Can I Add Bigger Injectors To My Vehicle Without Tuning My Engine?

Upgrading to bigger fuel injectors is a great way to give your engine more power. Most engines are fuel injected nowadays. So it's become a popular way for car enthusiasts to increase horsepower without having to do more extensive mods. And, if more extensive performance upgrades are going to be done, larger injectors will help you get the most out of them.

If you're considering making this upgrade to your engine, you may be wondering if you should tune your engine. The answer is it depends on your vehicle. You most likely would need to tune your engine, but it's not necessary in all vehicles. Read on to find out why.

Bigger Injectors Alone Won't Cut It

Installing bigger fuel injectors isn't the only thing to do. You also have to figure out a way to get more air into your engine. More air is needed to keep the air/fuel mixture ideal. What happens if you don't introduce more air into the engine while upgrading to bigger injectors? Unless the car's ECU automatically dials back the injectors, the new injectors will put too much gas into the engine and cause it to run rich.

The key to increasing engine power is to add both fuel and air to the cylinder. Your engine needs the right air/fuel ratio to run at full power. If your engine gets too much fuel and too little air, it will run too rich. If the opposite happens (too much air and too little fuel), the engine will run too lean. Both scenarios lead to engine problems.

After upgrading to bigger injectors you will most likely need to tune your engine. Tuning can be crucial to keeping your engine running smoothly and making as much power as possible after you've increased its air and fuel intake. A custom tune will tweak the fuel map to let the ECU know that there is more fuel coming into the engine.

What Happens If You Don't Tune Your Engine After Upgrading To Bigger Injectors?

Even small fuel injector restrictions can result in lean combustion and misfires. The engine computer can compensate for small variations in the air/fuel ratio, but dirty fuel injectors will eventually cause problems. Fuel economy may worsen or the engine could start running poorly. The first recommendation may be to perform a chemical fuel injection cleaning. Fuel injection cleaning involves either pouring an additive into the fuel tank or running a solvent directly through the fuel rail to the injectors.

Fuel injector cleaning with chemicals achieves mixed results at best. While cleaners may dissolve some deposits or particles, some may still be too large to pass through the injector nozzle. Many auto manufacturers advise against fuel additives because the harsh chemicals may end up damaging sensitive emissions equipment like oxygen sensors and catalytic converters.

What Happens If You Don't Tune Your Engine After Upgrading To Bigger Injectors?

Bigger injectors will add more fuel to your vehicle. But what happens if your ECU isn't tuned to accommodate the extra amount of fuel in your engine?

The ECU controls ignition timing, fuel injector duty cycle and timing, and a number of other variables. In most cars, it needs to be tuned to adapt to any performance upgrades made to the engine.

If your ECU isn't tuned for the new fuel mixture, you're going to run into some problems. If the ECU still thinks that your engine is running on stock injectors, it'll make the injectors inject too much fuel into the engine. Bigger injectors inject more fuel than stock injectors do. So when bigger injectors have the same duty cycle and timing as stock injectors, the engine's going to get too much fuel. When that happens, you won't notice an obvious gain in the engine's power.

Instead, the engine will run too rich. That means the fuel will not burn completely. It's a problem because:

Most of that unburned fuel will go out the exhaust and pollute the environment.
The unburned fuel will wear out the engine faster. For example, it washes the oil off the cylinder walls. It can also get past the rings into the crankcase and then dilute the oil. In both cases, the engine wears out faster.
Your vehicle's fuel economy will drop. Your engine will eat up a lot of fuel, some of which isn't going to be used at all. The unused fuel doesn't contribute to your vehicle's mileage.

It's better to avoid all these problems by tuning your engine and adjusting the fuel map when you install bigger injectors. If not, you'll have some serious issues on your hands.

Some Engines Don't Need To Be Tuned

Before tuning your engine, make sure that your engine needs to be tuned. Some vehicles have the ability to automatically adjust to larger injectors. They do this by measuring the amount of unburned fuel in the exhaust. If you have one of these vehicles, may not have to tune your engine.

In other cases, your vehicle's ECU might be able to adjust to bigger injectors without being tuned. For instance, if you have a turbocharged engine, the increased air flow from an upgraded turbo may be enough for the ECU to accommodate a larger volume of fuel.

To find out if your vehicle requires tuning or not, check with a local tuning specialist who has experience with your exact car. It's important to find out before you start installing larger injectors.

Are You Looking For Quality Bigger Fuel Injectors For Your Vehicle?

At TLF Performance, we may have the quality performance fuel injectors you're looking for.

TLF fuel injectors are some of the best remanufactured fuel injectors on the market. If done right, remanufactured fuel injectors are perfectly fine to use. In fact, most replacement injectors for older vehicles are remanufactured. It's because good quality OEM injector casings can last decades. If you drive an older car with a non-production engine, there's a good chance that the injectors you buy at the auto parts shop are remanufactured.

There are many reasons to use TLF fuel injectors in your vehicle:

TLF injectors are more affordable than new injectors (or remanufactured injectors marketed as new)
We remanufacture custom OE-quality and high performance injectors. We only use high quality components. For example, most of our high performance injectors have titanium springs instead of stainless springs
We use a thorough remanufacturing process to build our fuel injectors.
We put all our fuel injectors through a rigorous testing process to ensure quality, durability, and optimal functionality.

You want to make sure that larger fuel injectors are compatible with your engine before upgrading them. We make it easy for you. All you need to do is do a search on your year, make, and model. We'll provide a list of fuel injectors that are compatible with your engine.

Please contact us if you need help finding the right fuel injectors for your engine.