Cleaning 40 DCOE's

[Gordon Raymond]

Richard,
Before you go to that leval, find someone with really high presure air and have at it. You have probably softened the goop by now and all it will need is a mighty sneeze!

Gordon Raymond

[Richard2]

What's really high pressure? I'm using 115psi, of course it's a small compressor, so the volume is low.

[Richard2]

I found a guy in Bellingham with an ultrasonic cleaner. He soaked both carbs for an hour. When I got it home, the starting circuit was still plugged. Time for serious action. I drilled out the lead plug with a #19 drill. It was plugged solid. I used a wire to try and clear it, no luck. Next a small drill bit twisting it by hand, slowly working my way down through the dirt. Finally it cleared. I also had to clear down through the starter hole. I also drilled out the lead plug for the hole that joins the 2 holes in the bottom of the bowel. It was ok.

Now, to plug the holes back up. I very carefully continued to drill until I just reached the first connecting hole. Then using a M5X0.8 tap, I tapped out the hole. I couldn't buy a bottom tap, so had to grind off the starting tap to make one. I then installed with blue locktite, set screws. I tested the holes again with air and they are all clear. This carb was really plugged up, but at least now it's clear.

Next after reassembly and installation, I get to try Gordon's instructions for setting up the carbs.

[Gordon Raymond]

WOWOWIE! MAJOR PLUMBING NIGHTMARE! Honestly, I never had one that bad that actually ran! Really amazing! What kind of crud came out? If you don't have #4 lead shot, JB weld works good and sort of looks like the lead plugs too. I do like your industry with the set screws.
Gordon Raymond

[Gordon Raymond]

Richard,
A thought. Does your car use a pressure reg. fuel filter? (FISPA FRB11)
Hows that filter? Front or rear carb plugged? Fuel tank ever drained or cleaned? I'm curious where the crud came from that just plugged up one carb. Gordon Raymond

[Alfar7]

I like to hear tales of industrious effort, & hard work.
A couple of days before I start to think about working on really ugly carbs I put then in a bucket & flood them with a mixture of 1/4 vinegar & 3/4 water. That softens & eliminates the corrosion & then the cleaning tank and Alumaclean gets the rest. Hopefully. Haven`t had to do any mining. Have eye dropped Castrol Purple into some areas.
That Sonic cleaning is a good idea. I`ll stick my bucket in front of the radio & turn it up the next time, & see how it works for me...
RJ
RJR Racing

[Gordon Raymond]

RJ,
Have you followed this thread? What a mess! Can you believe it ran with all those passages blocked? I've restored to new a bunch of the rare Webers, but have never seen one plugged up that bad. I like the industry of the set screw application, I've always made lead plugs from #4 lead shot. The set screws can be removed without pulling the carb's if need be. Hope this does the trick for Richard! Gordon Raymond

[Richard2]

Here's the set screws installed, and one sitting on top so you can see the size. The forward/back hole was plugged solid from one end to the other with brown crud. It looked a little wet at the end where the hole is in the bottom of the bowel, however from the look of it, nothing I did touched the rest of it. I had to continually remove the drill bit I was using by hand to clean out the flutes. The crud would jam solid in the flutes.

Also a pic of the carbs back on the car.

[Richard2]

Gordon,

The screens on the fuel inlet to the carbs were clean. No sign of anything. The front carb was the one that was plugged solid, however, after the Gum Out I blew dirt out of the bottom passages in the rear carb also. I bought the car in Berkley last May and drove home, about 1300 miles. It's always been hard to start, but not this bad. It hasn't had much use due to all the work I've done to it. Maybe it'll get some use soon.

[Green Berlina]

Just been reading thru this thread and wondered if my Dellorto's could be suffering from a similar blockage in the hard to access plumbing department? Do Dellorto's have a similar pipe/tube/passageway that could also get blocked in this way? Although i've stripped and cleaned all the obvious stuff, I never gave it a thought that there could be "secret passageways" that can only be accessed by removing blanks of leadshot.....

[beatle_bayly]

I'm very wary of putting carbs into an ultrasonic cleaner. I once saw a carb (not an Alfa carb) that had inadvertantly been left in a cleaner for about 3 days.

All the steel balls used to block the machining passages had vibrated loose and either fallen out, or were very loose in the alloy body. The carb was completely trashed, though very clean !!!

[Gordon Raymond]

Now you know why you only do it a short while and with a petro based solvent. It is possible to loosen butterfly screws and wear bearings and the center shaft bushing. If an hour does not loosen the crud, it's time for another approach. Worked for Richard.
The Dellorto's that are the DCOE pattern have the same plumbers nightmare secret passages and can require the same procedures. Gordon Raymond

[Green Berlina]

Richard2, Hows your Berlina 2000 starting these days? all has gone quiet for a while. Just thought i'd let you know I think i've finally solved my poor starting problem. After some minor tinkering around in the fuel delivery department (and partly by luck) I noticed that the spring loaded ball in the top of my fuel filter housing was free to move about, being a little curious of this I had a route through the boxes of spares that came with my car and found a spare filter housing which had a spring both beneath the ball bearing and above the diaphragm whereas on the original one the lower spring was missing. Having now fitted the good one the engine fires at the first turn of the key. sometimes continuing without fault and sometimes stalling but starting again easily, this I think is more down to "operator error" and infrequent use as it seems to get better the more I use it on a daily basis and get the knack of starting a real engine instead of one that is managed by all manner of electronic trickery as on modern cars.

[180OUT]

Quote:

That Sonic cleaning is a good idea. I`ll stick my bucket in front of the radio & turn it up the next time, & see how it works for me... RJ RJR Racing

[Richard2]

Well, I thought if I used some old rap music with the newly band words, the crud would come out in revolt.