How to clean a carb thats been locked away for 2 years

[mrdiesel]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is a repeat, i didn't have much luck with the search engine.

For various reasons my saws have been in storage for about two years. Prior to storing them i ran them dry and opened the fuel lid for 24 hours to let the remainder evaporate. About a week ago i fueled up my 346 and ran it for about an hour. Sometime during that period it started having difficulty idling. On pulling it apart the piston is scored so im thinking the low idle jet didnt get cleared out properly before storage.

I've got a 338, 575,660, and 3120 all waiting to be run but would like to know if anyone has any tricks for cleaning carbies before i fire them up. If need be ill dismantle and put carby kits in them but wanted to avoid this if possible

Cheers all

 

[woodworkingboy]

I never had a problem storing saws as you've described, and without the need to clean the carb when running them again, but another recommendation when storing, is to put a teaspoon of 2 cycle oil into the cylinder through the plug hole, then pull the starter rope a few times to distribute it. Said to prevent rust is what I have read.

Yours is the first case that I have heard of scoring that resulted from storage.

 

[Altissimus]

... Agree w Jay , meebee damaged before storage ?

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

When drying the tank, did you run it with throttle or just low-idle until stalling? Too little lube at the end of the tank?

 

[Al Smith]

Your best bet is to just rebuild the carbs . You might get lucky and you might not .Kits aren't very expensive .

 

[flushcut]

In my experience the gas will evaporate but the mix will turn to sludge in the tank if allowed to evaporate. I have been running full synthetic for year and have never had a problem with fuel.

 

[SoonerFan]

When drying the tank, did you run it with throttle or just low-idle until stalling? Too little lube at the end of the tank?

Which way is the "proper" way to do it?


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[woodworkingboy]

Dennis, from what I read, just have it idle until it starves for fuel and dies.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Warm the saw up. Shut it off. Drain the tank. Start it up on lie idle. Leave it run.

A hot saw, run at WOT ( wide open throttle), will run out of fuel, and as it get lean at the end, it will Rev higher, with less fuel to lube it, possibly seizing it/ scoring it.

 

[SoonerFan]

Thanks.


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[Raj]

In the army what was done for small gasoline engines to be stored was run at idle till dies, fill tank with some sort of carb cleaner/preservative stuff (no idea what it was, all it had was a Nato Stock Number) turn engine over a few times, might sputter or even run, remove spark plug and fill cyclinder with a 10 weight non-detergent oil. keep pluig wire off and give a pull.

 

[mrdiesel]

When i knew i had to store the saws they hadn't been run for about a week. I poured the fuel out of the tanks and then started each one and let it idle until it died.

Ive heard similar to what flushcut said.. ie the fuel evaporates and the oil goes hard. I was thinking about a carby kit but it wont fix the problem of dryed oil in the needle valves. Im pondering stripping the carby and dropping the whole carby into a container full of carby cleaner and letting it soak for a day or two. Im not sure if its a good idea or not. After wrecking one saw im hesitant to try it on another.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Seems like a fair amount of trouble to go through when storing a saw by the more conventional means, seems to not be damaging as was described. Not saying it didn't happen, but if it did, quite a rarity. If you are talking about cleaning the carb after storing, why don't you just soak it in gasoline.

Putting a small amount of two cycle oil in the cylinder before storing, probably gives some added protection when you get to starting it again. It is recommended to take off the plug and try and blow it out before running, but I find that often little comes out. The added smoke would be the extra oil.

 

[Al Smith]

Quite frankly I've done both ways.Ran the fuel out and left it in and for all intents I've seen no difference .

 

[Cobleskill]

The carb isn't going to be completely dry even when running it out of gas. I try to run them low or out just so I don't have to dump stale gas.

I just gassed up my old Echo 3400 top handle for the first time in about 2 years. It started right up and ran OK. Seemed to get rich after running for a while. If I let it idle for a while would run OK for a little bit more. I think the air filter might need some attention. Nice to have a back up you know will run. It sure is a gutless wonder.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

It

Seems like a fair amount of trouble to go through when storing a saw by the more conventional means, seems to not be damaging as was described. Not saying it didn't happen, but if it did, quite a rarity. If you are talking about cleaning the carb after storing, why don't you just soak it in gasoline.

Putting a small amount of two cycle oil in the cylinder before storing, probably gives some added protection when you get to starting it again. It is recommended to take off the plug and try and blow it out before running, but I find that often little comes out. The added smoke would be the extra oil.