I'm using the spray can stuff from the auto parts store, and it isn't doing much. What concoctions do you used to get the varnish off and REALLY clean.
Berryman's in the 'paint can' style bucket. It even comes with it's own submersible parts basket for soaking (but not losing LOL) those little carb parts. Try O'Reilly or NAPA if you need it quick. Dis***emble, soak for a few hours, and ****, a very clean carb.
Oh, and don't leave your hands down in it. If you don't use it every day and get used to it, it will mildly chem burn between your fingers and dry out your skin. Not that dangerous but not comfy either.
I use the same ****. Berrymans. Watch out though -- if you leave the bucket in your garge, even with the lid on, the place will stink like ****. For less abrasive stuff, Tokyo turned me on to the 79 cent WALMART generic carb cleaner. It seems to work as well as the fancy stuf at a third of the cost. Ed
I use the spray stuff, but backed up with a stiff toothbrush, or for the really stubborn stuff, a br*** brush (on my Carter AFB, not my teeth).
Been using "BG" brand..White Lightnin Hi-Delivery Carb and Choke Cleaner..#412... This stuff has the HI pressure and the cleaning power to blow the varnish and carbon off the most god awful neglected looking throttle bodies you could imagine. It works wonders on carbs too, our shop has been using it for years(+20) since DEQ cut off that Cold (hot ) tank carb cleaners that ate up you hands and lungs. Be careful this stuff will eat paint off like a fat man at the local buffet and will drop you to the floor when it gets into your eyes..Damm good stuff. You may have to go to a shop or dealer to get it though, being for professionals and all..(...known to cause cancer in lab animals...)...H
walmart **** works great for me, I use it all the time. The spray and the dip... If not a solvent tank works best if you have one Just depends what your garage/ budget is like
3 parts regular ****ermilk Ranch Dressing 2 parts Ketchup 2 parts sweet pickle relish 1 part Chipotle sauce No, wait, that's for hamburgers...
pinesol- let em soak fer a few hours- it removes varnish and grease and DOES NOT harm seal and gaskets
cheap and easy on the skin, Awesome cleaner a buck a bottle at the dollar tree. cleans just about anything but be sure and cut it if you plan to clean gl***.
[ QUOTE ] I use the spray stuff, but backed up with a stiff toothbrush, or for the really stubborn stuff, a br*** brush (on my Carter AFB, not my teeth). [/ QUOTE ] I'm with Gary on this. It is all I have used for years. If a carb has a big build up of grease I will take it to the parts washer first. That dip is the most putrid horrible **** ever to hit a garage and I can't stand the ****. You will reek for days just from being near it and dam near have to wear off your skin to get the smell off yourself. Be prepared to wake up at night with the stench in your nostrils. The best , and only imo, aerosol is Berryman/s B-12. It will cut the crud. Use the little red snivey to shoot out p***ages then blow down with air. NAPA's own brand doesn't work and most others not as good as the B-12. It is all I have used on probably 100 carb rebuilds in the last 20 years and it works. Don't even consider that stinkin dip, your wife will boot you and you will loose friends before the stink wears off.
If you're talking about the carb being dis***embled, I used CLR (The stuff from the infomercial.) Soak it for 45min and give it a good rinse with at tooth brush. You get a nice even finish that looks right. For degreasing, I also use the gallon can of Berrymans with the little fryer basket. TZ
If you don't want to dis***emble it, use starting fluid, the best cleaner there is. Yeah, I know it's highly flammable, ya just don't want to be an idiot. Use it outside and put your cigarette out before you spray it. -slacker
Another question, I picked the wrong person to take advice from, how do you get dried pickle relish out of your carb circuits? Thanks guys! I have it soaking in some dollar store degreaser outside, I'll pick up some of the other suggestions after work tonight. And I'll be using the idea of laying down a piece of wrinkled cloth or old bedsheet on the workbench to catch the little pieces. That sounded like a good idea. Lets make this an all purpose carb rebuild tech post, any other ideas?
For hot rod stuff I like blasting carbs after a good dip cleaning. I use a hopper gun (meant for wall texture I think) outside (lots of dust) with baking soda.
I first clean with paint store mineral spirits to get the easy stuff off. Some time with this and a bsush will get you pretty clean if you don't have anything else, but I use it mainly to save the carb cleaner $$$. Next, I go to a NAPA dip bucket of carb cleaner (cost about $40), which I hadn't used for years due to the odor prblem. I bought some recently because I found an old 97 tht some ***** painted gold with bulletproof epoxy paint or something. It seems both weaker and less smelly than what I used to use, but does really get the crud off. Vinegar vigorously scrubbed with toothbrushes and bottle or gun brushes gets you down to bare clean pot metal, removing even the blackened crud in the bores. Vinegar can often do all that carb cleaner does. If severely pitted and covered with white, hard crud in the bowl, use the toilet bowl cleaner with "HCL" somewhere in the warning label--hydrochloric acid. Put some in the bowl, let it perk for no more than a couple of minutes, rinse with hot water, repeat til happy. Positively do not immerse or apply for long, and I don't recommend any lengthy soak in the vinegar either. Your carb might not be there when you come back...
after the cleaning is done and it's time to re***emble I give the gaskets a light coat of motor oil, keeps them nice and supple and they won't tend to tear if you need to open it back up. Paul
I have a friend who repairs watches (vintage and modern watches). Every year I get about a gallon of used watch cleaning fluid (which normally, watch repair people have to pay someone to get rid of it). It's usually cloudy with some fine powder metal residue in it, but if you strain it through paint filters or even paper coffee filters it cleans right up. It works great. I think its active ingredient is closer to the old carb soaks that the current environmently friendly ones you can buy these days, and it doesn't seem to wear out. If it gets dirty, I just "refilter it". By the way, wear safety gl***es whenever using spray can carb or brake cleaner. That stuff comes out of those little red plastic tubes really fast and the rebound spray off the target can reach your eyes REAL QUICK. You do NOT want that stuff in your eyes.
Like I always say, god protects the stupid... I took the carb off and soaked it in degreaser for about a week. It seemed to get "anodized" a dark grey color from sitting in there so long, even hitting the outside with a wire brush a little bit did not get it off, I s****ed the outside with the tip of a screwdriver and even the scratch was that color...damn I ****ed it up using cheap cleaner. Now on to the stupid part, I opened up the carb kit I bought and the 52 Ford shop manual and as I took it apart, the pictures don't look the same, things inside are a different design, about half the parts don't look they will be used. Hmmm. Then I go and get the carb I found in the trunk, (the one they guy at a carb shop said looked Mopar to him) open it up and look inside, this one looks exactly the same as the pictures in the book, and it has places for more parts to fit. Cool, I didn't **** up the right carb, I ****ed up the wrong carb... God protects the stupid. Anybody wanna dark grey Holley 1bbl. of unknown orgin?
[ QUOTE ] What secret sauce do you use for cleaning carbs? [/ QUOTE ] I prefer the Dr. Atkins low carb honey mustard
I went to NAPA and bought the parts cleaner ($56 for a 3 gallon bucket) and Walmart had Berrymans B-12 in the spray can ($2.69 ea.) Worked great, left it in the NAPA stuf for about and hour, a light once over on the outside with a br*** brush made it all purty. Then I sprayed out all the p***ages with the B-12. DON'T GET IT ON YOUR FACE! the **** burns! Had to s****e the inside of the bowl to get the crusty varnish. My special sauce... NAPA parts cleaner/Berrymans B-12/br*** brushes Hold the relish
Another vote for Berryman's and a good stiff brush. The gallon size with the parts strainer is especially handy for soaking the smaller pieces.
Ant-Stench method for the nasty carb dip: If using at home, keep it and use it outside--perhaps in a garbage can behind the garage. I first clean the whole carb as a lump in mineral spirits, with some brushing. This gets the easy stuff off without using up the expensive dip. Then I dis***emble the carb and put all the parts into the dip basket and soak as needed. When fully cooked, I remove the basket & remove each part with needle nose pliers and drop into another basket or a coffee can with lots of holes punched and submerge all in fairly clean mineral spirits. This removes 99% of the stench from your carb parts and keeps your hands free of the evil stuff, avoiding all those little h***les like divorce and skin cancer. Then--on to the vinegar--try it on that grayed-out carb! It's wise to ask wife to make her delicious sauerkraut for din din, so no one wonders why you smell like a pickle...
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