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Surprise inside the Carbs

6K views 53 replies 20 participants last post by  Led 
#1 ·
Bought a motor and decided to final take a peak, fresh rebuild, low hours, but its been sitting a bit. Started with the carbs, check out what was in the bowls...

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#2 · (Edited)
That suks.

I rebuilt a bunch of carbs this spring that had similar issues as yours, but to a much lesser degree. They had a white granular jello substance in them...so kinda like yours but a little more jello'y (I'll make it a word...lol) and not as dry as yours. A few of these carb's sat for just 7-8 months.

Never saw this until Ethanol (E-10) flooded our area.

Note: A few had Stabil (ethanol type) and a few had Starbrite added to the gas before put away. I can confirm this on several as I was there for the treatment.

Edit in: Not my pic nor carb I had worked on, but exactly the substance (but in a lesser degree) I saw in most of those carbs. YUK !
 

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#3 ·
They were smuggling cocaine???
 
#4 · (Edited)
If you take the jelly and put it under a powerfull enough microscope, you will see its alive. Think about how they make ethanol. And the gasoline has no effect on the little bastards.
At the
Budweiser plant here in So Cal, there is a catch moat all the way around the brew houses to catch any liquid from leaving th building and finding its way into the storm drains on the property. All the water used to hose down the brew houses has to caught and not allowed off the plant property. Its all considered bio hazard. The jelly will form with a couple ounces left in a brown beer bottle left in the dark for a couple months too.



 
#5 ·
At the Budweiser plant here in So Cal, there is a catch moat all the way around the brew houses to catch any liquid from leaving the building and finding its way into the storm drains on the property. All the water used to hose down the brew houses has to caught and not allowed off the plant property. Its all considered bio hazard.
So do they filter that "hose down" water and put it into the beer?
 
#8 ·
they were suppose to be running race fuel, do not the particulars, but both carbs and both bowls were full of this powder, I have the parts soaking in chem-dip and gas, hoping to get them back together tonight or tomorrow.
 
#13 ·
Everybody so quick to blame ethanol on every problem related to fuel.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Try soaking the block in a 50-50 solution of CLR and water. If the stuff is inside the main well with the emulsifier tubes, the blocks could done. Its almost impossible to save them with out pulling the emulsification tube out. And then you need well plugs even if you get the tube out in one piece.
But sometimes with repeated soakings and flushing and soaking you can get it cleaned out.
 
#15 ·
I don't get it cause we have had E10 for years here in MI. and I have never seen anything like the stuff I see posted on the net. I'm starting to think you guys in the southern part of the country have some additives in the fuel that is doing the damage not the ethanol.
 
#16 ·
Conditions have to right. Heat, humidity etc.The jelly isn't commom but it does happen. I had a dirt bike that had a green mossy looking thing grow in the float bowl once, in about 3 months. Crazy shit happens.
Like I said, that thing probably sat outside in the rain with no air cleaner and kept filling the floats with water. You don't get that from one bowl full of evaperating fuel, I don't care what the fuel was.
 
#21 ·
the Chem Dip and Gas, was the first treatment, I will get the CLR and water out tonight, the gas is primarily to help eat off the suck ass blue paint on the main body.

I have enough extra holley parts laying around that I can replace the the blocks and bowls if I have too. I check on the parts last night, gave them a little swirl and they still look rough.

Cold weather is coming...plenty of time in the shop with the heater on...
 
#24 ·
i've never seen this in a bg carb, especially mine. i have seen it to varying degrees in holleys, carters, and like gn mentioned, in several on/off road bike carbs. i don't think it's related to any specific carb - you can grow this shit in pretty much any carb. worst i ever saw was a honda 175 that i bought for $50 because "it won't run"... that crap had grown into the head. and that was 20 years ago. and yeah, it ran great after i cleaned it all up.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Alexi, my gut tells me this was more of a time thing, not just moisture. Like I told LED, you can soak that thing in gas and parts cleaner for days and never dent that stuff. Might as well be soaking a rock. He did it to clean f paint and that cool. But it needs something that goes after oxides. That carb could have started that long ago and time allowed it to get worse and worse.
Sitting water/moiture started it. It probably started while stored. But it didn't have to get a lot of moistuire in it once it was started. It never sleeps.

But time did that. It didn't get like that from sitting one winter.


Your right. Crazy stuff happens in stored boats, and I imagine you have some stories you could tell.;)



 
#39 ·
I yea! We are still wondering how rat terds got into our buddies float bowls after sitting a year! Did the rat inject its terd in the fuel inlet? I am serious! Removed bowls and several droppings?? Anyway! Not sure what else to use that won't damage the rest of that housing?!
 
#40 ·
Thats an easy one Alexi. The little sumbiatch used the vent tubes as a toilet. Probably just a lost domestic rat that was potty trained:hmmm:

We had a engine go dead lean in one hole during the enduro 4 years ago. Just torched on hole. Others were perfect if a little rich. The torched one was almost carbon free and what was there was white. Running a T ram with 2 850s. When I opened the carbs, there was a grass reed stuffed in the jet over that cylinder. Straight down the vent tube and into the jet.

Toilet bowl cleaner, or CLR( I ahave had better luck with the CLR on the serious stuff like that) will usually get it without damaging the carb body, if it isn't eaten too bad already. May take a few soakings if it looks like that inside the main/emulsion wells. And it probably does!
 
#42 ·
Rat turds in the carbs are actually pretty common.
 

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#47 ·
carb crud

Last few years I have been good about draining my bowls and fogging the engine if it gonna sit up any time and all I have had is some very fine white dusty residue inside the float bowls when I go to run it again. Heck, last year, I even took the carb off and brought it inside. I talked to an uncle today who has been fighting this kind of jelly crud like in the pics in his outboard rig for two years- got it all crudded up and has spent good money after bad trying to find a shop capable of straightening it all out. He said that he has started buying a "non ethanol" marine fuel to see if it helps his situation. Whatever the problem is, this uncle is very anal about maintenance and the same things he has been doing maintenance wise with countless other boats for the last 20 years with no problems are no longer working for him with the fuel we have lately.
 
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