Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Direct Injection Gas Engines?

I believe many auto makers have switched to this technology. I also understand there are problems with it regards having to burn better gasoline and carbon build up. Anyone here know anything about them? I think I want to avoid them but many car manufacturers are using them now.

Wife has a 2013 Chevy Traverse with DI and 100k. No problems so far of any kind.

This is not new technology, B-29's had Direct Injection on their R3350 engines, although mechanical and not electronic.

This is an ideal system as injection timing can now be varied and there is no carbon build up on the intake valves like port injection.

My wife's Kia Optima has DI and in 60k has had no problems. I wouldn't give it a second thought.

If you are the type that trades every 3 to 5 years get what you want as the manufacturers warranty will cover the engine. Trade it before stuff starts breaking.

If you want to keep it forever, still get what you want but buy a lifetime warranty (insurance policy) on it up front. I think they cost about 3 grand but you can burn through that at a mechanic shop pretty quick. It is essentially a bet on the part of the car maker that you are either going to wreck it or trade it before they have to shell out more money on repairs than they took in with the warranty which is a pretty good bet most of the time.

In my case, its a terrible bet for them. I might wreck it but I have had my current ride for 15 years. I can do a lot of work myself and save $$$ on an old vehicle but there is not much chance of that on the new stuff.

My wife's 09 Saturn Outlook has DI with 90k and no issues to date. Pretty decent fuel mileage for a larger SUV. GM requires Dexos rated oil for it's DI engines to help prevent coking up of the valves but other than that no special requirements that I know of.

My mom just bought a new Kia Sorento with the DI 4 cyl. Haven't heard any issues with those cars either. I'd say it's a non-issue.

I realize a lot of cars on the road have it now but I am not sure many past 100K miles are running using this technology? Granted it is an older design but the implementation into modern cards is relatively recent. I was looking at buying a car next year and did not know if it should be avoided. We tend to keep cars for 2-300K miles.

Good history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_direct_injection

Yep...What I heard is listed in the article!!

Although Direct Injection provides more power and efficiency, a carbon build-up occurs in the intake valves that over time reduces the airflow to the cylinders, and therefore reduces power. Fuel contains various detergents and can keep the intakes clean. When fuel is no longer being sprayed in the intake valves, small amounts of dirt from intake air and blowback carbon from the crankcase ventilation system cakes on the intake walls, even with air filters that prevent most of the dirt from entering the cylinder.[71] This build-up can become severe enough that a piece can break off and has been known to burn holes in catalytic converters.[72] It can also cause sporadic ignition failures.[72] These problems have been known for some time and technologies[citation needed] have been improved to reduce the carbon build-up.

The Ford Ecoboost is direct injection, and by all accounts is doing well. In my case 45k on a 2014 F150, and no engine problems.

FWIW the Mercury Optimax Outboards are direct injected (yeah, two stroke, so not exactly the same) and have done well for years

AAA did the gasoline study...

http://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/...ally-decrease-gas-mileage-387820742.html

Yeah but 60 is barely broken in ... will it run 350K plus like my explorer?

well I am going to try and find a used car with a traditional engine, 3 MPG more may be important to some government agency, however the cost of $400 to clean the engine largely negates any gas savings to the consumer. Just figuring drive 80,000 miles with 32 MPG at $5000 for gas at $2.00 per gallon or drive same with 29 MPG $5.520...its almost a wash if it costs $400 to clean your valves.