In the process of rebuilding my carb and I remebered about 10 years back I bout this carb parts cleaner in like a paint can with a basket included. I dont remember what I paid but it's $55 now. I was shocked but also didnt want to use mineral spirits like I have done before either just cuz its stinky and a pain to get rid of. So I researched on the web and found a link to a message board that said use Pine Sol so for $6 I figured I'd try it. It worked great, I pulled carb apart and soaked it for about 4 days, then just scrubbed lightly with a tooth brush, rinsed with water, dried it with air hose and sprayed lightly with WD40 and put it back together. It worked awesome!! Im sold, I will do this every time. Who'da thunk!!
I really like finding common solutions like this. I agree with the carb cleaner in the can with the basket. I recently bought one of them and about fell over with the price. I just recently learned about mineral spirits to clean engines. I've tried everything under the sun. Nothing works better than mineral spirits that I've tried. Ok, so we have pine sol for carbs, mineral spirits for grease, lemon pledge for paint and interior. Looks like the car care products business is in trouble. Great find--I'll be trying it. Mike
What make or model of carb did you clean? Just wondering what the original finish was on the carb body. I would have thought pine sol to be a little more corrosive than a solvent based cleaner-who'd athunk it!
Awesome cleaner, bought at Dollar Tree works great not just on carbs but cuts brake fluid spills and many of those messes we all make. Lot gentler on the hands than the old cleaners.
I also saw this on another forum , I was shocked at how well it worked. Also when it was done it had a nice fresh scent !
Awesome cleaner is a good product but it isn't that gentle on the hands, I use the stuff alot and it can be rough on them. You also have to watch some materials it comes in contact with ie: Wood and rubber.
In the last year I've done one carb overhaul with the cleaner from Wallyworld and a set of 3x2 carbs in the Pinesol. While both projects turned out good the Pinesol carbs looked cleaner. Don't know if it helped any but I used a 50/50 water solution and heated the Pinesol solution in a big sauce pan on a hot plate. A little scrubbing with brushes and they turned out looking new.
Put the Pine Sol or Mean Green in an old crock pot and REALLY watch it work like magic. The heat speeds up the process greatly. Try it. I bought my crock pot for $2 at a yard sale.
Any time you can find a subs***ue for a strong chemical, that's a score. In the machine shop, we use a lot of Simple Green to clean machined parts. We had a fire inspection last year and he was surprised at how little solvents we did have around. Bob
I've used Pledge for years on newer interiors, leather/vinyl, w/o any problems. Never used it on cloth interiors or on paint though.
I just used the Pine-sol trick on some motorcycle carbs, it really helped out because I didn't have to separate all the funky linkages..I used it 50/50 with water and heated it in an old hotwell, i would warn people off of using anything with caustic soda ( sodium hxdroxide) because it will dissolve the aluminum...
Not for a carb, but I use spray foaming oven cleaner to clean the outside of engines and suspension. Cheaper that the motor cleaner at the parts store and doesn't stink when you are done.
i used on on a quadrajet and it worked fantastic. Nothing fancy, just set it in a bucket of pine sol and left it for over a week. Washed it off and it was perfect.
The carb I rebuilt using the Pine Sol was just a Rochester 2bbl, my garage still smells so nice, that I dont want to dump the used pine sol
I would also like to add that lightly misting your carb parts with WD40 will also help to keep your linkages and screw heads from rusting. I made the mistake of soaking a Q-jet in mineral spirits, leaving it naked and putting it on a boat engine. All the linkage was rusted inside of 2 months.
Just a bit more on using oven cleaner, buy the cheapest from the dollar store but be careful, it is caustic. Best used outside where it can be hosed off. Used it on my nailhead/SP400 with great results, only regret is the model tag on the trans now has only the serial number, all the painted on info is gone ( make and model ). That stuff takes paint off as well. Canuck
I learned about Lemon Pledge in Viet Nam. I saw a Hughie pilot Cleaning his front clear plastic canopy and I asked him why? He told me it cleans as well as help deflects bugs its also good on gauge faces and etc. I have used it on my dash's plastic gauge faces and works great I keep a can in the garage. TIP! hide it from the wife.......
Bought some Gunk carb cleaner in one of those gallon cans with a basket in it at Advance Auto for about $26. Works good but the Pine Sol sure would have been cheaper.
The Jalopy Journal
