Cheap carb cleaner.

[Guest]

Stole this from another forum, looks like a good idead to me....
Soda blaster

[TheCafeKid]

Oi, doesnt soda eat aluminum?? Or is it not THAT kind of soda??

[KiwiGS]

Baking soda won't hurt the aluminum, it might dull highly polished aLuminum but then again if it were highly polished you wouldnt be cleaning it I guess...

[Dogma]

I bought the $9.99 blaster from HF and some baking soda to try a couple weeks ago. I tried it on an old points cover with pretty impressive results. It doesn't seem cut much, but it definitely leaves a nice bright satin finish. I was going to post pics in my overhaul thread after I used it on the carbs, but I've been too short on time to get much done.

The bag on the gun I got empties pretty quickly. I think I might be able to get half a carb body/bag.

Now that I think about it, I don't know if that cover still had any clear coat on it... Anyhow, I'll post pics of the carbs when I hit them.

[Mysuzyq]

We had a thread earlier about this method....looks pretty good!

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=150165

Tony.

[KiwiGS]

We had a thread earlier about this method....looks pretty good!

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=150165

Tony.

I missed it first time around ..........

[rideOn]

i'm waiting for mrs. santa claus to bring me a new pancake compressor. then i'll give 're a try.

[reddirtrider]

Any blaster requires a LOT of air, so get the biggest tank you can or you'll be waiting quite a while between bursts.

[spyder2120]

i soda blasted my carbs last winter using a full sized gun. worked great. i think ill pick up the hf one that is smaller because ill use less baking soda. well worth the results.

[spyug]

It looks good but I wonder how easy and effective it really is. I bought a small hopper sandblaster gun to have a go at the scale on the headers of the Kat project and I wasn't overly impressed. It did about 50 % of what I needed and used about 5 pounds of sand. It seemed to work for a second or two then you had to shake it and it might work again for a few more seconds. Quite frustrating. In addition, the media goes everywhere. I did mine in the driveway and there is sand everywhere including in the garage ( and I even had the door shut). I didn't have a hood on but wore a mask, hat and goggles and I had sand everywhere. I'm still picking sand out of my navel 4 days later.

I think if you made a blast cabinet it would probably work and would be cleaner and tidier. With soda being light it would float around in clouds and disperse everywhere.

I wonder if any other media might work any better maybe shells or corn husk. don't know just spitballing here.

Cheers,
Spyug

[sschering]

Blast Cabinet is the best way to go with sand, or glass beads..

HF has a nice bench top one on sale for $139

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42202

They also have a new Soda Blaster out and they now sell soda media 50lb for $35

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=66742

[gert du prez]

When blasting the carbs with the soda, does anything need to be covered ? or can the inside of the carbs (ports etc.) be left open ?
how do you get the soda out of all these holes afterwards ? clean it with gasoline ?

[Pete Logan]

When blasting the carbs with the soda, does anything need to be covered ? or can the inside of the carbs (ports etc.) be left open ?
how do you get the soda out of all these holes afterwards ? clean it with gasoline ?

AFAICS nothing needs to be covered, and soda is water soluble, so just clean the carbs with warm or hot water, then dry with compressed air.

Looks pretty good method to me. I wonder what 'baking soda' is in French

[razooki]

I wonder what 'baking soda' is in French

Bicarbonate de soude.

[Pete Logan]

Bicarbonate de soude.

Why, thank you, kind sir