Soaking carb with plastic parts

[w2much]

I have been using Berrymans parts cleaner for a while now. It says to remove plastic parts. Some carbs do not allow for their removal. What is your thought on this.? Has anyone ruined their carb? I have not had any problems but it always worries me when I put them in for a soakiing.

 

[dingbat]

The good part of plastic carbs is that they don't corrode so the is no reason to soak them. Remove the jets, spray liberally with carb cleaner then blow dry with compressed air. Clean jets with welding tip cleaners and reassemble

 

[Frank Acampora]

The cleaning solution manufacturer knows that some plastics are affected by the solvent. It does not know which plastics are used in various carbs so as a liability limiting device the manufacturer states to remove all plastic parts. ( "Your solution dissolved my carb. parts" "We told you it would! Right there on the label")

You do not know if the plastic parts will be affected. If you absolutely can not remove parts then switch to a safer solvent. Not much of a stretch of imagination there.

 

[robert graham]

The Berryman's B-12 solvent is a pretty stout/aggressive chemical mix....for carbs with plastic parts maybe better be on the safe side with some Naptha or Kerosene type cleaner....an ultrasonic bath would also increase the cleaning of these less-aggressive chemicals

 

[gm280]

Oh yes this does bring back some...well...funny memories now. But it wasn't so funny back then.

Back when I was flying R/C aircraft (decades ago now) there was a carb that hit the market that everybody just had to have on their engines. It was called a Perry Carb. And the carb was built out of a base of plastic that was impervious to the Alcohol, Oils and Nitro Methane fuels we run through them. A friend of mine had such a carb and decided to take it off the engine and clean it.

He put it in the typical carb cleaners where you soaked them for a while and then used compressed air to blow them out and clean. However, when he went to take the carb out of the cleaner solution, there was no carb anymore! Just a few metal parts was all that was left. And that little carb cost about $50 bucks back then. That was a huge amount of money. Sounds funny now, I will admit, but it really wasn't that funny then.

So, if you carb does have plastic parts, I'd forgo the cleaner with the warnings and use something else. I'm sure your carb cost more the $50 bucks! JMHO!

 

[boobie]

I've found that BRP'S Engine Tuner is a real good cleaner for soaking a plastic carb in. It cleans it good and if you happen to forget it in the cleaner, nothing will melt or be destroyed.

 

[w2much]

I soaked the carb for 4 hours, no harm. "Plastic" includes many different types of ........well.......... plastic. Its a pretty broad term. I believe the parts on a my carb are a nylon delrin or something other than plastic as we know it. Thanks for your replies.