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Boiling Carbs


Hendo

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Having had the 3XV for over 2 years now Ive finally decided to delv into the carbs for a look. They were minging and Im very suprised it ran as well as it did.

Ive heard good results can be had by boiling carbs in hot water for a while to get them clean.

Ultrasonic cleaning is probably the way forward but I'd like to try some home brewed methods first if possible.

Anyone tried boiling their carbs?

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I've boiled (simmered) a carb in lemon juice before. Came out really clean and got rid of varnish build-up and staining, but went a dull grey colour. Not so bad if it won't be seen.

A mate who does a lot of classic resto's swears by Alubrite. No need to boil, just soak and give it a scrub with an old toothbrush. Rinse and repeat.

http://www.chaucerso...tner-p-271.html

I've seen litre bottles of it on ebay for around £8 I think.

I know it's another chemical but we use a heavy duty concentrated degreaser at work called Janitol Plus. It's an evil looking fluoro pink gel type stuff and it's non caustic so won't melt alloy. One of the lads used it on a Scooby engine block and it looked fantastic.

http://www.protecdir...s-Degreaser.htm

Don't use Janitol Altrans. It's mostly phosphoric acid based and will kill anything alloy.

HTH.

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On a slight side note one of the mags was on about boiling car rubbers this month with a little oil of somesort - softened em.up and restored the colour apparently. I'll dig it out later.

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On a slight side note one of the mags was on about boiling car rubbers this month with a little oil of somesort - softened em.up and restored the colour apparently. I'll dig it out later.

Wintergreen oil I think ?

I mentioned this to a mate and he said he'd heard of soaking them in acetone.

A quick Google reveals some classic owners have tried this .

I haven't though .

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Well I went for the lemon & hot water method (1 part lemon juice to 10 parts water, I didnt want to dissolve my carbs). I left them in for 10 minutes...just long enough for the girlfriend to leave the house.

I then simmered the carb in plain water on the cooker for half an hour. They have came up really well, especially with a brush over with a brass wire brush. I cleaned all the internals up by hand using carb cleaner.

I was happy with this method until I pulled the second carb apart, and found the internals resembled something that could have been pulled out of the HMS Titanic. I thought the first carb was bad enough until I dismantled this one.

So Ive ordered an ultrasonic bath and carb cleaning solution off ebay. May aswell do it properly.

Thanks for the info though.

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Well just wow!

My cheap ultrasonic bath has worked miracles on the carbs. Why didnt I buy one of these years ago?

Will update my 3XV thread at some point for those intrested.

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