Author Topic: Float Bowl Cleaner - And The Winner Is: (Read 17341 times)

SClay115 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 28, 2007, 07:47:00 AM »

Question for you guys, recently went through my CB350 carbs with some SG. I didn't leave them in the soak for very long at all, hour tops. Took them out, washed them off with the hose and let them dry. Thing is, I come back out this morning to find them basically covered in this white powder. Comes right off if you brush it, but it's just sort of worrisome. Should I be concerned about this? Or is this normal? I'm using undilluted SG, works like no other, but just that little thing I'm worried about..

Steve

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #26 on:** March 28, 2007, 07:50:18 AM »

My guess would be that there was still some SG residue on there if the water used to rinse was cold. Also, did you actually dry them, or just let them air dry?

SClay115 · « **Reply #27 on:** March 28, 2007, 07:56:30 AM »

I air dryed them after I washed them with the hose, well, let them air dry. Maybe I'll try some hotter water next time....or should I just use shop air?

Steve

SteveD CB500F · « **Reply #28 on:** March 28, 2007, 10:28:30 AM »

That white powder is aluminium oxide. As soon as you expose the clean aluminium to the atmosphere it will go like that. That's why engines are lacquered. The SG has cleaned all the protective coating off the carbs. You'll have to re-lacquer tham I guess - I'm sure that I read about this somewhere on the site.

Can you find it Bob?

SClay115 · « **Reply #29 on:** March 28, 2007, 01:09:53 PM »

Hm...is there any harm in leaving them bare? I don't know if I'm up for re-laquering them...

Steve

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #30 on:** March 28, 2007, 01:13:38 PM »

I cleaned mine about three years ago with Yamaha cleaner (after 20+ years of sitting). Cleaned up pretty well, a nice clean gun metal gray. I had no plans to polish them and still don't. About once a year I wipe the externals that I can get to with some thinner to keep the road gunk at bay. Still look fine to me and I didn't coat them with anything.

BobbyR · « **Reply #31 on:** March 28, 2007, 03:54:14 PM »

Quote from: SClay115 on March 28, 2007, 01:09:53 PM

Hm...is there any harm in leaving them bare? I don't know if I'm up for re-laquering them...

Steve

I don't think they are lacquered. I don't think lacquer would stand up to gasoline. I had the white powder also, I think it may be the Simple Green. It washed off with water and a brush.

zrt1 · « **Reply #32 on:** March 29, 2007, 09:05:53 AM »

For the green gas build up Ive had great luck with K&N air filter spray cleaner and let it soak for a bit.

francisew · « **Reply #33 on:** April 06, 2007, 04:21:46 PM »

After reading this thread, I went out and bought some simple green to try cleaning up things on my bike. I was really impressed by the ease with which I took off the grunge coating various things.

I first cleaned my front forks, and wheel, then I polished them using an automotive metal polish that leaves behind some kind of protective layer. Now they look better than I thought they could (they're mirror-shiny now, and were dull aluminium before).

My carbs have been leaking, and my alternator cover was covered with yellow gas-residues that I hadn't been able to completely remove previously. Now that's also looking great.

Thanks for the hint!

Francis

BobbyR · « **Reply #34 on:** April 06, 2007, 06:47:17 PM »

Francis, this club is about sharing. If you come across something let the rest of us know.

MotoRico · « **Reply #35 on:** April 12, 2007, 08:58:54 PM »

So the Simple Green is safe on the rubber and plastic parts in the carbs?

gold01ca · « **Reply #36 on:** April 12, 2007, 10:39:22 PM »

and how come it says on the simple green bottle "do not use on motorcycles"?

BobbyR · « **Reply #37 on:** April 13, 2007, 06:06:29 AM »

I never saw that. Here is a review from a Bike publication. http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/reviews/SimpleGreenAPReview.htm

USN20 · « **Reply #38 on:** April 13, 2007, 07:11:57 AM »

Quote from: gold01ca on April 12, 2007, 10:39:22 PM

and how come it says on the simple green bottle "do not use on motorcycles"?

Probably due to the side effects if used incorrectly.

Aluminum - Is it safe to use Simple Green on aluminum?

Simple Green products have been successfully and safely used on aircraft, automotive, industrial and consumer aluminum items for over 20 years. However, caution and common sense must be used: Aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green or Crystal Simple Green can accelerate the corrosion process. Therefore, contact times of All-Purpose Simple Green and Crystal Simple Green with unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green/Crystal Simple Green residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.

Source: http://consumer.simplegreen.com/

francisew · « **Reply #39 on:** April 16, 2007, 08:05:15 AM »

I just cleaned & rebuilt my carbs. I used a combination of simple green MAX and canadian tire spray carb cleaner. The spray carb cleaner was great at taking off grime on the outside, and when it didn't seem to be doing the job, I soaked parts straight in simple green. Then I sprayed them with carb cleaner to get all the water/simple green off. That seems to be the method that my mechanic and machinist friend use: use any solvent that won't damage the rubber, then rinse it off with carb cleaner to ensure no corrosion occurs later. I was actually pretty surprised that my mechanic friend just started spraying carb cleaner all over my carbs before I had pulled off any of the rubber bits...

I also took apart the pilot and choke pins in the carbs, and cleaned & replaced the o-rings inside the pilot. I was rather surprised that the o-rings in the pilot screws were a strange mix of thin and thick o-rings. I guess a previous mechanic hadn't bothered to find proper replacements...

Now my bike doesn't leak gas.

The overhaul worked *really* well. Now I'll need to get everything properly synchronized and tuned up. Unfortunately, the vacuum tool is 150$ here in Canada... so I'm not out for buying one right away.

I also wanted to mention that the K&N carb kits come with all the o-rings to replace the o-rings in the fuel and air tees between the carbs. I didn't realize that when I started out, and was fairly confused as to where I could purchase the o-rings for the tees.

Francis

ps. The front brake pads were down to the metal on the inside-right caliper. That was pretty aggravating to find out, as I had asked my mechanic if they needed changing at least 4 times last season.

At least now they're in perfect shape & I checked the runout and thickness of everything, and it all looks fine.

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #40 on:** July 22, 2007, 04:51:25 AM »

OK, I think I'm a believer now. Having seen so many references to Simple Green as an effective carb cleaner, I thought I would give it a try and post some before and after pics for any other non-believers.

Previously, I had tried Chem-Dip.. nasty! Yamaha cleaner, effective and not as nasty, but still requires some caution and not the cheapest.

An earlier post suggested full strength. Well, we keep it around for general purpose cleaning anyway (yup, had it around all the time $:-\$ ). Full strength seemed like it would be rather viscus. I found a suitable container large enough to hold and old carb body. First immersed the carb body in the container with just hot tap water. Theory being the heat might help pre-soften things. Then refilled the container with half fresh hot water and half Simple Green concentrate from a one gallon container so it would at least be a fairly warm solution. It worked very well and pretty quickly. The junker carb was not the worst I've seen, but considering how quickly it worked I'm sure it would tackle some really bad ones as well.

Rinsed it all in some hot water, blew out all the passages and Voila!

BobbyR · « **Reply #41 on:** July 22, 2007, 12:33:26 PM »

Just goes to show you that I contribute more to this forum than semi clad ladies. Thanks for the pics Bob, just shows how good the stuff works. I am gonna contact Simple Green and see if they will advertise on this site.

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #42 on:** July 22, 2007, 01:04:10 PM »

Don't sell yourself short.

Actually, I looked back at some pics of my carbs after cleaning them in Yamaha. I'm sure from a mechanical standpoint, they came out just about as clean. I have to say though, the Simple Green results were far better esthetically and safe enough for basement cleaning during the winter and I'm sure it will make short work of any number of other bike cleaning tasks.

Signed: Former Doubting Thomas

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #43 on:** July 25, 2007, 04:47:08 AM »

Chrome plating can be stripped from an object by immersing it in Simple Green for a few days.
Simple Green is an excellent means for hobbyists to strip paint off of models.

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #44 on:** August 01, 2007, 12:31:16 PM »

Quote from: Bob Wessner on July 25, 2007, 04:47:08 AM

While doing some investigation into the ingredients of Simple Green, I came across some info. on other uses. Among them;

Chrome plating can be stripped from an object by immersing it in Simple Green for a few days.
Simple Green is an excellent means for hobbyists to strip paint off of models.

The reference to models, assuming they mean, or include plastic, sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a try on something.

Well, gave the paint removal a try. I give it a qualified "yes." I had an old plastic headlight shell, orig. to my bike. It wasn't used in the restore because of two cracks around the signal stem holes, overtightened at some point I guess. I had started life as the Ruby Red, had been primed and then repainted black, rattle can I suspect. Soaking it in a 50:50 mix of Simple Green and water had no affect. At full strength, after two days, both the rattle can black and the primer had softened to the point where both coats could easily be removed with something like a Scotch Pad. The original Honda paint, so far is not affected. The after pic is how soft the affected paint is by simply dragging my fingernail through it.

I have an old, spare sprocket cover that was chromed, not very well either. I'll try that next, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

P.S. I should have been explicit about it, but there was no affect on the plastic at all and I guess that was the point of it all.

BobbyR · « **Reply #45 on:** August 01, 2007, 06:22:58 PM »

Great info Bob, With all you are using I may buy stock in Simple Green.

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #46 on:** August 01, 2007, 07:06:41 PM »

Quote from: BobbyR on August 01, 2007, 06:22:58 PM

Great info Bob, With all you are using I may buy stock in Simple Green.

Actually, haven't used that much so far. On the paint stripping, since it works only at full-strength, that could be an issue. The stuff costs about $10-$12/gal. here. You would have to get creative about how you could keep the least amount in contact with the part.

BobbyR · « **Reply #47 on:** August 01, 2007, 07:25:02 PM »

I keep the stuff I used for the carbs in containers. All full strength I will put it in a spray bottle to un grunge something.

jdigga · « **Reply #48 on:** August 02, 2007, 12:05:07 PM »

After reading this thread I realized I had a gallon in my garage, so I used some to redo my 79 carbs. I had taken them apart before and used the Gumout carb cleaner, but the results were less than stellar, not to mention the fumes were sickening. So I went over the parts again with a little undiluted SG and a toothbrush. I should have used this stuff in the first place...

UnCrash · « **Reply #49 on:** October 26, 2007, 12:34:49 PM »

Could someone that's used Simple Green confirm their long term satisfaction.

I'm gonna pull my motor, and paint it. While the carbs were off I thought I would give em a soak in Simple Green to freshen up their appearance and get the gunk out.

Do I need to clearcoat them after with some lacquer?

News:

Author Topic: Float Bowl Cleaner - And The Winner Is: (Read 17341 times)

zrt1

gold01ca

USN20

jdigga