Cleaning one of those $2 IOLA carbs

[Dennis L Oberer]

Hi guys.

I followed Vince's comments closely but I dont have access to carbon rods that I can find.

So I thought..what the heck...its only a $2 junk Zenith anyway; and I put some Hydrochloric Acid (Muratic) in a plastic pail and some water and Pool PH + in another pail.

I dipped a REALLY RUSTY carb casting in the acid and it boiled like a witches brew for about 5 minutes and then picked it out with a needle nose and dipped it into the PH+ mixture for a few minutes until it stopped foaming.

Took off all the rust, most of the old paint, and seem really clean to me. I wiped it down with a towel.

I will drill out the brass plugs and dip again and run drills through the passages.

And then put some flow tested jets or the originals back in.

So...what is wrong with the HCL and PH+ dipping I did? I cannot see how the carb will be damaged.

I am going to spray down the interiors with Penetrating Oil and then prime and paint the exteriors with Black Laquer.

If I have done something not recommended please explain?

I will post a pic of the finished carb tomorrow or the next day.

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

[gilitos]

That's a fine method for removing rust...called pickling, by the way. Just neutralize it well and wash and rinse thoroughly when you're done. I like to follow with a phosphoric acid wash (like DuPont Metal prep) for extra corrosion resistance and paint adhesion.

[Kevin in NJ]

In the long term there is an issue.

Unless you fully remove the products of the reaction you will have trace amounts of the Chloride on the surface of the metal that will mix and form new acid. This will start rust and undermine small areas of paint.

If you dip it in the electrolytic rust removal tank the current flow will remove the excess Cl ions and what ever else ended up on the surface when you did the PH correction. This should leave only steel on the surface.

I am not chemist. This was the result of what I learned while reading on the electrolytic rust removal process. If I got something wrong please correct me.

[Brian in Wheeling]

Don't see anything wrong with it as long as you completely neutralize the acid. Use outdoors too for fumes. Also timing is important. You would want to pull it just as soon as the rust is gone, but not before the acid would start on the good iron!

[Model T Monte]

Don`t try aluminum or pot metal. Back in the day,(as my boys speak) there were many aluminum hard hats dipped into the caustic barrels to clean them, but they got thin really fast. We suggested it to the worms that we didn`t like on a regular basis. Another old occaisonal Vierson-Cochran hand, Monte

[ursus]

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Muriatic or pool acid is very effective but problematic. Cast iron is much more porous than it appears and the acid can become well embedded and continue to eat away at the metal, especially the brass plugs. Just be sure to leave it in the neutralizing alkali solution at least twice as long as you pickled it in acid. I like to follow the final water rinse with an overnight immersion in acetone to be sure that all the water is pulled out of the casting.

[ken ct]

Originally Posted by Dennis L Oberer

Hi guys.

I followed Vince's comments closely but I dont have access to carbon rods that I can find.

So I thought..what the heck...its only a $2 junk Zenith anyway; and I put some Hydrochloric Acid (Muratic) in a plastic pail and some water and Pool PH + in another pail.

I dipped a REALLY RUSTY carb casting in the acid and it boiled like a witches brew for about 5 minutes and then picked it out with a needle nose and dipped it into the PH+ mixture for a few minutes until it stopped foaming.

Took off all the rust, most of the old paint, and seem really clean to me. I wiped it down with a towel.

I will drill out the brass plugs and dip again and run drills through the passages.

And then put some flow tested jets or the originals back in.

So...what is wrong with the HCL and PH+ dipping I did? I cannot see how the carb will be damaged.

I am going to spray down the interiors with Penetrating Oil and then prime and paint the exteriors with Black Laquer.

If I have done something not recommended please explain?

I will post a pic of the finished carb tomorrow or the next day.

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

Dennis dont paint with laquer,use Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy in black. shows a refridgerator on the can. Its a hard enamal finish and holds up pretty well on carbs. Takes 24 hrs to dry good. ken ct. Home Depot usually has it.