muriatic acid, OK for carb soaking?

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Rapid Robert

Rapid Robert

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saw a utube vid on this, either 4 or 6 to one with water/muriatic acid. is this stuff to stout for metal cleaning? it sure made the metal come out bare!. RR
 
I used muriatic for cleaning steel once. Never again. Just having the jug in my garage caused all kinds of corrosion and issues on other tools and metal parts stored in the garage. It was a disaster.

Any plating on steel parts will be stripped by muriatic. It can etch aluminum and will completely dissolve zinc, which is found both in cast aluminum alloys and in brass.

It can probably work, but is not how I'd go about cleaning carburetors unless I was planning to completely restore with new platings and finishes on all parts. Caswell offers tons of finishing kits for that sorry of tune and I'd ask them the best way to go about cleaning and refinishing if that was the goal.
 
I think that stuff is really harsh for what you're asking about.
 
Muriatic acid works great for cleaning metal but as stated before, it is HARSH. I would recommend trying on a trash carburetor first and maybe do component by component. It might work on corrosion on steel parts such as throttle blades and shafts, it might be too harsh on like a zinc body of a holley (maybe)
. Maybe by diluting it you can just leave it soaking for a few min at a time but it's all going to be testing so start on a carb you don't mind throwing away first.
 
We never use it inside the shop = Rusts everything!
We only use it behind the shop.
Do not ask why it is our Stock eliminator heads LOL!
 
Is it good for bodies? Where do you buy it? I mean car bodies, car bodies. Lol.
 
muratic acid and alum will give off a toxic cloud, do not use it on alum parts. i poured some in a alum pan, one time, huge mistake
 
Im pretty sure carbs are made of a zinc alloy, which is highly reactive with acid. Your carb will fizzle like alka seltzer until its gone.
 
Used it on the driveway concrete worked awsome , had a tiny bit left over and city garbage truck took away the unused bits and it started the contents on fire …..wooops
 
Holy COW. Muriatic acid on aluminum? Hard no.

Buy an ultrasonic cleaner and use a diluted solution of either Purple Power or Totally Awesome. Or skip the ultrasonic machine and just use those cleaners, but for God's sake, don't use muriatic acid. That stuff is brutal, even if you dilute it.
 
What ever happened to Parts Dip for Carburetors?
Use gloves. Use a respirator when using toxic liquids. Acid fumes/vapor are hell on your lungs, throat, mouth etc....
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://greenhouse.ucdavis.edu/pest/fmsds/Muratic%20Acid%20MSDS.pdf
 
Working in a bike shop for 15 years, I used muriatic acid to disolve metal-transferred aluminum off cylinderwalls of two-cycle engines, so we could prep and reuse them with new standard bore pistons, as some of those cylinders were not re-sizeable. And yes the fumes released by this procedure burned my nose out a few times, and easily softened my finger prints, such that, had I wanted to, it would have been easy to remove them .....

Decent carb-cleaners seem to be a thing of the past. I still have a well-used gallon-jug of the good stuff from the 90s, but IDK, it's had a hard life..... Every time I use it, it loses potency.
 
I dropped some stock Footpegs off a sportster in the
muriatic acid to remove the chrome so I could paint them black...
Those Pegs were made of Harluminum I guess... The Chrome was the Only thing left after 30 or so minutes.
The Chrome Footpegs that came out were Hollow and Empty!
 
To clean the greasy exterior, I use domestic paint stripper. Do not know why it works, but it works very well....
 
Carb cleaner that works> Gone!
Paint Stripper that works? Gone! Now we have environmentally friendly strippers... Like many things these days, they don't work...
Acid will get the carb super clean.... So clean you won't be able to see it...
As mentioned the Ultrasonic cleaner is currently probably the best option...
 
if you don't want to pony up for the 5gal of real berrymans' a decent option is pinesol. just don't leave it too long or it will ruin the finish of the plating.
 
Muratic acid or spirit of salts....nasty, just "old timer" names for HCL, to get round the fact suppliers are not usually allowed to sell HCL to the general public without recording lots of details....

thats hydrochloric acid.... even diluted you don't want it in your eye...once its in it just eats through into the optic nerve and well.....just NO...

It nasty

aluminium has its own protective oxide layer so it won't necessarily eat it away instantly but it is so nasty you wll end up with holes in your clothes or hands or eyes....!

The only thing i use it for is motor cycle petrol tanks, and they need treating with caustic soda followed by bicarb and water afterwards.

use it on nuts or bolts and it casues embrittlement so don't be using that reclaimed bolt to attach your brake caliper.!

if i was going to use any kind of acid i'd use phosphoric acid, it shoould attack the gunge and leave the body alone over a few hours faster if warmed.

if you want it cheap you can get Milk Stone remover this is the stuff the dairy industry uses to clean their stainless fittings

i have no idea if the term milk stone is used in the US but it makes a nice rust removing gell if you mix it with wall paper paste. add some food colouring so you can see where you have smeared it.....

you can also use caustic soda BUT it makes the body turn dark grey and carries some of the risk of HLC in regards to your wellbeing....

and you don't know if its aluminium or just a casting of Pot metal..i.e what alloy is it???
could be just the swarf and scrap from some other process melted down and cast...like most of the trim was....

best bet is a sonic cleaner filled with brake cleaner and run outside at about 50*C
the fumes that come off are massively flamable and not nice.... outside only

if it still has blockages drill/pick out the lead plugs. blow through with air line and replace them with bits of lead shot and a punch, you want the un cut shot not fishing shot that has the cut for the line.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Dave999 said:
Muratic acid or spirit of salts....nasty, just "old timer" names for HCL, to get round the fact suppliers are not usually allowed to sell HCL to the general public without recording lots of details....

thats hydrochloric acid.... even diluted you don't want it in your eye...once its in it just eats through into the optic nerve and well.....just NO...

It nasty

aluminium has its own protective oxide layer so it won't necessarily eat it away instantly but it is so nasty you wll end up with holes in your clothes or hands or eyes....!

The only thing i use it for is motor cycle petrol tanks, and they need treating with caustic soda followed by bicarb and water afterwards.

use it on nuts or bolts and it casues embrittlement so don't be using that reclaimed bolt to attach your brake caliper.!

if i was going to use any kind of acid i'd use phosphoric acid, it shoould attack the gunge and leave the body alone over a few hours faster if warmed.

if you want it cheap you can get Milk Stone remover this is the stuff the dairy industry uses to clean their stainless fittings

i have no idea if the term milk stone is used in the US

you can also use caustic soda BUT it makes the body turn dark grey and carries some of the risk of HLC in regards to your wellbeing....

and you don't know if its aluminium or just a casting of Pot metal..i.e what alloy is it???
could be just the swarf and scrap from some other process melted down and cast...like most of the trim was....

best bet is a sonic cleaner filled with brake cleaner and run outside at about 50*C
the fumes that come off are massively flamable and not nice.... outside only

if it still has blockages drill/pick out the lead plugs. blow through with air line and replace them with bits of lead shot and a punch, you want the un cut shot not fishing shot that has the cut for the line.

Dave
Click to expand...
Agreed. The only thing I use muriatic acid for on metal is removing mill scale or rust on non-structural steel, prior to welding. Works great. Even then, I dilute it 50/50 with water, and you still need to neutralize it afterwards.

It is nasty stuff! Chemical gloves and eye protection at a minimum.
 
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