Outboard Carb Maintenance...

[Stevo25]

Hi Guys,

Im thinking of cleaning out my carbies on my yamaha 3 cylinder outboard.
I have a can of Quicksilver Decarbination treatment is this stuff good enough for cleaning out the carbs?

Can i use standard carburettor cleaner that is used in cars?

Whats the best stuff to use and how should i go about it? The outboard is running fine, except a little rough at idle, im thinking some carb cleaner can only do it good?

Thanks in advance for any information / tips.

Stevo

[tengals123]

yeah, maybe run a can of quicky through it and see how it goes.

cheers

[NQCairns]

Stevo best not to use the automotive carb cleaner it is a flamable solvent and to the best of my knowledge has no lubricating properties and besides they only clean the carb throat anyway on vehicles.
The decarb treatment is good to use, if you get a heap of smoke you are burning nasty ring sticking etc carbon away from surfaces in the combustion chamber.
It will not clean the carbies, the ONLY way to do that is to pull and rip them apart soak and clean with new gaskets etc.
You could identify the drain hole and drain the fuel bowl just incase there is a small amount of water in there, it's about the best clean that can be done without stipping them down.
cheers nq

PS From experience, Lots and Lots and Lots of smoke from the decarboniser so pick the wind and spot, neighbours can be uncompromising at times ::)

[Cyclone]

Stevo Quicksilver make a carby and engine tune in a can I've used it and noticed the motor idled a lot better seems to be a good product just make sure you follow the directions on the can to get the best results. Cheers Andrew.

[Stevo25]

Thanks guys, ill stick with the quicksilver decarbonizer foam then.

The can says not to do it on the muffs? So ill do it on the water.

I have noticed more smoke lately, and shes a tad bit harder to start the first time round,
but winter might have something to do with that.

Once warmed up, it starts first pull every time !

Just out of curiosity, ive been doing some reading on the american YAMAHA outboard forums.

They use a product called Berrymans Chemtool, which from the research i have done is just
a carby cleaner, they run it in a seperate fuel container at a high mixture with fuel and they
reckon it does a great job in cleaning out the carby's.

If anyones interested its a great forum !
http://www.yamahaoutboardparts.com/

click on message board on the top left.

Stevo

[NQCairns]

Thanks for the link will check it out [smiley=2thumbsup.gif].

Be careful with a carbcleaner through the fuel line in high concentrations, it is either acetone, toluene, alcohol or kerosene or any mix of the above.
It can dislodge gunk and cause a lean condition and it doesn't really clean the carby more like it tidys it up. Only manual labour will clean it after a good soaking in the above chemicals.
Same chemicals are used in injector cleaner and fuel cleaning additives for outboards. In outboards at recommended levels they do a good job only at keeping the carby clean if it was clean to begin with but will not clean one.

Typically the better the job it does the higher in Acetone and/or toluene it is so be careful of running it through and past plastic and rubber for any length of time.

I think you will be happy with the results from the decarb, consider doing it on the trailer at the ramp and if the instructions include soaking and then a full throttle blast dont do the blast - poor practice. Take along some new plugs to help with the restart.
cheers nq