Would you put Fairy Liquid in your petrol?!?

[Mouse]

I was discussing engines and stuff on another internet site, and the subject of injector cleaning came up. Someone claimed that the injector cleaner stuff you can buy is essentially washing up liquid, and you can safely put a dash of Fairy in your petrol tank to clean out the fuel system.

Personally, I'm not reaching for the bottle just yet. But I wondered if this is as crazy as it sounds, or is it actually true?

Whaddya think?

 

[-Robbo-]

Why don't you try it and let us all know how you get on

 

[Shep]

The first thing i would worry about is the fact that there is alot of salt in washing up liquid and even a small amount with water collected in the bottom of the tank could cause corrosion.

Shep

 

[Tartan Terror]

Surely petrol has enough detergents in it these days to do the job for you?

Would it cause soapy bubbles in the cylinder??

I had a friend once who used cooking oil in his YPVS and it did smell like a chippy when he went up the street!!!

 

[Timolgra]

When I was running big naturally aspirated Volvo diesel generators in Antarctica, they ran on a light load during summer.
This glazed the cylinder causing excessive oil consumption.
Volvo's technical advise was to bung a cup of washing powder into the air intake whist it was running to break the glaze.

10,000 miles and 9 months away from our main source of spares, I gave it a miss.

 

[brassmonkey001]

Would it blow bubbles out of the exhaust as you went along?

 

[st247]

When i was in the Army we used to pour a capfull of brake fluid into the inlet manifold, with the engine running ,on petrol Landrovers to try and decoke the top end. It smoked like hell, but they did generally run better afterwards.

Mind you they didn't belong to me and i wasn't paying for the repairs if it all went pete tong.

 

[mpriestley]

..............for anyone age 35+ who can remember Formula Shell........?

 

[Bigtwin]

Saw a docu about the AA once where a punter was putting Fairy in his brake system.

Good on greasy roads I guess?

 

[T900]

ride it like the clappers...........
it will clear itself out, if you ride like miss daisey it will suffer carbon
build up.
household detergents contain caustic soda,

 

[Totoro]

DON'T DO IT

Mouse

I work in an automotive factory where we manufacture engine injectors.

As the injector is used deposits get left on the edges of the injection holes (Coking). These deposits can reduce the flow of petrol to the cylinder and effect the air/fuel mixture by changing the spray pattern.

BUT - Modern nozzles are designed with holes that reduce this coking effect and, as Tartan says, modern fuels have cleaning agents in.

If you want to clean the injectors use an injector cleaner (although they have debatable effect and I don't think any of the major injector manufactures recommend them)

Fairy liquid won't mix with the petrol and will probably stay in the tank but any corrosion caused to the injector/ nozzle will reduce the design safety factor and could lead to failure in the engine.

Hope this helps

 

[Schtum]

..............for anyone age 35+ who can remember Formula Shell........?

Oh yes..... I still remember the state of the inlet valvles on my Fiat Uno when I got round to taking the head off after an exclusive diet of Formula Shell. Tulip valves.....