De-carbonizer

[Trader]

I see you can buy spray cans of "combustion chamber" cleaner....$$$$$

so what is a home brew that's cheaper and affective.

Im finally getting back to replacing the heads so I figure I may as well polish things up a bit while I'm in there.

I'm going to Lapp the valves too

[MikeWa]

Spray can of carbon blaster are sprayed or poured slowly through a fast running engine. You can substitute water in a spray bottle. Just go slow and don't hydraulic the engine.

 

Mike

[Trader]

Uhhh....thanks...but heads are on my bench...so water won't work.

😳

[djh3]

I would think some straight Sea Foam or Berrymans would do the trick with a stiff brush. Let it soak a bit and scrub.

[Flyinfool]

I have never heard of a good solvent for carbon. The best way on the bench is with abrasion.

[djh3]

That stuff we used to get in the gallon can for carb cleaning was some powerful stuff.

[gggGary]

[cowpuc]

I have used a lot of cheap spray foam Oven Cleaner from the Dollar Store thru the years - stuff worked about as good as anything I have found - spray it on - let it set and wipe off the carbon..

Another amazing cleaner that I used a lot of in bike restore for cleaning up hard core long term grease and grime is a product called "Grease Lightening" - that stuff is AMAZING - the only downfall about and warning I will tell you about Grease Lightening is it will stain aluminum pretty quickly if its left on.. I would not be surprised that Grease Lighting would also work well for decarbonization, never used it for that particular purpose - always saved my more expensive "Lightnin" for other projects and robbed the wifes oven cleaner for head work prep/clean up

[cowpuc]

That stuff we used to get in the gallon can for carb cleaning was some powerful stuff.

 

Might be thinking of "Chem-Clean",, = GOOD STUFF!!

 

Did an experiment one time using "Chem-Clean", spray carb cleaner from Auto Zone, Sea Foam and Tech Tron injector cleaner.

 

Took a bank of carbs in really nasty shape from an old 750 Honda that had been left setting with the tank about half full and the pet cock on - carbs were NASTY!!

Took the bowls off so the internals were exposed - dropped each carb and bowl into a bowl of each product.. Results were:

 

1. Chem Clean - stuff was CLEAN in 2 hours, even the jets came clean with air pressure

2. spray cleaner worked second best - took over night for shellacing in bowl and on float to come clean with out assist - jets had to be wired to clean even after over night. Another note - this cleaner was some of the old stuff (Yellow and White can) that used to burn like crazy if you got it under your wedding band - this new "dechlorinated" (or what ever they did to the good stuff) is NOT EVEN CLOSE to as good..

3. Tech Tron almost same as spray cleaner..

4. Sea Foam.. Gonna be the most hated person on the planet here but gotta say - I left the carb in the Sea Foam there for over a week and it did = NOTHING.. Well,, maybe it did loosen the shellac enough to make it scrapable clean by using my finger nail after 3 or 4 days but it didnt "dissolve" anything.. jets were still plugged solid... I was really surprised because this was with straight up Sea Foam - was expecting a different result but,, thats the way it happened with me...

 

Oh,, for another experiment I left an o-ring in some Chem Clean overnight one time - WOW = WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY COOL!!

[djh3]

Puc I'm with ya on the non-chlorinated or Enviro friendly stuff. I wont clean gum off your shoe. At the race shop we had a sponsorship from Valvoline or someone for our oil and stuff. We got our Brake Kleen from them. They sent us like 80 cases of that non chloro stuff, soap and water does a better job.

So if you dont have the bakelite floats and all parts are metal, what about laquer thinner and a touch of ATF or marvel in it?