carburetor cleaning


  #1  
Old 02-06-04, 02:05 PM
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re: important carburetor tip

Hello:

Snoman will laugh at my stupidity on this one.

The carb on my Ariens was "surging" a bit and not running evenly so I added a very "tiny bit" of Gumout to the fuel.

OK, I did know better but we have been hammered with snow and I was tired and too lazy to rebuild the carb. BUt the very minor surging drove me absolutely nuts.

Good thing I have a full carb kit here now--as I have no choice at this point, and MUST rebuild it.

It's 39 degrees farenheit here now and raining--and creating havoc on roofs etc.


Products like Gumout are NOT recommended for small engines and eat the "you know what" out of all the rubber parts etc.

I could be wrong but would like the opinions of Cheese and Snoman on this issue.

Cheerio,

Snowman53
 
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Old 02-06-04, 05:41 PM
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snowman53
There are usually two things that I might do when this happens to me. If after setting the rpm at 3600 and tweaking the high speed screw and no success I can either resoak the carb overnight or pull the valve cover off and check the cold clearances.
Alot of times the vavle specs aren't good enough and a good lapping can do wonders plus you get to clean all the carbon out of combustion chamber and check the condition of the cylinder wall.
Some times it can possibly be ignition related but I haven't had that happen too often.
Let me know how you make out.

snoman (the other guy)
 
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Old 02-06-04, 11:03 PM
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Hi Snowman53!

I have never heard of gumout hurting the carb parts in any way, but I don't know of anyone around who uses it. I would think they would make sure the addative wouldn't hurt rubber before placing it on the market, (since almost all fuel systems include rubber somewhere) but who knows???
 
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Old 02-07-04, 07:15 AM
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Not likely the carb cleaner distroyed any rubber parts. What is likely is the carb cleaner did not fully dissolve any gum or varnish which was gumming up the fuel system.

Any partially dissolved gum, varnish or debris that was moving around in the fuel system is stuck some where in the fuel system. Most likely in a fuel jet or passage way.

Adding a carb cleaner into the fuel in small amounts is not often the best means to use. Spraying the product directly into the fuel system through the fuel adjustment screws works better.

Once the cleaning is allowed to set for ten to fifteen minutes, running the engine through all the speed settings several times helps to flush through any loosened gum or varnish immediately.

Dilution of carb clean in the manner used and described above is not recommended as the means to clean or flush a carb on a small engine. Directly spraying the product full strength is okay.

There is no chemical evidence any carb clean will distroy carb rubber parts. Never any found in any product testing either.

Improper fuel to cleaner ratios have shown evidence of incomplete cleaning as described above as well as related fuel flow problems after incorrect usage. Excessive product usage did not show any evidence of causing any carb rubber parts to fail.

At this point Snowman53 and not knowing what the running is running like after the carb cleaner was used as it was, carb rebuilding is highly suggested.

Regards & Good Luck. Sharp Advice.
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