Consumer Reports - Direct Injection engines having reliability problem

Stoddard · February 18, 2015

But the buildup is only near the valves. I just wouldn't believe a catch can would clear it up. If it was that simple everybody (oem) would have them on all di engines. I'd love to see reports proving catch cans on a high mileage engine.

WendysOrBust · February 18, 2015

A catch can is going to get about 80% of it, that should help a ton!

Direct injection is killing the EcoBoost, having the dealer remove the heads to clean the valves is costly, what happens when its your truck and you are out of warranty...

I don't know about that one. If you are hearing problems about that its because the ecoboost is now reaching 4-5 years old so the issues they are having will be the same ones we will have down the road. Personally with my Dad's 2012 eb that only thing we have noticed is a drop in mpg. It used to get 18-19, now its at 16mpg. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do some sort of treatment to clean the valves, but other than pulling the intake and heads out, I don't know what if Seafoam will do much help now.

barry G · February 18, 2015

direct injection is just a fad.

carbs will always be the most efficient, and something like spider injection on the old vortec is as close to cooling and cleaning and high pressure as it is going to get...squeeze the tube down pretend your getting high pressure. that is all direct injection did...and made a pig.

if pcv and egr is a problem, gas needs to retreat a little more towards the carb emulsification days..prepare the environment pre cylinder.

my hobby trialed and errored everything. Direct injection does not make much sense. I ponder the miracle that keeps the spark plug from seeing the cute little coil of the injector close by.

a funny story on a direct injection scenario of filthy outcome.. I bought a multiport subaru engine from 1985 (their very first multiport turbo engine). Exactly the problem was injector too close to the cylinder..

A good video to hunt down is jay lenos interview with genuine bosch engineers on direct injection. The guy in a nutshell basically said it is not worth it...and that was an engineer.

WendysOrBust · February 18, 2015

direct injection is just a fad.

carbs will always be the most efficient, and something like spider injection on the old vortec is as close to cooling and cleaning and high pressure as it is going to get...squeeze the tube down pretend your getting high pressure. that is all direct injection did...and made a pig.

if pcv and egr is a problem, gas needs to retreat a little more towards the carb emulsification days..prepare the environment pre cylinder.

my hobby trialed and errored everything. Direct injection does not make much sense. I ponder the miracle that keeps the spark plug from seeing the cute little coil of the injector close by.

a funny story on a direct injection scenario of filthy outcome.. I bought a multiport subaru engine from 1985 (their very first multiport turbo engine). Exactly the problem was injector too close to the cylinder..

A good video to hunt down is jay lenos interview with genuine bosch engineers on direct injection. The guy in a nutshell basically said it is not worth it...and that was an engineer.

I doubt its a fad, Ford is using di in all their new Ecoboost engines, and GMC had an incredible power and milage increase with their new di engines. The issue at hand is really a simple one. But carburetors are definitely not the answer nor are they more efficient than DI engines. This is just like when fuel injection engines were introduced a few decades ago. The first generations of FI engines were awful and had a ton of reliability issues. At the time they were incredibly hard to work on since they required so many electronics to run properly. Now days some of the most reliable engines are fuel injected.

If we maintain our trucks properly this can be contained.

MMC · February 19, 2015

I run a catch can on my Camaro and yes they work, that said these new DI engines have a revised PCV system designed to reduce the amount that ends up in the chambers.

They sell cleaners for this removing the deposits and you do not need to remove the heads to clean the valves.

http://crcindustries.com/auto/intake-valve-cleaner.php

Stoddard · February 19, 2015

But you don't have a DI camaro...like I said before I first remember catch cans helping oil consumption. I just don't see this much buildup on all these DI engines just from oil in blow by.

MMC · February 19, 2015

I'm just saying catch cans do work to remove oil from the PCV system and correct my SS is not DI.

crushNchowda · February 19, 2015

My question is are the catch cans proven to fix this? If so why don't they provide them for all these engines vs. giving out tsb's that say to use top tier gas and having techs clean the intakes and valves??? I thought the original application for the catch cans was to fix oil consumption through pcv loss?

Because its another maintenance item that needs to be looked after and if you DON'T empty it often enough it'll back up pressure within your oil pan/engine and cause your engine to sputter and run like crap/not run at all, potentially leaving you stranded, also because people have been putting 100's of thousands of miles on millions of cars for decades without a catch can without a problem.

They will freeze in winter too, potentially cracking, and causing pressure problems in that regard as well.

If you're really worried about the lung butter building up on the inside of your engine (me personally I have better things to be concerned with) you can always run some sea foam in the PCV, the engine oil, and the gas and you'll be cleaner than a catch can will ever do (most of what gets caught in the catch can is frothy condensation w/ a little oil and that is why it has a tendency to freeze)