With the release bearing exploding in my '67 bus, taking out the pressure plate I decided now was the time to clean and service my Weber 42 DCNF's...of course I got carried away and had to clean my /6 40 IDA's as well. I've been reading on the internet (and I've heard mention of it here) about using Pine-Sol cleaner to clean carbs, so I felt i'd document my job for this site.

Pro's: it's very cheap and most important it cleans like a champ!.
It's amazing how well it works in all the nooks and crannies.
Although it's slightly caustic it's no where near as nasty as most carb cleaning chemicals and it doesn't seem to hurt rubber parts like diaphragms.
Nice fresh pine scent .
Big safety plus it's Nonflammable!

Con's: It does seem to react with cadmium plating, it doesn't seem to bother the Weber plated parts too much, but my Gene Berg DCNF stacks really reacted to it.
Leaves a film on brass parts, remove them or you have to polish them afterwards, but it does not harm them.
It smell's like pine, real strong, in fact it smells like the janitors room. If you have an attached garage I'd do it outside.
You will get it on you and you will also smell Pine-Sol fresh, wear the gloves and some old clothes.
Loses it's "oomph" after about 3 days, I got 3 carbs done.
You must fully immerse the parts or it can leave a scum line.
You really need a compressor to blow out the passages when done.

No real rocket science here, I got the Pine-Sol and mixed it 2 parts Pine Sol to 1 part water. I used 4 liters (quarts) of pinesol. I found that this plastic waste basket was just the perfect size for the IDA /6 carbs. I had a handful of latex gloves, a couple of toothbrushes, some tools, compressor,
a table and a bag of rags.
You must throughly rinse with water and dry (blow out) the carbs when done.

Cool! I'll be doing this for the Yamaha... as soon as the weather turns foul and I can't ride my own bike.

My first victim of neglect, I haven't cleaned these puppies in at least 4 years

Hmmm. My Quadrajet could use a little freshening too...

I'll get right to the before and after shots

Got to love that pine freash scent!.....oh fuch does it sell like pine! wow that's strong!

Let it soak, I tried it overnight but really you only need to soak it for a couple of hours.

It doesn't need much help, but you still need to do a once over with the toothbrush.
Note on this one I didn't even take it apart till it had soaked a bit.

Before and after pic's of the 40's

Although the 40's don't look that dirty they are. That dirt you see is from the bowls

This is the filth from one carb.

Here's the bad, first this is not a Weber OE part. They are stacks that were made by Gene Berg, I don't know for sure if it is cadmium plating but it reacted strongly with the Pine-Sol.

The one on the right is how it should look, but I did notice till it was too late that it was turning black. the second one I watched carefully and it started to bubble right away. Within a couple of minutes it went from a goldish colour to silver. If I had of left it in much longer it would have gone black like this one. So far I haven't been able to remove this tarnish.

So you should test small areas before you dive in.

Now I'll have to clean the rest of the engine

Once I had them clean I throughly rinsed them in water and blew each part out.
The jets didn't come as clean, but with just a few seconds of polishing them with a rag they were clean as a whistle.

Wow!

Great find.

Look like if you only dip Aluminum, Pot Metal and Brass it works great and is not overly corrosive.

Plus the price is right ... perfect for CSOB teener wrenches.

Cheers,

Eddie

This stuff is amazing, in fact I'm going to fill my parts washer with it. (edit, no I'm not, loses it's "oomph" after 3 days )
I love the smell of Pine-Sol in the morning

Right now I'm testing a piece of magnesium and a strip of factory painted sheetmetal.

$12 Worth of Pine-Sol, you can get it cheaper at Costco.
Reusable, I just filtered it with a old T-shirt, oil floats so I just skimmed the surface like a BP executive. (edit like a BP exec it doesn't last that long.)

Well I have to say no to the parts washer, this stuff seems to lose it's "oomph" after 3 days. I don't know if it's the grease or time, but it's not cleaning near as good now. I'll get some fresh Pine-Sol before I do the other carb. So I'll be into about $24 for 4 carbs (2 sets).
I added this to the first post as a "con".

So, if PineSol works... I wonder how well Simple Green would work?

Zach

That's a pretty cool thread!

I've recently cleaned carbs and they didn't come out looking nearly as nice as yours.

I'll have to remember this for my next go-around.

I've used simple green, Berrymans and Carb-out dips, and various aerosols, this is the best stuff to date (when it's fresh).
Big plus is it's nonflammable.

Please review the first post as I'm adding pro's and con's as I see them.

more pics of fresh pine carbs

The diaphragms on the 40IDA disintegrated, at first I blamed the Pine-Sol, but taking the other carb apart dry I found they were trashed already . I also don't think they were OE weber anyways. Guess I need new carb kits.

Top is the diaphragm from the DCNF, it was left in Pine-Sol overnight and it's in great shape.

Hard to believe these carbs have been in service for 18 years.

Well Done! I guess I know what I'll be doing this winter
Mike

Being the cheap ass that I am...I think I figured out how to get an extra day out of the solution. This blower has a leak, I turned the regulator down to just a trickle and I have bubbles agian. Seems to be working and I wanted to drain the compressor anyways.

On the Ninja board where I hang out, they say that Simple Green will etch aluminum (so don't use it to clean wheels etc.)

Great thread! Going to have to try this on a throttle body.

Now I'm wondering if a wheel cleaner will do a similar cleaning? I've been using Meguires all wheel cleaner on my chrome Caravan wheels for years with great results. It is the only thing that will clean off the black salt scum from winter use here in MD. Also cleans up the calipers pretty well from overspray. It has a funny smell that I just can place? Safe for all wheel finishes, so should be safe for bare aluminum. I might give it a try....

Jeff

So, you just dunk the entire carb? No disassembly? Or do you pull some parts (needles, etc)?

You can dunk the whole carb to get the heavy grime, but you have to take it apart.

I can not stress how important it is to rinse throughly with water till you see no soap.
Then you must totally blow out all traces of water.

This is my rinse bucket, just clear water. I already had blasted it with water and then dunked the 40IDA body and top. You can get a good idea how much soap is still left on them.

This shows how I filtered the Pine-Sol. A real good idea, not only to keep it clean, but as you can see catch any little parts you may have missed.

Here is my second 40IDA, the bubbler trick worked, but I think not quite as well as the fresh Pine-Sol. Good enough for me and still better than any carb cleaner I've ever used before.
The amazing part is how well it works in all the nooks and crannies.

The wife just got me a big bottle of Pine-Sol. Little bottle $1 (dollar store) medium bottle was $4 and the big one was $12.
I'll have to do the math, but I think the little dollar store bottles is the cheapest.

I'm wondering if I should try to recharge the old stuff or just start with new??

You know those motorcycle guys were leaving the carbs in for DAYS, not hours. And they got really unbelievable results, if you remember the closeups in that thread. That might be the answer to your question, leave the carbs in new Pinesol until it loses it's oomph, which would be in a few days.

They also talked about the big jugs at the janitorial supply store for six bucks instead of nine. And the even cheaper generic... What's a gallon of Berryman's cost again? I think remember paying about $15 last time, but it lasts through a dozen carbs.

OK, who will be the first volunteer to leave their 40IDAs in Pine-Sol for a week?

Do you cover the container while the parts soak? That might help with its longevity.

That's true, it doesn't seem to lose it's potency in the bottle under my bathroom sink.

Thanks for the research on this one. I've got a set of triples that need cleaning bad. I'll go with the pine-sol now.

I've got to do my dirtbike carb for the winter season soon, I think i'll try this in the ultrasonic cleaner. Thanks!

I wonder what the ph is when it's new?

Just an up-date, the 42 DCNF`s are back in my bus and are working like a champ

BUT

It does leave a film on brass parts for sure, most likely only a few microns thick, but it's enough to make my float valves leak like a SOB!

I didn't notice it right away so it's a huge fire hazzard!

I know it wasn't dirt as they both were leaking, 3/4 was leaking big time, 1/2 was leaking just a bit. No big deal as a couple minutes polishing with a rag and Q-tips cured the problem, but I just want peeps to be aware of this. Remove as much of the brass jets, etc as you can or you need to polish them after cleaning.

BTW it was DBCooper that first mentioned pinesol on this board and this is his original thread.... Castor oil might work as well, it did on me
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...&hl=pinesol

I can understand this , years ago although not automotive related , one of the facilities I worked at used some orangey smwlling industrial cleaner , by the 55 gal drum , got some of it to soak pistol brass in after shooting which can get grungy if left uncleaned. Anyway that stuff cleaned the powder residue off greatly , leaving them very very bright shiny, but if left in over night it would leave some streaks and spots that would not rinse off and hand polishing wouldn't get all of them off. So yes if you leave brass parts in strong detergant it will affect the surface to a degree . I would like to have some of that stuff again , but over 10 yrs ago that place is a parking lot now. I just wondering if something such as purple power , simple green may do as well as pinesol?? Maybe try it and give some idea of outcome , but I suspect pinesol is cheaper -Csob!!

Jack / Jaxdream

Just bough a gallon of ZEP brand pinesol at the depot for 4 bucks. I'd say thats pretty cheap.

I tried the pinesol. It sucks compared to B12 Carb cleaner. I can get a gallon of B12 from my FLAPS for $19.95 B12 take much less elbow grease to clean carbs. B12 make the crud fall right off.

I’m resurrecting this thread to check if the new reformulated Pine-Sol is still effective. The stuff doesn’t have any pine oil any more.

Anyone try this lately?

Hats off to Mark starting this informative thread. I nominate this to go into the classics.