Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Before soaking your carbs remember to remove your throttle shaft bearings so you don?t wash the lubrication out of them.

SADLOTUS wrote:Boiled mine in a strong lemon juice and water mix..... worked a treat, not shiney but clean and grease free.

Some use vinegar, others add a charge (some use a little 9v, others full 12v). Sonic or agitation of any sort helps

Solvents are fine, similar to any foreign particles (soda etc) best to be very thorough cleaning prior to assembly

prezoom wrote:After lunch with a bunch of old car guys, we visited one of their garages. The subject of cleaning cabs came up, and young whippersnapper of the group, opined that soaking a carb in Pine sol for a couple of days would leave it looking like new. He did advise that the steel parts would turn a little brown. I have a pair of old Webers and I think I will take the float bowl covers, strip them and give it a try. Anybody heard of this?

Rob Walker
16-4889

Known Ingredients
Ingredient.
CLEANING AGENT. ...
PINUS PALUSTRIS (LONGLEAF PINE) OIL. ...
ETHOXYLATED UNDECYL ALCOHOL. ...
PINUS (PINE) OIL and PINUS PALUSTRIS (LONGLEAF PINE) OIL. ...
BENZOIC ACID. ...
ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL. ...
SULFONIC ACIDS, PETROLEUM, SODIUM SALTS.

Turpentine might be better
As the Benzoic Acid it caustic

Despite the reservations of many on this forum In the use of a blast media l find that its the most efficient way of cleaning a carburettor body. The use of the correct media will also give you the best finish.
Obviously great care has to be taken to ensure that absolutely no media can contaminate the internals but this can be done relatively easily with suitable blanking plugs, plates and screws. The larger holes l use engine core plugs (both the cup and saucer type) as these can be found in a perfect push fit size , rubber blanking grommets l use for the spindle bearing holes, simple steel plates for cold start location etc and original body screws or equivalent for all the threaded holes.
I appreciate that not everybody has easy access to a blast cabinet but most of us are capable of the preparation required prior to the blasting operation. Finding someone who can carry out the blasting shouldn?t be too difficult.
I use a 400/600 grade glass bead which is like a fine sugar grain. The first stage should be done with a glass bead that has already been used on steel so that it has shattered and has sharp edges. This makes it far more efficient in the cleaning process but leaves a dull finish to the alloy. The second stage of blasting is to empty the cabinet and refill with fresh bead of the same grade. A second pass with the new bead gives it just the correct surface finish.
Blasting sounds like quite an aggressive process but good results can be achieved at quite a low air pressure.


Nick

Nice job Nick!