Pulled apart the neighbor boy's carb in search of an idle gremlin. The bowl, the float,
float pin, and outside of the jets were covered with a white crust/scale. I have cleaned many carbs over the years, but they have always been filled with a goo or varnish.

All I can think is I did a quick fix Seafoam treatment right into the carb to get him running 2 weeks ago. He uses my gas most of the time and I treat it with Seafoam.
Is this a product of th solvents reacting with the varnish, or some type of fuel deposit?

Something new to learn everyday. Thanks for any comments/observations.

 

Typically the white flaky stuff is corrosion from water in fuel, let sit for a few days at least. (usually a month or so will put heavy flakes on). Water is averyone's first enemy in Carbs.

I've never seen White flaky anything, from anything other than WATER.

 

Like Terrellster said, it's water or alky in the fuel. I once took apart an alky carb that someone left the alky in. White flakes everywhere. It was ugly.
The bottom line, is it's corrosion.

 

Thanks guys, seems kinda obvious now, but I am not the sharpest crayon in the box. The baffle plate did have rust on it, so corrosion makes sense. I did not have a rebuild kit, the kid was just anxious for me to take a look at it. Thus, I was extra careful with O rings and the gasket in using solvent. The usual tricks like acetone, or action cleaner did not cut some of this. Much of it came down to WD 40 and emery cloth and a hot bath.

It is running strong, but I ran out of energy and will need to play with the mixture tonight. I had to set the idle too high in the few minutes I played with it last night. Thanks again.

 

One word. S TA B I L. I use this gas additive in any gas powered engines.Especially over the winter time when things tend to sit.

Chuck

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: chuckneste

One word. S TA B I L. I use this gas additive in any gas powered engines.Especially over the winter time when things tend to sit.



Chuck</end quote></div>

All my gas get's Seafoam. Who knows where the kid get's gas and how long he stored it in his shed. He steals mine half the time! He road it away strong about a half hour ago. It is hard to complain about a 20 year old Honda needing the carb cleaned! I had just never observed the white crud before.