Ok, so I know I let my rod sit over winter, and yes it got rained on a bit, but what the hell got into my fuel bowls? Something seems to have happened in the carbs that caused the metal to corrode. This crap didn't come from the fuel tank, because the filter is clean. Is this fixable, or is it time for a new set of carbs?
Isn't alcohol a wonder full thing, leaves nasty deposits, deteriorates rubber and reduces our MPG. Fugly carbs, nice looking hot rod
Looksw more like oatmeal than toast. Try soaking them in carb cleaner to see if you can salvage them.
Good one! I'll keep scrubbing, but the metal looks pitted now and I have no idea what the internal passages look like. It's worst in the front carb, and I can get around on the center carb if need be, but is there something I should have done to keep this from happening in the first place?
I've had the same thing happen recently, a newish Holley street avenger, sat for about a year and came out looking like that. Gas seems to have just eating the aluminum.
i know this sounds like snake oil but all the old time hot rod guys i know and a few ex menthanol dirt mod guys say a cap full of marvel mystery oil in the gas tank every fill up will greatly reduce this issue also some landscapers run it in all their equipment. My grand father was a trouble shooter for ford motor company on the flathead ford v8 here in ny and he swore by the stuff.when i ran alky in my dirt mod we would fill the carb with gasoline at the end of the night.
It's a combo of several things. Carb kits now available have rubber/plastic compuonds that ethanol can break down to it's component elements (at least to some degree), some of these elements when combined with water and tim become very acidic. Aluminum/potmetal does not tolerate acids. One of my friends is a textile chemist. He's a right smart fellow, and this is the explanation that he gave me. He was up set that his old dirt bike had a hole eaten in the bottom of the float bowl.
Must be that funky ARCO SoCal EC-1 fuel. I've never seen anything like that in any of my lawn equipment and they sit from early fall to late spring.
Well, my standard practice has been to use High Octane Chevron gas, a half bottle of STP octane boost and a few ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil for every fill up. It's a lot worse in the front carb than the other two. I'm starting to think that water got in and caused a bad chemical reaction. Has this happened to anybody who keeps their car in a garage and out of the wet weather?
Definitely a acid reaction with the metal to leave that much of a deposit in your bowl. I would keep her under wraps a little better could of been a bad mix of gas and who knows what but remember the rain that pours on us isnt as fresh as we would like it to be and is full of acids.
Alcohol also draws water to it, could have even drawn water vapor in through the atmospheric vents of the carb. The marvel mystery is a good idea as would be Sta-bil. Mixed appropriately it will go along way to keeping the fuel stable, even if it is alcohol based.
I experienced the same problem when I stored my car in Arizona over the summer. Come back in the fall to find the white powder substance in my float bowl, what a drag. I started running the bowl dry... no more problem.
I only use non alcohol gas and never let anything sit for more than a month with gas in the carb. If you have an electric pump, shut it off and run the gas out of the carb. Use a fogging spray like marine engines into the carb vents.
Alcohol can compound the problem, but is not necessarily the cause, water is the main culprit. I use to find that in a lot of carbs that had sat for a while, long before ethanol in the fuel. I second the soda blast idea, works pretty good.
I had to go into everything I have after the introduction of ethanol in our gasoline. The green Sta-bil for marine engines stopped future incidents for me. I put it in my T bucket on fill up, gas jugs for mowers, weedeaters, chain saw, 4 wheeler, pressure washer and generator. Another stupid politicians answer to a problem that does not exist.
The rust on the accelerator pump and other steel pieces makes me think it was filled with water. I think that they will clean up and be rebuildable but remember all those small passages that you cant see have the same shit inside inside so it's more than just cleaning the bowl and slapping a kit into it. I had a brain fart and used a gas can that had sat outside and I had the same problem. I had to rebuild my carbs twice until I figured out what happened and got rid of all the water in the tank. I glass beaded mine each time and once the water was finally removed they have performed famously. Just don't shortcut the carb cleaning process.
had a similar problem but my crap looked different. and it shriveled up the forskin on my acc pump in the float bowl scraped out This from using Sunoco's Hortheastern blend with 10% ethanol (all we can leagally buy) Unless its racing gas. www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3467&d=1189901302
did you let it sit outside with no hood!? if so the water will waltz right in though the vent hole. i used to buy/sell motorcycle carbs. in a set of four, some would have severe white corrosion in the float bowls and others would be clean. generally the carbs on the ouside of the engine were the worst leading me to believe that water is the culprit not alcohol. don't leave your car outside..... the carbs can be cleaned and rescued but it's a pain in the ass...
That describes it exactly. The center carb looks fine and the rear carb is not too bad, but the pitting is so bad in the front carb I may replace it. The car has to stay outside, but I can do a much better job of keeping the engine covered.
As already said, water damage, water intake possibly aggravated by alcohol. On the cast parts, dip in vinegar and go at the deposits with a tooth brush. Do NOT soak for long, just soak briefly, brush, rinse with hot water, and repeat until you get down to metal. Once bowl is clean, dip and rinse a few more times for whatever you cannot see down below. If you get down to clean metal before you get down to air, your carb is still in business. If you can see your feet through the bottom of the bowl during the cleanup, you are in trouble.
I had a Holley flake apart, in side the fuel also. I called Holley and found out there was a recall do to the POT METAL BEING BELOW STANDARDS. They looked up my part # and sent me a new carb over night. FREE They said there was no way to inform, that my crb was JUNK. Even though, they can track who they sold it to, and then to me! Any way this was a secert recall, ONLY IF YOU COMPLAINED. There were thousands like this sold. Google " holley carb flaking apart inside " This a known problem!
Since Ethanol does absorb moisture, I suspect some suppliers are adding water to the gas. To see what ethanol does to metals, get some E-85. Put some in sealed glass jars. One with an unplated bolt and one with a piece of aluminum. It doesn't take long for the corrosion to start. You can also try some with an air vent. The alcohol will draw moisture out of the air and hasten the process. I've done the demonstration with Heet in the yellow bottle [methanol] and Iso-Heet [Isopropyl] in the red bottle to show truckers and mechanics that the methanol that is sold for air brake systems actually damages the aluminum valves and rubber parts unless it is used in an evaporator as it was designed for. Isopropyl is much less corrosive, absorbs 5 times as much moisture and will thaw ice. I use it with air tool oil as it does dry everything out.
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