Cleaning Carbs

[Dejavu1]

I need to remove my carbs (intact) while I'm freshening up the top of the engine (i.e. paint the valve covers, air-cleaner top plate, intake manifold, water pump, etc.). Does anyone have a recommendation for soaking the carbs to clean their exterior without damaging the internal gaskets and parts. The carbs are dialed in great, and I don't want to take a chance on messing that up, by rebuilding them. I restored the car in 1999-2000, and have put approx. 3,500 miles on it since (16 years later). Everything except the engine still looks new and fresh. The hemi-orange on the engine however has faded and/or turned more of a pinkish-orange color. It was originally painted with hemi-orange engine paint (which was correct); however, I will go back with base/clear urethane. Thx.

 

[Gpuller]

Have read that Pin-Sol works great as carb cleaner. Motorcycle guys soak them whole guess it works great. Always wanted to try it myself.
Google it and check it out.

 

[Seventy]

just to clean the outside, I would just use zep cleaner, its like a degreaser purple bottle, tooth brush and do just the outside, rinse and then coat them... carb clean will get the insides clean.. How dirty is the carb?

When I am going to detail an engine and bay, I start with everything in the car, clean the engine as you would any other time, spray it with degreaser, power wash it all off, then run it and dry it all, you know you didnt disturb anything... I would clean the carbs while on the car like normal, carb clean down the throats...

Then take all the clean parts off and detail them..

I have had good luck with plasti kote chrysler orange..

PS- taking off dirty parts increases the chances you are going to drop junk where it does not belong, start by cleaning the car really really well, I power wsh the **** out of everything then dry it with the gas leaf blower

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I use Berrman's Chemtool carburetor cleaner to clean the outside of the carbs

 

[uwss]

soak it in chemtool carb cleaner; then I used simple green. Simple green is great for cleaning firearms. Then use paper towels and wipe it clean.
You can also use an air nozzle to make sure all the passages are clear. The small cans with the little red plastic hose works good too. If you hold those cans upside down you can chill a beer to ice cold in seconds.

 

[miller]

Berryman is great for inside carbs, too.

 

[Mopar-Charger]

I used a small polish wire circle tool that connected to my dremmel. Didn't take the carb apart but hit the surfaces that needed it. Once I went through it once, I used the cloth dremmel tool and some metal polish to protect it.

Turned out very good, I did it on a carb i was going to trash just to see what I could do to it. I'll post pictures tonight.

 

[dieseldazzle]

Just the outside? If you let WD40 sit for a bit and then wipe it off long and hard the carb will turn out pretty nice.

WD40 cleans a lot of stuff, actually.

 

[CudaChick1968]

B-12 Chemtool also comes in a gallon size with a basket for small parts. It's about $30 around here and lasts a long time.

 

[resq302]

the B12 Chemtool stuff will strip the yellow zinc coating off of the plated parts. Don't ask me how I found out. Now on, I remove all the linkage and rods and such and just soak the housings as well as the jets to get that stuff clean. As long as you don't bend anything, you should have all the same adjustments as before. Just take time and count the number of turns for the mixture screws. I did that with the carb on my Dad's GTX when I rebuilt it. Carb was running great and I didn't want to mess with it but the parts needed to be replated.

 

[biomedtechguy]

I just got a gallon of denatured alcohol to clean my center carb, due to poor running performance (stuttering, popping) when running on the center carb only. I also picked up the Walker carb rebuild kit: 15395A and denatured alcohol is one of 3 solutions they recommended cleaning with.

 

[CudaChick1968]

One of my side benefits here is that I can put it back. :-D

Seriously though, the stuff doesn't have to soak long.