Carb cleaning, just wondering

[nzemke]

I used the pine sol method and it worked wonders...the only issue I had with it is that if left in to long it eats away the enamel that covers them. This makes them rust pretty easy if your in a higher humidity area....my next time around I plan to put a light clear coat over them after they dry from a good soak!

[IndoJimbo]

I'm looking for a way to clean my carbs without taking them off the bike. I ran across a video of a guy running his bike with SeaFoam in the tank, and then also - as the bike is running - adding Sea Foam directly to the carbs via a vacuum line. Stalled the bike of course but then he let it sit and stew in the Sea Foam for 15 minutes, started the bike and ran the Sea Foam out of the system. Anyone tried this before? If so, which line from/ to the carb should be used? Thanks.

[motoman]

I'm looking for a way to clean my carbs without taking them off the bike. I ran across a video of a guy running his bike with SeaFoam in the tank, and then also - as the bike is running - adding Sea Foam directly to the carbs via a vacuum line. Stalled the bike of course but then he let it sit and stew in the Sea Foam for 15 minutes, started the bike and ran the Sea Foam out of the system. Anyone tried this before? If so, which line from/ to the carb should be used? Thanks.

lol......none of the above........U-tube videos and such was the first mistake. Second mistake was not asking here, FIRST. If you can really determine that carbs are the issue, they need to come off(no seperating bank necessary), dis-assembled and cleaned CORRECTLY. Sorry, there IS no lazy way around this and no magic wand waving, nor 'snake-oil' ideas is gonna resolve it for you.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Jim,

SeaFoam is a good Maintenance product for after you have properly cleaned the carbs, but as Brant/Motoman stated, due to the intricacies of the circuits of these carbs, when they dirty/gummed up and such, there's no substitution for a proper tear down.

Take a look at this thread, I ran several carb bodies thru my metal cutting bandsaw to reveal the pathways in the carbs.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42622&highlight=carb+anatomy

T.C.

[WMarshy]

I was refering to straight seafoam gas additive. I soaked my jets, emulsion tubes and other small parts for days with very little effect. If I get a real bad set of carbs, I'll strip them down to bare bodies and alternate between the ultrasonic cleaner and boiling water. Frankly the boiling is just as effective as pinesol, simple green, etc. and has no adverse effects like tarnishing, smell or cost.

I did the same thing with some jets and had the same result, not much happened. I let mine soak for a week and in the end had to use the tried and true method of manual removal with some carb spray. I wasnt impressed considering how useful it seems when runing it in the tank with gas.

[SFerinTEXAS]

The thread on idle vacuum got me wandering around on the www and found this guy .His pdf treats (free) have comments on pods, ultrasonic cleaners ,dyna jetting, simplegreen and other stuff. I dunno.

http://www.oldschoolcarbs.com/general-info-pdf-files/

[3Phase]

The thread on idle vacuum got me wandering around on the www and found this guy .His pdf treats (free) have comments on pods, ultrasonic cleaners ,dyna jetting, simplegreen and other stuff. I dunno.

http://www.oldschoolcarbs.com/general-info-pdf-files/

Well, that was a fun read, the guy bloviates in print more than I do!

I think he's backwards on the idea that tight lash makes a 'lazy valve' though. Loose valve lash would do what he described but other than that he's pretty accurate and entertaining about Honda Keihin carburetors, maybe Hitachis too and only just a little off about Mikunis.


The Firefox open source commie-rat-barstool speel choker complained and suggested "Hibachis" and "Pistachios" for Hitachi but only has single word suggestions for the names of the other two carburetor manufacturers:
"Heineken" for Keihin and "Unionism" for Mikuni.

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