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How to clean badly corroded carb

A

AndrewGelling

Tuned and Synch'ed
GT Famiglia
Joined
Oct 28, 2011
Messages
64
Location
Boston, MA
So, I started going through a bike I purchased recently for cheap. It has sat for a long time and inside the carb is badly built up corrosion that is blocking passages and eroding the carb body. Anyone got a suggestion on how to break this stuff up and clean out the passages? Just to be clear, I am not talking about basic shellacing of the jets and needle. I am talking about a hard, white, thick build up.

Internet searches come up with various suggestions such as toilet bowl cleaner, ethylene glycol, Marvel Mystery Oil... I just picked up a loctite product for cleaning aluminum corrosion, but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks, hoping I can revive this carb.
 
Have them professionally cleaned with a sonic vibration cleaning machine and solution for carbs. There should be several online offerings.
 
Thanks Todd. I just found a place nearby.

The carb is actually for a little 1966 Honda that I bought to ride the half mile back and forth to the shop. Having only dealt with Guzzi, I have been shocked at how hard it is to find some basic parts for this thing. I have found only one single replacement carb amongst vintage dealers, ebay, etc, and you better know he knows what he is holding. That lone carb is selling for more than the bike cost me. Next time someone asks me if its hard to find parts for old Guzzis, I will flesh out my usual answer...
 
You can buy ultrasonic cleaner quite cheaply. One that has a 500ml to 1 litre capacity will be plenty big enough for carb parts off a little Honda. They work very well off tap water but you can add special carb cleaner liquid to shift stubborn bits, but be very careful with other chemicals. The results are quite amazing.
 
A year ago I resurrected a '73 Honda CL125 that had been sitting for 30 years in a Hanger or Shop. It only has about 1500 miles on it. I used the Pine sol/ ultrasonic with heat on the carb as an initial cleaning. I'd purchased my SS ultrasonic cleaner around 10 years ago off e-bay. Very nice unit for around $100 to clean rifle brass. I use plastic nut containers for the mix with parts to be cleaned, put it in the cleaner then fill the cleaner tub up with water. The clean cycles are only 30 minutes but after a few with heat you'd be amazed with how dirty the cleaning fluid gets. With Pine sol the rubber parts aren't really harmed.

I still had to buy a Carb rebuild kit and use brake cleaner / compressed air on it after I took out the jets to clear all the passages.

The fuel petcock I gave up on and just bought a new one.

The Honda was my Father's and a little special as it was a "Suitcase Cycle". He'd take it apart, put it in his plane and fly down to Cabo with Mom or his flying buddies before there was a paved road past Ensenada. Two of his passions were Marlin fishing and flying.

$_12.JPG
 
soda blaster also does the job well - use a bead blaster that is known to be clean, and use bicarb soda granules as the blasting medium, rinse in water - no damage will ensure but you need to dry it properly, such as in an oven at around 100 degree C.
 
Thanks everyone. I see that these also clean engine cases, cylinder heads, etc, anyone got any experience with that? How does the finish compare to blasting? Obviously the size of the tank is a factor, but a quick search reveals for instance a 9 liter unit for $358 on Amazon, that might be big enough to fit most bits (I gotta get down to the shop to measure), especially the split cases of the small blocks. I have a pile of parts I was going to have vapor blasted, but hell, if this process does a decent job, I'd rather buy the tool, then pay someone else, never mind it'd save me 4 hours of driving, and the stress of wondering if I'd cleaned all the oil passages out well enough.
 
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