Alternative Carb Cleaning - Baking Soda Blasting

[Shaughn]

Saw a reference to something like this recently in the chrome blasting thread,
and then I got this link emailed to me from my uncle:

http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/

Is this a valid technique? Does anyone here do this?
I had good luck with the Gunk carb dip, and then boiling my carbs to finish, but the alternative to the toothbrush love my way took is kind of appealing...

Then again, even the finest of soda powder is likely not much smaller than the pilot jet, right? This has got to fail on the smaller passageways, no?

 

[Stefnwolf]

Well worth a try

Well worth a try

I like the sound of this, in principle.
Here in the UK, we have no chemical dips available.

Then again, even the finest of soda powder is likely not much smaller than the pilot jet, right? This has got to fail on the smaller passageways, no?

As the article says, the soda dissolves in water.

Someone posted here a while ago that just leaving the carbs in a bucket of water for a month or so was pretty effective.

Next time I do mine, I'm going to try this.
1] Remove slides & bowles, and then soak carbs (still racked) in water with a little degreaser for a while.
2] Dissasemble carbs, Remove jets etc. and do baking soda blast on bodies.
3] After the blast, I will boil the bodies in water with detergent.
4] Then, after a rinse and dry, pay minute attention with a spray can of carb cleaner to all passageways and jets etc.

I think that should be quite effective.

 

[Suzuki_Don]

Likewise in Australia and also South africa I believe.

 

[Shaughn]

Then again, even the finest of soda powder is likely not much smaller than the pilot jet, right? This has got to fail on the smaller passageways, no?

As the article says, the soda dissolves in water.

Yeah, no, I read that too, but that is only after the fact. Blasting needs flow
to work, and I can see all the small passageways clogging, then the soda coming out once washed, but just as dirty as they started, still varnished/etc as ever...

 

[Nessism]

Soda blasting the outside of the carbs sounds like a good idea if the metal is dark and discolored, but I wouldn't touch the insides using that technique. Also, I've never used soda blasting but I think it would damage the plating on the steel parts; I recently bead blasted the outside of some carbs and all the yellow zinc plating was removed.

Regarding cleaning the carbs without carb dip, I did an experiment by boiling carbs in lemon juice and while the carbs were cleaner than before, they did not get nearly as clean as using dip. The boiling also darkened the metal (thus the need to blast them).

 

[82Shafty]

Has anyone ever tried pepsi???

Isn't that or Cola supposed to take rust off of bumpers?

http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/extraordinary-uses-for-soda-pop/article24018.html


It is very important to still use a high detergent soap with hot water to clean the carb after using Coke.
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/2467/Cola-and-carburetors


Do not add it to your gas tank. True story: As a young tech a car came in with a steady miss. Ok, figure out which cylinder it was, injectors were injecting, spark was sparking, vacuum is going nutty. Let the car cool off, start it up, no miss, not until the car starts to warm up. Ok, so I pop the valve cover and see that a valve is hanging up.

No biggie, get a reman in. Install reman and a different valve hangs up on the replaced head. Wow, ok. Well, push comes to shove and I take a fuel sample only to discover that someone had dumped some sort of coke product in the gas tank. A combo of the syrup and sugars were building up and causing the valve to hang up.

Drained fuel tank, engine flush, car ran like a dream.

Anyways, back on topic.

Maybe some borax, vinegar and boiling them in hot water?... Do not do it in your house though...ughh. Get a coleman campfire grill.


Can you all get nail polish remover over there?

Sorry, just thinking out loud.

http://books.google.com/books?id=U4...X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA221,M1


I've heard of the lemon juice method.

 

[nisom512]

Saw a reference to something like this recently in the chrome blasting thread,
and then I got this link emailed to me from my uncle:

http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/

Is this a valid technique? Does anyone here do this?
I had good luck with the Gunk carb dip, and then boiling my carbs to finish, but the alternative to the toothbrush love my way took is kind of appealing...

Then again, even the finest of soda powder is likely not much smaller than the pilot jet, right? This has got to fail on the smaller passageways, no?

I wonder if you could do this to your engine components as well?...I am gunna try it next time I go t my uncles and see what happens.

 

[drhach]

One benefit that I can see to this is that Baking Soda is water soluble. If you do get it in the carburettors, it will wash out without destroying the engine. The internet is an interesting thing BTW. It seems liek once a novel technique or item shows up on one website, its on all of them. What a community we have.

 

[bakalorz]

I like the sound of this, in principle.
Here in the UK, we have no chemical dips available.



As the article says, the soda dissolves in water.

Someone posted here a while ago that just leaving the carbs in a bucket of water for a month or so was pretty effective.

Next time I do mine, I'm going to try this.
1] Remove slides & bowles, and then soak carbs (still racked) in water with a little degreaser for a while.
2] Dissasemble carbs, Remove jets etc. and do baking soda blast on bodies.
3] After the blast, I will boil the bodies in water with detergent.
4] Then, after a rinse and dry, pay minute attention with a spray can of carb cleaner to all passageways and jets etc.

I think that should be quite effective.

I used to fly model airplanes, and one of the tricks they used to clean up engines with varnish etc on them was to put them in ethelene-glycol based antifreeze (the old style, not the modern "environmentaly safe" types) in a crock-pot and let it cook on high overnight. It cleaned them up like magic (I've done it on multiple engines.)
I don't know if it would work on gasoline type varnish, but antifreeze is pretty much guaranteed not to be harmful to any carb parts.

One caution!!!
The antifreeze is poisonous, and you can't get all the residue out of the crock pot, so it should NEVER be used for food again.
Mark it conspicously so no one ever does.

I would also do it outside or in a garage, cause it smells kind of bad, and is probably putting some antifreeze vapors in the air.

 

[nisom512]

I used to fly model airplanes, and one of the tricks they used to clean up engines with varnish etc on them was to put them in ethelene-glycol based antifreeze (the old style, not the modern "environmentaly safe" types) in a crock-pot and let it cook on high overnight. It cleaned them up like magic (I've done it on multiple engines.)
I don't know if it would work on gasoline type varnish, but antifreeze is pretty much guaranteed not to be harmful to any carb parts.

One caution!!!
The antifreeze is poisonous, and you can't get all the residue out of the crock pot, so it should NEVER be used for food again.
Mark it conspicously so no one ever does.

I would also do it outside or in a garage, cause it smells kind of bad, and is probably putting some antifreeze vapors in the air.

you know in more than one way this sounds like no so much of a hot idea.

 

[Hammered]

If you are tearing down the carbs to bits a pieces, soda blasting is great and not hazardous to your health like silica is. The lemon juice works great but if you leave it in for longer than 20 minutes, it will discolor the metal. As well if you dont neutralize the acid from the lemons. You need to do a white vinegar and baking soda rinse followed by a running water rinse. The boiling lemon doesnt polish the metal but it does degrease and remove oxidation. And its reuseable. Just run it through a coffee filter or paint strainer to remove all the gunk. After the lemon bath, you can polish the body with not much more than cheese cloth and some elbow grease. Oh and you can dip the entire carb setup, needles and rubber and all in the lemon bath without harming any of it. It will darken the brass bits but doesnt harm them.

 

[hampshirehog]

I'm a recent convert to soda blasting. It uses an awful lot of air (my 3hp compressor isn't really up to the job but that's what I've used). I've used it mainly for cleaning alloy parts that are impossible to get at - head / cylinder / carb etc. It doesn't damage anything either so you could use it on the inside of the carbs. However, it won't clean the inside of the passageways / jets etc as the particles are too big.

I cleaned everything off in the dishwasher and as it's soluble you're left with no contaminants. Blast on the drive and the rain washes everything away as well.

(Tip: wear a hat. the soda got in my hair and made my head itch like mad).

 

[waterman]

If you can't get Carb dip, I would try to locate someone who has an ultrasonic cleaner. When I was at college, we would clean our nasty glassware in an ultrasonic cleaner. It wasn't extremely quick but we used ordinary powdered lab soap (alconox) and usually within a couple hours it would be done.

Most of the personal ultrasonic cleaners available are used for jewelry, hence too small for a whole carb. Many of the larger units are pretty expensive. Someday, I will own one.

 

[Hammered]

You can buy larger US units for about $200. Seems a little steep for a one or two time deal though.

 

[jed.only]

i tried an idea another member posted in another thread. he said "for really gummy carb bowls, use Vanish toilet bowl cleaner", so i did. on the first bowl, i didnt realize this stuff was going to cause a chemical reaction. the bowl was hot to the touch, it turned the metal BLACK, but after all the foamy mess was rinsed out of the bowl that used to have rust that i couldnt get out, it was spotless. on the following three, i filled, counted to 20 after it began to foam, and rinsed while using an old toothbrush to scrub.

creepy enough that the insides of the bowl was black, it turned the overflow tube and drain orange. like neon orange.

 

[scrapper]

When I was in the Navy the cooks would clean the grill with bug juice. This was the kool-aid type drink.It was orange,grape,lemon, basic colors for each flavor. It came in a paper pouch, you only added a small amount of water to mix it for cleaning. It worked great. I think it would be better than coke. I wonder if it would be to tough on carbs?

 

[waterman]

i tried an idea another member posted in another thread. he said "for really gummy carb bowls, use Vanish toilet bowl cleaner", so i did. on the first bowl, i didnt realize this stuff was going to cause a chemical reaction. the bowl was hot to the touch, it turned the metal BLACK, but after all the foamy mess was rinsed out of the bowl that used to have rust that i couldnt get out, it was spotless. on the following three, i filled, counted to 20 after it began to foam, and rinsed while using an old toothbrush to scrub.

creepy enough that the insides of the bowl was black, it turned the overflow tube and drain orange. like neon orange.

I believe Vanish is mostly concentrated hydrochloric acid. It is strong enough to remove skin. The reason it got hot was the acid reacting with the metal. The orange drain tube is most likely etched copper. This stuff will eat through concrete. Generally, the carb dip is much safer but for those willing to get creative, go for it.

 

[waterman]

When I was in the Navy the cooks would clean the grill with bug juice. This was the kool-aid type drink.It was orange,grape,lemon, basic colors for each flavor. It came in a paper pouch, you only added a small amount of water to mix it for cleaning. It worked great. I think it would be better than coke. I wonder if it would be to tough on carbs?

I doubt this would be too strong for the carbs yet I don't think it will work any better then vinegar or lemon juice. Most likely the koolaid cleaner had citric acid, absorbic acid with some sort of granular sweetener. Both of these acids are weak, not going to eat through skin readily. When mixed into a paste with a little water, the sugar would provide enough grit to help physically remove the grill bits. This grit would most likely not work so well in the carb passages.

 

[Loose Seal]

So I tried the baking soda approach last night on an aluminum intake manifold and related parts for the car I'm building. I used standard baking soda at about 90psi.

Not impressed. It got mildly cleaner but nowhere near the results that are shown in the link on the first post - and my parts aren't as dirty as what he started with either. Seemed like I needed more abrasive material and/or a lot more air pressure. Back to the wire brush...

 

[rputney01]

If you can't get Carb dip, I would try to locate someone who has an ultrasonic cleaner. When I was at college, we would clean our nasty glassware in an ultrasonic cleaner. It wasn't extremely quick but we used ordinary powdered lab soap (alconox) and usually within a couple hours it would be done.

Most of the personal ultrasonic cleaners available are used for jewelry, hence too small for a whole carb. Many of the larger units are pretty expensive. Someday, I will own one.

I got a small ultrasonic cleaner at Harbor Freight with a 20% off coupon that cost me a little over $40 USD. I had to turn the carb body over and run it a second time to catch both sides, but the jet areas are covered by the solution both times. I dipped them anyway, but it was a pretty cost effective and quick process. About 8 minutes per side and they were very clean to my eye.

As a cover story, I used the US to clean my wife's bracelet and ring, which served to reduce the background noise normally experienced when purchasing "tools".