manual says not to soak carbs

[tal]

1985 Johnson 120hp, manual says not to hot tank or soak carbs in solvent. I've always soaked my yamaha carbs overnight, and the sticky in this forum says to do so as well.

Do I just soak them overnight and never mind with the manual?

 

[jeff_smith_0423]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

I've done it both ways. A quick cleaning gets the spray. Heavily varnished gets the overnight soak with new welch plugs and sealant.

 

[jonesg]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

Maybe you have some plastic internals in your carbs that will not survive without warping.

I don't use chemicals on my plastic carbs.
I take them apart and physically clean them,
blast with air and run wire thru jets.

 

[iwombat]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

somewhere in the 80s they started coating them with a sealant. The carb soak removes it. From what I've seen, so does hours of service. So, I soak 'em all.

 

[F_R]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

somewhere in the 80s they started coating them with a sealant. The carb soak removes it. From what I've seen, so does hours of service. So, I soak 'em all.

The name of the stuff escapes me at the moment, but we used it to seal the aluminum castings where I used to work. It is to seal any porosity in the aluminum. In the process we used, the sealant was drawn into the pores under a vacuum, then it cured in the absence of air, similar to locktite. You can't see it because it is inside the pores. Gasoline and oil shouldn't affect it, but evidently carburetor cleaner must. OK, so why do you get away with it? Simple, there was no porosity in a critical spot on that particular one. Someday, you may find one though.

EDIT: "Imprex" was the brand we used. We used it on castings for hydraulic systems. http://www.godfreywing.com/vacuum-casting-impregnation/sealants.shtml

 

[Les Robb]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

Knowing you will have to replace some gaskets and rubber seals affected by the chemicals go ahead and do the soak followed up by high pressure air to clean the passageways. I suppose there are many different compounds but I found Gunk cleaner worked well didn't appear to be that destructive. Comes in a gallon can with a strainer basket inside.

Finally if you still work for a living think of the following: How many free days a year do you have? Of those how many are available for fun (spelled boating)? Of these how many will the weather cooperate and finally of these will your motor run correctly or will you spend half the day tinkering with it.

Good luck ya'll

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

You do not soak any of the plastic carb bodys or bowls in any caustic solution as (A) It can warp bodys (B) It desolves the solvents that hold the small ball plugs in place. I have had several carbs that other "persons" have serviced and the fuel leaks around ball plugs. I had a customer bring me 1 that ball fell out after running fill cowling with fuel. The post where people have leaking ball plugs and told to fix with JB weld are from soaking carbs. Do as the manual says or they wouldnt have put it in there...

 

[petryshyn]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

Some OMC carbs have the fuel inlet fitting epoxied in. Carb soak cleaner, acetone and spray gasket remover will attack this allowing the fitting to pop out. Wouldn't that be interesting under WOT !!!

If all else fails.....follow the manual....

 

[tal]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

Well I got a gallon of that berryman carb dip stuff with a strainer basket, but I'm not sure I want to put these plastic things in that stuff. I actually thought I had 2 standard aluminum carbs until I took the silencer off last night (just got the motor). So I was suprised to see 4 plastic holes looking at me. I did buy 2 rebuild kits, I guess I need to get 2 more, heh. So I have new gaskets, floats, etc that come in the kit. I just need to know how to clean them and the general consensus seems not to soak the plastics.

So I plan on taking the bowls off, taking out the jets and poking a small wire through them and blowing carb cleaner and air through them. Are there any problem places I need to pay extra attention to? Like where the gunk usually builds up more in one place/hard to see and clean.

Just confused, local mechanic tells me they'll be fine in overnight dip.

 

[petryshyn]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

It is not necessary or recommended to push a wire through the jets as damage can occur. Any bur or deformity to the jet orifice can dramatically affect flow. Use a flashlite to check for blockage. If you have an incredible urge to poke something through the jet, use a non metallic probe like a tooth pick or corn broom stem.

If all else fails, the OEM manual is usually right!!


Cheers....

 

[Les Robb]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

My comments were related to aluminum carbs and have no idea on the plastic's, so won't offer one. Like petryshyn don't think hard wire would be good for either. I would stick with high pressure air and hope the buildup on plastic is not as bad as on the more porous aluminum.

In this case read the manual was a good idea

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

Need to get the Carb cleaning sticky updated as a lot of the newer engines have plastic bowls or all plastic carbs.

 

[tal]

Re: manual says not to soak carbs

I ended up putting them in the dip for about 30 minutes a piece, they appear to be ok. I rebuilt them and put all new fuel line on. The engine won't run by itself unless I go mess with the butterflies and throttle linkage. I'm going to look in my manual and see if my linkage adjustments are off. Thanks for the comments.