Plastic Carb Body Cleaning on 200 HP

I am rebuilding all six of the carbs from my 1987 200 hp Evinrude. The manual says to 'clean all components with a 'mild aerosol solvent' and do not soak the carburetor in stong carburetor cleaner; it might remove sealing compounds. Then a picture of 'Gumout' carb cleaner is shown. Also the manual says to clean all passageways and holes with alcohol injected through a syringe. This seams confusing to me. Can I use carb cleaner or not and what is considered 'strong' and 'mild'? I really what to soak these carbs and don't feel the alcohol does much. To top it all off, when I removed the carbs I noticed the body was plastic or composite of some type! Can anyone recommend the best way (and cleaner) to throughly clean these (plastic or composite) carbs? By the way this is the first cleaning they have ever had since new. They have had lots of use and look very clean; only a dying idle problem after running is causing me to look at them.

Re: Plastic Carb Body Cleaning on 200 HP

metal parts you can soak, plastic no. i use three stands of copper stranded wire to ream out the jets, carefully. the copper is softer than the jets, so it should not damage them. then blow out the jets.

Re: Plastic Carb Body Cleaning on 200 HP

Gumout, Super Tech, over the counter spray cans are fine. Spray cans of water-based soaps are worthless.

What you DO NOT want is the gallon or 5 gallon cans with a parts basket, these acids will strip the hard anodizing off the aluminium parts and/or desolve some plastic parts.