Fouling of Automotive Diesel Injectors-Test Procedure, influence of Composition of Diesel Oil and Additives

A test-bench procedure for automotive diesel engines that are representative of the market reproduces the injector fouling phenomena often encountered and does so under realistic conditions and in a sufficiently short length of time (2 to 6 hours). This procedure takes into consideration the capacity of Diesel oils to cause fouling and brings out the determinant factors and classifies surfactant additives among one another.

In particular it:

• demonstrates, from an examination of the behavior of different types of Diesel oils, that the fouling tendency increases with the aromatics content and amounts of other constituents responsible for instability phenomena;
• reveals the beneficial effect of some surfactant additives on the capacity of a Diesel oil to keep injectors clean or to clean them up. Likewise, the use of additives helps improve combustion and sharply reduces emissions of unburned products such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, aldehydes and particulates.