Ok i never heard of this so im running it by here before seeing if it works. I was told by an unknown bike tech to put brake cleaner in my gas to clean out the jets. To me it sounds like a bad idea all over the place. Is this guy a loon or is he tellin the truth?

 

I've personally never heard of anyone doing this, if u want to clean your jets just pull the carbs off and do it, it's not a difficult job just have to be kinda careful. Otherwise gets some dedicated fuel additive carb cleaning fluid like STP but it will really only be a bandaid.

 

Its heavily corrosive, it would eat rubber quicker than a lot of things, I would imagine.

Use it to clean the carbs once they are out if it's all you have, otherwise just strip the bike and use carb cleaner and or petrol.

 

He's talking about brake cleaner, not brake fluid. Brake cleaner is usually an aerosol, so I don't know how you would add it to gas. When you have the carbs apart, you can use it to clean the jets, but as mentioned above - try to keep it away from rubber.

 

They do sell it in different sized cans too mostly for industrial use. Adding it into fuel does sound dodgy at best, it is highly evaporating and aggressively burning not to mention a very effective solvent so in theory you might risk damaging both your pistons and cylinders due to lack of lubing and the temp. and as said it also is highly corrosive and destroys any exposed rubber seals pretty quick. Those fuel additive carb/jet cleaners normally have the smell and finger feel of diesel/kerosene and truth be told are not that effective either...

But my 2c, sounds heavily like backyard mechanics, the risk is high and the money saved compared to the real stuff dedicated for the job buys you a cup of coffee so I wouldn`t do it...

One thing that could help in cleaning the jets is two-stroke oil. make a very lean mix like 1% max, won`t guarantee much else than a smoke show for the tankful but at least doubt you`ll break anything...

 

The "mechanic" said to spray a real quick spray into gas tank and close the tank. Something about rapid gas expansion increasing presure to force gunk from jets. I never heard of it before so i personally think this guy is sniffing the cleaners

 

OMG that's about the stupidest thing I've heard for a while! First of all, all fuel injected bikes and quite a few carbed bikes have a fuel pump which would stop any possible pressure peaks, in injection systems in order to get the fuel to vapourise the nozzle pressure is usually upwards of 2 bar:s, and even in gravity fed carb systems any possible pressure increase, which in this case could only be measured in a few millibars, is vented out of the tank via the breather hose! I say by hitting the tank with a rubber mallet you'd get a bigger peak than from that! Well, at least we know what he's doing with all that stuff... I'd advise keeping him clear of any possible flames

Why not just blow compressed air into thw breather hose?! Which BTW will do nothing else than spray gas around between the fill cap, overflow your carbs and risk bulging out your tank, will do absolutely diddly to the jets.

 

Yup. Guy has no idea what he is talking about. Just take the carbs off and do it right.

 

Ya i figured as much. Unfortunately the previous owner put them on in such a way that i need a 2.5 foot long screw driver to loosen the clamps. Fun times ahead

 

Ok finally got the tool to pull carbs i pulled all 4 main jets and they were spotless. Bowls were pretty damn clean too except for the far right cylinder. Little bit of gunk in a corner.

I did however find out that someone closed the main jets by turning the jet adjustment screws all the way in. I was told they are supposed to be 2 turns out. So those should be good now. All 4 carbs seem to have good vacuum seal. Guess its time to put them back on and see if she fires up.hopefully no blown head gasket or anything.