Technical Paper
Test and Control of Fuel Injector Deposits in Direct Injected Spark Ignition Vehicles
2009-11-02
2009-01-2641
With the wider use of Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) vehicles in the marketplace, a program was conducted to develop a short-duration fuel injector fouling test. Once a specific driving cycle and base fuel combination was found to produce a significant increase in Long Term Fuel Trim (LTFT), several Deposit Control Additive (DCA) technologies were evaluated for their ability to keep the direct gasoline injectors clean. The increase in LTFT is indicative of fuel injector fouling and a corresponding decrease in flow through them. The test vehicles for this program were a 2008 General Motors Pontiac Solstice GXP equipped with a DISI 2.0 liter turbocharged I-4 and a 2008 Audi A4 equipped with a DISI 3.2 liter V-6 engine. A proprietary base fuel formulated to mimic a U.S. EPA 65th percentile fuel was tested to assess its deposit forming tendencies.
