuel injector cleaners in their shop. He said it wouldn't hurt the car. So again, if it ain't broke I'll leave well enough alone. I replaced my overdue clogged up air filter yesterday with a K&N filter and have noticed an improvement. I took it out and ran it through the gears up to about 6,500 - seems to have more snoose and absolutely no missing or hesitation.

I don't miss the backfiring I used to get on both my '79s when the points were fried!

 

A treatment with Amsoil Power Foam will not only clean the injectors, but the engine internals as well. The result is generally a noticeably smoother-running engine.
And no, it won't HURT anything to do it.
Now you've heard both sides.

 

I don't see how Powerfoam is going to clean the injectors, since the only way to clean them would be through pressurized solvent going through the fuel rail and through the nozzles.

Also, from my own personal experience, an internal 'cleaning' by adding MMO to my engine oil resulted in cold-start smoking that was never a problem in the previous 175k miles. It was a one-to-one correllation that after I added MMO to my oil, the next startup lead to thick, white/blue smoke from the exhaust until the engine warmed up, and has been that way in spite of several oil changes, 'engine-honey', and differing oil weight to try and get the smoking to stop.

This is due to the carbon deposits inside the engine actually helping to seal the side seals and Oil Control Seals on the rotors - if you 'clean it up', you remove this sealing ability and I wouldn't be surprised if you cause a problem much like I'm experiencing now.

If I had a time machine, one of the things I would do is go back to the day that I picked up that bottle of MMO to put it in my oil and NOT DO IT.

Hindsight is 20/20. HTH,