Cleaning Carbs

[spookefoote1956]

Here's a question. If petrol's dead good for cleaning out crap from carbs; how come I've got to clean out my carb of sticky crap!?

[cfaber]

Here's a question. If petrol's dead good for cleaning out crap from carbs; how come I've got to clean out my carb of sticky crap!?

It's not? Strip down. Soak in degreaser and then ultrasonic in hot mild soap solution 👍

[Plugsnpoints]

My top tip is when you lay any petrol engined vehicle up is to run the unleaded completely dry, then put a pint or two of proper lawnmower petrol in the tank. Then fire it up and leave it.

It has a shelf life of five years. I realise it's expensive (about £20 a gallon) but I saves so much cleaning and stripping down each year with machines laid up for many months, even years. It really does make life easier.

Unleaded petrol goes off after a few months. I have proved it for the past three years. My mowers and four stroke strimmer never fail to start every Spring. I stripped a carb down from a mower running on mower fuel from new for 15 years and it was immaculate with no corrosion.

Obviously it's not feasible to run a motorbike on it before anyone says it!

[clive]

Here's a question. If petrol's dead good for cleaning out crap from carbs; how come I've got to clean out my carb of sticky crap!?

Here is an answer. The crap in the carb is the deposit left when petrol evaporates. Generally the crap wont come out with more petrol, although it does clean oil and oil sludge quite well.