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Pine Sol for carb cleaning?

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Where have you been all my life. I haven't had to deep clean a carb in a while, and back when I did it more frequently I use to go over to a bike mechanic buddies house that had some berryman carb dip. He ran out of the old stuff and said you can't get it anymore, but he told me to try pinesol. So I went to the corner store, bought a bottle of pine sol with 1/2" layer of dust on it, and filled up the ultra sonic to let it run.

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Here's how it came out of the bath after 30 minutes. For some context, it was thickly caked with green varnish, and 2 different kinds of spray carb cleaner didn't even touch it. I didn't get a before pic, because I wasn't planning on documenting this, but picture a carb that has sat with modern gas in it for 6-7 years.....It was gross.
Ax1WRFAl.jpg


Carb reasembled, tank cleaned out of old gas, and the old mower started right up first turn of the key. I now have some happy kids that have something to drive around on.

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Now I have to pull the carb off that swisher tow behind in the background and do the same to get it running to sell. Plus another old mower I have because they both want one now.......I'll try an get a before/after pic again, as I'm sure that swisher carb is similar.

Just wanted to share, I'd never heard of using pinesol before, and was skeptical, but really impressed that it works so great. I've tried mean green, and purple power type stuff before in the ultrasonic, and while they DO work, not nearly as good as this. A task I normally dread, has now become enjoyable. Give me another week or two and I might have all the old junk around here purring like a kitten lol.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
The other benefit of Pinesol is that it's safe for rubber parts. I didn't have to completely disassemble the entire carb to get all the ruber bits out like you have to with chem dip. I'm sure there are limitations that I haven' found yet, but so far I'm blown away.

Also, not sure why my pics don't show up anymore.
 

Shoprat

Well-Known Member
I’ve been using simply green, stout mix in hot water with amazing results. Rarely do I take a carb apart, most of the time I just remove the bowl and drop a couple of the easy bits off. As you stated most times it’s a pull and running like a charm. I have been tempted to try gasoline in a baggy in hot water for 5he stubborn clean, but so far , haven’t had to. Love the ultra sonic!
 

terry_g

Ultra Member
Pinesol works better when its warm but not too hot.
A cheap Walmart rice cooker on warm mode works well.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
New stuff is apparently different and doesn't work as well from what my friends says? No idea if true, but I'm happy enough with my first pinesol experiment to try more. It's certainly much cheaper. I dragged 2 "haven't ran in years" machines up to the house today, to get them running, and do my least favorite thing to do ahead of carb cleaning and painting. Dealing with people when selling stuff...... I need to buy a tractor and the money to do so is tied up in various things around here that need to go to new owners.
 

Jswain

Joe
Be careful with pinesol something about it with some carbs and it turns the aluminum/pot metal whatever it is really chalky


I've used it before and while it did an amazing job cleaning I had a few go chalky like this. I scrubbed them out in another cleaner and they were ok but still looked chalky
 

whydontu

I Tried, It Broke
Premium Member

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Pine Sol has a pH of 10 - 11, so fairly alkali.Aluminum doesn’t like alkali, typically raw aluminum surface will develop white powder spots, extended exposure will cause the surface to pit.

OK for short exposure, make sure all of the Pine-Sol is rinsed off with clean water.

What a great post!
 

architect

Super User
Pine Sol has a pH of 10 - 11, so fairly alkali.Aluminum doesn’t like alkali, typically raw aluminum surface will develop white powder spots, extended exposure will cause the surface to pit.

OK for short exposure, make sure all of the Pine-Sol is rinsed off with clean water.

This is what happened to me when I tried to clean my carbs with Pine-Sol. White powder would rebuild despite cleaning it constantly with clean water. Any idea how to neutralize?
 
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