The Pine-Sol carburetor cleaning thread, You can have clean carbs with that fresh pine scent! Options

[Mark Henry]

With the release bearing exploding in my '67 bus, taking out the pressure plate I decided now was the time to clean and service my Weber 42 DCNF's...of course I got carried away and had to clean my /6 40 IDA's as well. I've been reading on the internet (and I've heard mention of it here) about using Pine-Sol cleaner to clean carbs, so I felt i'd document my job for this site.

Pro's: it's very cheap and most important it cleans like a champ!. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)
It's amazing how well it works in all the nooks and crannies.
Although it's slightly caustic it's no where near as nasty as most carb cleaning chemicals and it doesn't seem to hurt rubber parts like diaphragms.
Nice fresh pine scent .
Big safety plus it's Nonflammable!

Con's: It does seem to react with cadmium plating, it doesn't seem to bother the Weber plated parts too much, but my Gene Berg DCNF stacks really reacted to it.
Leaves a film on brass parts, remove them or you have to polish them afterwards, but it does not harm them.
It smell's like pine, real strong, in fact it smells like the janitors room. If you have an attached garage I'd do it outside.
You will get it on you and you will also smell Pine-Sol fresh, wear the gloves and some old clothes.
Loses it's "oomph" after about 3 days, I got 3 carbs done.
You must fully immerse the parts or it can leave a scum line.
You really need a compressor to blow out the passages when done.

No real rocket science here, I got the Pine-Sol and mixed it 2 parts Pine Sol to 1 part water. I used 4 liters (quarts) of pinesol. I found that this plastic waste basket was just the perfect size for the IDA /6 carbs. I had a handful of latex gloves, a couple of toothbrushes, some tools, compressor,
a table and a bag of rags.
You must throughly rinse with water and dry (blow out) the carbs when done.

[zymurgist]

Cool! I'll be doing this for the Yamaha... as soon as the weather turns foul and I can't ride my own bike. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Mark Henry]

My first victim of neglect, I haven't cleaned these puppies in at least 4 years (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[zymurgist]

Hmmm. My Quadrajet could use a little freshening too... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[Mark Henry]

I'll get right to the before and after shots (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

Got to love that pine freash scent!.....oh fuch does it sell like pine! wow that's strong! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Mark Henry]

Let it soak, I tried it overnight but really you only need to soak it for a couple of hours.

It doesn't need much help, but you still need to do a once over with the toothbrush.
Note on this one I didn't even take it apart till it had soaked a bit.

[Mark Henry]

Before and after pic's of the 40's

[Mark Henry]

Although the 40's don't look that dirty they are. That dirt you see is from the bowls

[Mark Henry]

This is the filth from one carb. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon8.gif)

[Mark Henry]

Here's the bad, first this is not a Weber OE part. They are stacks that were made by Gene Berg, I don't know for sure if it is cadmium plating but it reacted strongly with the Pine-Sol.

The one on the right is how it should look, but I did notice till it was too late that it was turning black. the second one I watched carefully and it started to bubble right away. Within a couple of minutes it went from a goldish colour to silver. If I had of left it in much longer it would have gone black like this one. So far I haven't been able to remove this tarnish.

So you should test small areas before you dive in.

[Mark Henry]

Now I'll have to clean the rest of the engine (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[Mark Henry]

Once I had them clean I throughly rinsed them in water and blew each part out.
The jets didn't come as clean, but with just a few seconds of polishing them with a rag they were clean as a whistle.

[Eddie914]

Wow!

Great find.

Look like if you only dip Aluminum, Pot Metal and Brass it works great and is not overly corrosive.

Plus the price is right ... perfect for CSOB teener wrenches.

Cheers,

Eddie

[Mark Henry]

This stuff is amazing, in fact I'm going to fill my parts washer with it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (edit, no I'm not, loses it's "oomph" after 3 days (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) )
I love the smell of Pine-Sol in the morning (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Right now I'm testing a piece of magnesium and a strip of factory painted sheetmetal.

[Mark Henry]

Plus the price is right ... perfect for CSOB teener wrenches.

$12 Worth of Pine-Sol, you can get it cheaper at Costco.
Reusable, I just filtered it with a old T-shirt, oil floats so I just skimmed the surface like a BP executive. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (edit like a BP exec it doesn't last that long.)

[Mark Henry]

Well I have to say no to the parts washer, this stuff seems to lose it's "oomph" after 3 days. I don't know if it's the grease or time, but it's not cleaning near as good now. I'll get some fresh Pine-Sol before I do the other carb. So I'll be into about $24 for 4 carbs (2 sets).
I added this to the first post as a "con".

[VaccaRabite]

So, if PineSol works... I wonder how well Simple Green would work?

Zach

[Root_Werks]

That's a pretty cool thread!

I've recently cleaned carbs and they didn't come out looking nearly as nice as yours.

I'll have to remember this for my next go-around.

[Mark Henry]

I've used simple green, Berrymans and Carb-out dips, and various aerosols, this is the best stuff to date (when it's fresh).
Big plus is it's nonflammable.

[Mark Henry]

Please review the first post as I'm adding pro's and con's as I see them.