Anything wrong with using vinegar to polish carbs?

[sham]

Seeing as I had some success using vinegar removing rust and general grim from bolts and brackets, I'm wondering if anyone sees an issue with using the same ingredients to clean my carbs. I'm thinking I can only clean the exteriors with this, as the baking soda I'll have to chuck on it after will be a hassle to clean out if it got inside...

 

[CXPHREAK]

I clean carbs by soaking them for days in white vinegar, - they'd have to be in there a long time tom do them any harm. You don't need baking soda, unless you want to soda blast the carbs.

Baking soda is vinegar and/or water soluble, so no worries getting it out of the carbs. I've soda blasted inside carbs, not a problem.

Vinegar also neutralises in water.

 

[sham]

Oh, vinegar neutralizes in water? I thought the whole point of the baking soda was to neutralize the acid from the vinegar? But yeh, it does work really well for cleaning aye.

 

[rockcitycafe]

the crap on and in carbs is usually a product of gasoline, so waxy varnish type junk, getting rid of it requires a solvent that's compatible, I don't know if vinegar is, you'd probably have better luck soaking it in carb cleaner overnight

 

[CXPHREAK]

Best is to soak in vinegar first. This disolves the minerals that solvents often won't touch. [ie that white crap]
But... you should also use at least aerosol carb cleaner and compressed air to finish up, this gets the resins and varnishes etc. Be prepared to put between half and a full can through each carb at intervals to allow it to soak and go again. This is best done in cool weather as carb cleaner evaporates really quickly in the heat and it's hard to keep the carb wet.

 

[my-79-750-k]

Mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, MEK, toluene, etc. Then soak them for a day in distilled vinegar, then rinse and blow dry with compressed air. Gets rid of anything.

 

[sham]

The carb itself isn't that dirty - bits of stuff that could do with a soak I'm sure, but not like some of the ones I've seen people post up. The vinegar is just a gentle acid that seemed to work really well when I soaked my bolts and brackets in it, after a night, I just scrubbed off the rust, rolled the parts in baking soda and then wiped it down with a cloth. They came up looking like new.

Yeh, I took the carb apart a bit more after studying the parts diagram, and think I will give it another soak. What I found from last time, seeing as I'm using it in a spray rather than liquid to soak, the gunk dissolves but then sites wherever the carb cleaner is pooled, so I'll probably have to wipe it off or something. I was originally just thinking of using vinegar on the outside to clean it up (all that black stuff) but yeh, maybe a soak would through would work too. I assume all the plastic O rings will have to be removed...

Thanks.

 

[Kong]

Why on earth would you soak them in vinegar, something that you only hope will be effective, when you know you can go to any auto parts store and buy a gallon jug of carburetor cleaner with a dip basket included for about $20 and it will last you for years if you put the lid back on when you're done using it. Personally I don't think its much different to soak your parts in vinegar than it would be to smother them with tomato catsup, which might work, after all its acidic too - who knows?


Seriously, why mess around with home remedies when there are tried and true products on the market that you know will work as advertised?

 

[CXPHREAK]

Vinegar works well, there's one reason to use it.
I'm in south Australia where the only way I can source carb cleaner is by the 20 litre drum or in aerosol cans. Either way it's pricy so I use the aerosol.

 

[sham]

Lol I'm from Australia too. But I was initially referring more to the exterior, which having seen photos of people soak in carb cleaner, I don't think you can say turns out sparkling clean? I know people then go through the whole polishing process, but I just think vinegar could cut down on some of that, especially since I don't have these buffing tools and what not.

 

[CXPHREAK]

Steel wool and autosol. ;D