Bead blasting carb?

IAtractorKid · Sep 19, 2012

Need to rebuild the carb on a SH Im working on and have access to a small blasting cabinet at work. Would it be ok to blast the carb parts while I have it apart?

Janicholson · Sep 19, 2012

Not desirable. The beads (and fragments will get into passages and nooks that might make way more problems than just a soak in cleaner. It might make the outside sparkly, but at too great a risk of plugging internals. Jim

CNKS · Sep 19, 2012

An unqualified no. What good does bead blasting parts do? Just soak it in carb cleaner.

David G · Sep 19, 2012

I soak mine, then run them across the wire wheel. It cleans them up pretty good.

charlieu · Sep 19, 2012

I know that a lot of people say not to blast, but... I blast most all of the carbs that I rebuild. I soak the carb first, cleaning and drying good and then to the bead blaster it goes. When the bottom of the bowl is all rusty, how do you all, get the inside cleaned. I use glass beads in my blaster and have NOT had any problems. I use good air pressure to clean all the passages before assembly of the carb. I do one more thing that helps to prevent comebacks. I hook up a fuel line from a small fuel tank that I have mounted over my bench. I'm able to check to make sure that I don't have any leaks. You can even blow a little air into the air intake side of the carb and you can see if gas comes out in the air stream.

Wayne in MN · Sep 19, 2012

I have glass bead blasted many, many carbs (cast & aluminum) over 30 + years and have not had any problems.
De-grease and dry the carb first and THOROUGHLY clean all passages after blasting. I like to use brake cleaner for the final cleaning solvent followed by an air blast; it doesn't leave any residue like carb cleaners do.
All this presumes ALL parts of the carb are removed. Leave a shaft or jet in place then there will be problems.

Chad504 · Sep 20, 2012

I used baking soda when I rebuilt the carb on my H a few months ago. Worked great, cleaned it nicely and any residue it left gets removed with carb cleaner.

rustyfarmall · Sep 20, 2012

(quoted from post at 18:06:57 09/19/12) Need to rebuild the carb on a SH Im working on and have access to a small blasting cabinet at work. Would it be ok to blast the carb parts while I have it apart?

Go for it. Bead blasting is the only way to remove the rust and other deposits down in the bottom of the bowl. I will caution you to either remove the idle metering jet, or cover it so the sand can't get in it because it is the only part of the entire carb that is small enough for the sand to become hopelessly lodged in.

Be sure to completely blow it all out with compressed air, and then be very generous with aerosol carb cleaner into ALL of the passages, then use compressed air again.

The carb cleaner that you soak a carb in just ain't even close to what it used to be, and it won't get the job done.

sgtbull · Sep 20, 2012

I"ve been sandblasting carbs for close to 20 yrs. I have no idea how many I"ve done, but its been a lot. I use white silica sand that has been used 3 or 4 times and is nearly a powder. It is much less aggressive that way, so I don"t run the risk of enlarging an orifice. Sand or bead blasting does an excellent job on rusty carbs. Since most, but not all carbs are cast iron on these old tractors, there is always a rust issue, and carb cleaner will not remove rust. I"ve done DLTX carbs, M.S. Carbs, Carters, Zeniths, IHC, Tillotsons, and many other brands with no problems. As was said though, TOTAL disassembly is a must prior to blasting.
I follow up all carb cleanings with Zinc Phosphate coating inside and out, (available at most auto refinisher supply stores) which drastically slows down rusting.
I would not recommend sand on potmetal or aluminum carbs. I've not tried baking soda on those, but whatever you use, it must be far less aggressive as those metals would erode quickly.

mm585 · Sep 20, 2012

I think many are missing the point here. Carb cleaner wont do a thing to a rusty old carb. some of the carbs that come in to my shop look like they have been at the bottom of a lake for 25 years. I have a small blast cabinet with glass beads in it just for carbs.

mm585 · Sep 20, 2012

I think many are missing the point here. Carb cleaner wont do a thing to a rusty old carb. some of the carbs that come in to my shop look like they have been at the bottom of a lake for 25 years. I have a small blast cabinet with glass beads in it just for carbs.

Bead blasting carb?

IAtractorKid

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Janicholson

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CNKS

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David G

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charlieu

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Wayne in MN

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Chad504

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rustyfarmall

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sgtbull

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mm585

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mm585

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