Just compared ultrasonic cleaning vs. hand cleaning fuel nozzles and it's no contest

I finally got to borrow an ultrasonic cleaner from a buddy at the hangar last week and ran a set of six fuel nozzles from a Cessna 172 through it. Took about 15 minutes of setup and then an hour of soak time. The result was night and day compared to the hours I usually spend scrubbing each one by hand with carb cleaner and a tiny wire brush. The flow bench readings came back nearly perfect on all six, which never happens with my hand cleaning. Has anyone else gone ultrasonic and seen better test results right away?

2 comments

2 Comments

mia7485d ago

A buddy of mine at the field tried one of those expensive ultrasonic setups on his Bonanza injectors and ended up with two that passed flow test but ran rough on the engine. Turned out the ultrasonic vibrations loosened some old varnish that then plugged the tiny internal passages later. Hand cleaning with a little brass wire lets you actually feel and see what's coming out, and that matters on older nozzles with years of baked on crud. I'll stick with my solvent soak and pipe cleaner method for the 172 nozzles I do every annual, seems to give me consistent results without any nasty surprises on startup. Your flow bench reading right after ultrasonic might look perfect, but I'd run them for a few hours before I trusted it completely. Just my two cents from seeing a few too many field stories go sideways.

reesea495d ago

Bunch of science project parts waiting to fail mid-flight.