Self-Cleaning Injectors - Can Someone Explain? Is it a Gimmick or Real?

Thanks in advance, I did a forum search and didnt see anything.

 

It’s real. Vehicles now a days, especially our Atkinson cycle engines perform many different self diagnostic analysis and clean/adjust as needed.

 

On the V6, yes it's real. The direct injectors do this at a hot idle, when and for how long is determined by the ECM. It's noisy. If you search YouTube, you'll eventually find the video where Mike Sweers explains it.

 

I heard mine today for the first time in a while. Sounds like a knock from inside the truck. It eventually goes away.

 

I don’t think the injectors clean themselves. From my understanding the port injectors (fuel sprayed into intake manifold port) come on to wash the carbon off the backside of the intake valves, as they are not washed with fuel during the normal direct injection (fuel sprayed right into cylinder) process and tend to accumulate carbon.

 

Explanation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bd4Xj5nhjpQ

 

Well, I suppose I was wrong, but honestly Mike didn’t sound like he knew how it worked either. I listened to his explanation a few times and determined a couple of the flash cards he was reading off were missing.

 

I am at that point in life where there are a few flash cards missing from my deck too...

 

To be honest, that's a real technical process that is hard to explain using non engineering words. It's also one that could be better explained with images or even a cutaway model.

 

He seemed to fumble the whole slot/triple hole part.

So are they dribbling fuel in through the direct-injectors, out of sequence, while the Port injectors provide fuel to run the engine? Is that what he was getting at?

 

This is my understanding of the system. DI engines have a serious problem with valve deposits, so Toyota tried to mitigate the issue via a cleaning cycle using the port injectors. Not sure what Mike was talking about.

 

Direct injection when you put your foot in it, port when cruising level. Cleaning both at hot idle to keep efficiencies.

 

Ok....well that’s two of us. Maybe Mike was just using the old baffle-gab/tech-speak trick while knowing nothing actually about the process? Probably.

The piss has never been taken out of tech-speak as solidly as it was in this spoof:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w