Carburetor Fuel Cleaner - any thoughts?

Motorcycling
1

Hi guys,

before bringing my baby to a mechanic I thought of trying this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REDEX-500ml-PETROL-CARBURETTOR-FUEL-SYSTEM-CLEANER-/130671548624?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e6ca198d0

did any of you have any experience with this? Is it useful? Does it do the job?

cheers guys,
Frank:cool:

2

I personally wouldn’t waste my money

you have an issue with the running of your bike it might not even be carb related

I doubt very much if a carb cleaner will do anything at all other than make your pocket lighter

I had a few classic cars & have never used any such products

3

Thanks Wise.

I’ll keep you posted!

4

What’s “the job” that you’re hoping for it to do? What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? And on which bike?

5

Sorry Big Red, you are right. I wrote about this on another post (see in this same section ‘good mechanic in SW’)
honda cbr 600f 1993.
bike doesn’t properly go up RPM wise. open up the gas and it almost stands still and is suffocated. after reaching 5rpm I get a kick and it’s suddenly awake.

got it a few days ago. probably dirty carburetors (or not well balanced/aligned) or dirty petrol/dirty tank. thought that before bringing to a mechanic, a fuel system cleaner might be worth trying.

any thoughts? (for pic of the bike refer to that post I just mentioned - I think it’s literally the most recent one after this) :wink:

6

Get yourself to this forum and ask http://www.bikersoracle.com/cbr600/forum/index.php check airfilter and airways to airbox. (also that its sealing back up properly) Lift the tank and check the fuel hoses arent kinked (does the cbr 93 have an exposed fuel tap?)Fuel filter blocked, maybe check the flow of the fuel from tank through filterAir, fuel and spark, check whats needed to produce those and you’ll have eliminated a few each things

What do people think about running the engine at high rev’s and blocking the intake to clear the carb (ie air filter box off and block the intake with your hand)

7

Waste of money.

  1. Was this why the bike was being sold?
  2. Clean up whatever you can yourself, like opening the carb, checking the filters, and having a good poke around. Then take it to a mechanic - too many things could be causing this, including combinations of problems.
8

Yeah, if you’re not a fan of diagnosis then I’d split and clean everything (air filter, fuel filter, carbs, fuel tap) and if that doesn’t fix it then take it to a mechanic.

Redex’s intended purpose isn’t really to clean a fuel system so much as to keep it clean, but it’s only really relevant when you’re using poor fuels, a poor engine or, apparently, lead-replacement, but it’s hindered in its operation by needing to not prevent the engine from running.

9

As an aside, let’s say that your carb is really dirty. This potion then somehow cleans it all up. Where does all that crud go next? Straight into the engine.

10

Yeah, but that’s not such an issue - you’re expecting this dirt to be petrol residue, which is just a mixture of what comes in through the airbox and fuel lines anyway. It’s petrol where some of the volatile bits have evaporated out and water’s got in. So it’s much less combustible than normal petrol, but still a hydrocarbon and still perfectly capable of being disappeared by being involved in the burning in the cylinder. If you can dissolve it in something (like redex…) then I don’t see any reason to assume it’ll go on to do horrible things to anything.

The one thing that redexalikes are good for (or were) is preventing that degredation when you’re using poor petrol, but we’ve pretty consistently good-quality petrol in the UK.

11

True enough, I suppose it’s only really dirt bikes that are going to be pulling in sand and grit through the airbox, unless this CBR’s PO was Nick Sanders :slight_smile:

12

Hi Duncmac, thanks for the link and for the suggestions. Unfortunately I don’t have nor the skills (I know, very sad), nor the time to do those kind of checks… which is why I thought of trying the fuel cleaner and if that didnt do the difference…bring it to a mechanic…

13
  1. No, at least not that I know of. The guy bought it and worked on it (it had stood still in a garage of previous owner for years ) including putting in new second hand carburetors from the same model of bike. He said he didn’t clean them cause he didn’t think it was necessary. Not sure the bike was doing this with him too, but he did tell me that when the engine was still cold, it wasn’t working at 100%, which is why he thought it might something with the carburetors…
  2. as I said above…no such skills, nor time :frowning:
14

makes sense…not a problem fixer but a problem ‘preventer’ sort of.