I know winter's a long way off, but this thread is inspired by the legions of dumbass that forget to winterize their carbureted cycles...

So, I was reading yet again about a fellow bitching how he spoiled his ride from letting gas go stale while sitting in a carb over the winter, and then asking for help getting the goop out.

...and it occured to me: I rarely see this complaint from the FI equipped crowd.

Why is this? Does the mid-level pressurization of the FI system force the goop out from the FI nozzles?

Other than the lines and the fuel pump, EFI doesn't hold a quantity of fuel within range of the small passages that are first to clog, and EFI only has one size passage on an injector rather than several for different running speeds. Still, running some stabilizer in the tank and letting it run long enough to get throughout the system is a good idea.

Winterize without crying eyes.

Carb:
1. Drain carb bowl. Every bowl has a drain screw if not the bowl itself.
2. Keep drain screw(s) open all winter long.
3. Drain gas tank dry. Keep gas cap open all winter long.

Options:
A. Pour rubbing alcohol down the fuel line with open drain screws. This washes the gasoline out.
B. Pour ATF inside the gas tank and slosh it around and and around is upside down an coat it.
C. Pour gas in the tank come riding time. Open petcock and purge what little ATF was not diluted out with the gas is watch all bowl screws drain so no float is hung up.
D. Close carb bowl screws. This now shows if your floats are as trouble free before you put the bike away on that last day of riding.

Winterize injectors:

1. With a snap of the clip to indent the bottom tangs and push up is the U clip, I stick a pocket screwdriver under the hoop and lift up as I squeeze&push the bottom tangs up.
2. This drains back whatever is in the rail. However, an injector removal will drain whatever pitch is not so drainable, meaning, you have to move the body at all angles to remove whatever is left sitting on top of that horizontal pitch? You need to move that pitch 180° meaning.
3. With a remote battery, you can trigger the injectors open and then purge the opening with spray [pressured into] the rail. This then purges the fuel from the injector's internal body. The cleaner evaporates with the rail being disconnected.
4. Do we purge the fuel pump? Will this dry the rubber blades, if injector cleaner is the purge chemical and will it dry/crack the blades over the winter? Should the gas just stay in there and/or run some stailbullizer in it? No. Then the gas is taking up the AFT and you are trying to compete against the washer/drier atmosphere that gives off and condenses places.

Hub:

Thanks for weighing in, I truely appreciate it.

So, I understood everything you mention. I live in Tucson, and ride all year long, so I dont do these things on any of my cycles, but...

You guys really *do* all those things to your FI systems? Wow.

I think that mostly, we dont do these to FI systems because of the reason given by Danno, and inferred by me. But, like I wrote, I dont live in a place where it's needed, so I dont really know what folk do, or dont do.

Hub gave excellent and detailed instructions for folk who want to do the FI winterize.

I was leaning towards "eh, why bother?", but I think I'm changing my mind as I think about what I've just read here.

Danno:

Those "one size fits all" passages through the FI injectors are pretty small. As Hub has given, they can clog.

Here's what I dont know about gas:

Does it take a certain cross-section diameter to become "goop"? That is, the small cross section diameter of a FI injection port is very small compared to the cross section diameter of the fuel line.

So, common sense might give that the fuel left in the injector port would turn to "goop" relatively quickly. The fuel left in the fuel line might take longer...

OK, so, we fire up the FI and it pressurizes. maybe it blows out the "goop" from the FI nozzle, mebbe not. Mebbe there's stale gas, in liquid form, in the fuel line and it forces the FI port nozzle goop out.

Two things screw up this line of thought:

Maybe the "goop does not blow out the FI port nozzle, having now had long enough time to set to varnish-like quality, and,

Maybe the stale fuel in the fuel line has become "goop-like" along the fuel line *wall* (close to the line metal), and I've just forced *that* into the FI port nozzle, thereby finishing the job for good (bad).

So, these are the things I dont know about gas, and the things that mebbe make me want to change my mind about the winterize service, for FI systems.

What I don notice, is a general lack of complaint from the FI using crowd, for issues sstemming from *not* doing it. That is, what I *dont* generally read is, those folks complaining about clogged up FI from their bone head lack of maintenance.

Are they more inclined to do it? Are they less lazy? I dunno. Mebbe the FI ysstems are more tolerant of lack of maintenance? I dunno that either.

Geez, I dont know much, huh?

As I said before, there's little or no fuel laying in close proximity to the injector nozzles as their is in the body of a carburetor and it's small passages. But injectors can still clog. Modern fuel starts to deteriorate 30 days after leaving the refinery, so anytime it's left to sit in a tank, can or fuel system longer than that runs the risk of clogging something with the remnants. Anytime mine is going to sit for more than 2 weeks, in goes the stabilizer and then it gets run until the stabilized fuel is throughout the system. I also like to dump in a little techroline from time to time to keep things cleared out. Many higher-quality fuels contain some techroline, but it's still possible to get a batch of old crappy gas and that leads to problems.

You pretty much called it, meb. The nozzles will clog or close. This gives poor starting, increased hez, poor gas mileage among others. And yes, that varnish will dry on the inner fuel rails and turn that dry green you mentioned. I see we've been there done that.

For carbs, vinegar. For injectors... I'm almost about to say it but I haven't tried cleaning an injector yet. Vinny is killer cleaner on gasoline/rust/carbon. No rubber swelling, no aluminum damage, but rust will be eaten away without the vinegar. It just shows you after if the part is salvageable is if the threads are gone from that rust bucket.