ULTRASONIC CLEANING

[Earthquake Landscaping]

And sometimes... It just doesn't matter. Next door neighbour left regular with Ethanol, in a brand new brush chipper, over the Winter. It ( of course) refused to start.. Fresh fuel, drained the carb.. Nada!.. Spray, and it'd run... as long as you kept spraying.. Took the carb off, and ran it through the US ... But, could only take off the bowl.. No mixture screws. Wouldn't fire.. Did it again. still wouldn't fire. Swapped out the carb for an unused spear that I had ( a bit of McGuyvering to get linkages , etc..).. Started first pull, and runs like a champ!
Sometimes, Ethanol does enough damage to the internal passages of the carb, that the only viable option is replacement.
Also, when you can get a carb off Amazon for around $20.00... Is cleaning one really a good use of your time? Especially if you are charging for the repair?

 

[StarTech]

Please folks stop blaming all fuel problems on Ethanol even what is call 100% gasoline is not 100% as there are additives require by the EPA that can be left behind when it evaporates. Those additives can clog carburetor passages. Also both types of fuel can go bad otherwise too. It is just Ethanol will go bad faster and it does attract moisture which participate out as water as combines the Ethanol.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Please folks stop blaming all fuel problems on Ethanol even what is call 100% gasoline is not 100% as there are additives require by the EPA that can be left behind when it evaporates. Those additives can clog carburetor passages. Also both types of fuel can go bad otherwise too. It is just Ethanol will go bad faster and it does attract moisture which participate out as water as combines the Ethanol.

I 100% agree about blaming ethanol on many carburetor problems. Old premium fuel (no ethanol) depending on the equipment, will cause no starts, hard starts, and poor running results. Non ethanol fuel with water in it, will yield poor or no start results. I see lots of fuel with water in it, that customers claim is non ethanol fuel. Ethanol fuel is hygroscopic, attracts water. The water inside the carburetor over time and sitting there, then causes “white rust.” I have seen a few carburetors occasionally that are damaged from sitting and can’t be brought back by cleaning. Then you buy another carburetor. You can’t win them all. Never remove a Welch plug. Poke transfer holes with small wire and hit with carburetor cleaner and air gun, or this will get cleaned in ultrasonic cleaner.

I use 10% ethanol fuel in all my outdoor power equipment, and have no problems. The key is proper storage and to keep it moving. Ideally 30-60 days on handheld equipment and less than 6 months on mowers, etc. This time line is not a hard fast rule, but generally is a good thing to follow.

Some, not many, carburetors simply will not operate correctly even after a thorough cleaning. I have around a 95% success rate with being able to clean OEM carburetor and get equipment running right. If OEM carburetor can’t be cleaned correctly, THEN you buy an aftermarket replacement.

 

[oldntired55]

Totally Awesome from the Dollar General works as good as anything I have tried. I have heard the Cascade platinum dishwasher works really good but I haven't tried it. Over the years I have used simple green and others I don't remember. For carbs make sure you get the outside clean first with brake clean or that dirt may be deposited some where you don't want it.

yes i agree with the dirt removal,, ive been cleaning and rebuilding carbs since 1974,,, i use the Awesome inside the house too, will give it a whirl in the cleaner.

 

[StarTech]

And that white rust as Tiger calls it can do a lot damage by tunneling the aluminum carburetor bodies. Here I have a way of removing it just to see how bad the damage is actually is. Some of this white rust is just on the surface and other times it looks like wood worms were in the carburetors. Those last ones are usually not savable and new carburetors are needed.

Water in fuel is the root cause and all fuels can have water in it depending on the source. I once filled a 5 gallon can with fuel from my normal supplier at the time. Filled my TB Horse tank and went about 10 ft then it die. The tank was full of water. I check the fuel can and it had over 2 qts of water. I wasn't the only one to get this water as many motorists had to have their cars towed to a repair shop because of this. It turn out that the distributor driver when he filled the tanks he did not seal them back up and rain runoff had got into the tanks. It cost Wavaho quit a bit in repair bills.