carburator cleaning

ronjon123

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May 27, 2009
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I was told that I could use a Sea Foam and gas solution to run through my engine to clean my carburators. Will this work? I have a 1997 Yamaha 130 saltwater series. I just rebuilt the carbs due to bad ethinol gas. I realized I didnt get the tank completely cleaned out. I am hoping this will work so I don't have to do a complete rebuild again.
 

M Berk

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May 11, 2009
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Re: carburator cleaning

if it does work, let us know. i'm in the same situation. good luck
 

JB

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45,907
Re: carburator cleaning

No. Seafoam can help reduce carbon buildup, but it is not carb cleaner.

Ethanol is not the boogey man. It just gets blamed for a plethora of ills, including: No seperating fuel filter, old gas, leaving fuel in the carbs for weeks, etc.
 

robert graham

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Re: carburator cleaning

JB is absolutely right. install a good fuel/water seperator, get rid of all the old gas, start using fuel stabilizer like Sta-Bil or Seafoam, do the maintenance and end most all of the fuel related problems. Good luck!
 

ronjon123

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Re: carburator cleaning

I understand what you are saying, however, I already have a yamaha 10 micron water seperating filter, a in line visible fuel filter, as well as a motor mounted fuel filter. You are right about the fuel sitting in the tank too long even with running the motor each week. I had Stabil in the fuel, but I still encountered fuel sepperation. I just finished completely cleaning the tank and changed all the filters. I was just trying to find an alternative to rebuilding my carbs again. I feel there is very little buildup left. Anything I can use to run through the carbs?
 

robert graham

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Re: carburator cleaning

I would drain each carb by removing the float bowl drain plugs,pump the bulb a few times to flush them out, then replace the plugs, fill your fuel filter with carb cleaner(like B-12 or other) and using your primer bulb, pump the carb cleaner into each carb, leave it a while or overnight, then drain carbs again on to a clean rag so you can see what comes out(the rag is also good because some of the carb cleaners tend to remove paint) Then run engine on your regular gas/oil mixture to get oil back into the engine. I know this works because my motor is a 1999 Yamaha 90C and I've never had the carbs cleaned at the boat dealer and I've never had any carb/gas issues at all since I bought it new in 1999. This draining and flushing of the carbs really only takes a few minutes once you do it a couple of times and then you know your day on the water isn't going to be ruined by some junk in the carbs. Good luck!
 

ronjon123

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Re: carburator cleaning

Thanks for the reply. I have another problem with this. Prior to recently rebuilding these carbs I noticed that where the bowl drain plugs should be the openings do not have any screws in them. My repair manual shows the exact same carbs with drain screws. these openings appear to be factory plugged. Upon dismantling the carbs I realized there is no way to drain the bowls without removing the carb. I have never encountered this before.
 

robert graham

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Re: carburator cleaning

well that sucks..any way to remove those permanent plugs, drill and tap for the 10MM brass hex head plugs? To me you just have to be able to drain the float chambers. Maybe the Yamaha folks know if they omit the plugs then you'll have to bring the motor in for the carb cleaning/service$$$ Maybe ask you boat motor dealer what he thinks/recommends about this float chamber drain issue...maybe he has some kind of factory quick-fix?
 

ronjon123

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Re: carburator cleaning

My thoughts exactly. I have owned many outboards in the past and never ran into this. I like your idea about drilling and tapping but I will talk to yamaha first. Thanks again for the information.
 

robert graham

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Re: carburator cleaning

maybe those "factory plugs" can be just popped out or removed and the threaded holes are already there, just waiting for some nice brass 10MM hex plugs to be added...that would be nice!...just a thought!
 

ronjon123

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Re: carburator cleaning

That would be nice, however the holes are not threaded. I am trying to get some feedback from Yamaha on this.
 

robert graham

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Re: carburator cleaning

So there are holes there but just not threaded?...sounds like a factory flaw to me. Anyway, it'll be interesting to hear what Yamaha has to say about it. Still should be fairly easy to just tap the holes that are there. The 10MM brass drain plugs come with an O-ring seal, but maybe you could use a flat fiber washer similar to the ones on the motor foot drain plugs. Good luck!
 

douglloyd

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Jun 13, 2005
Messages
147
Re: carburator cleaning

OK here's what I do. Back out the low speed jets and insert the straw from a can of Deep Creep into the jet and soak.
Put the low speed jet screws back in set up correctly and hope it works.
If you have a hard stop in the jet like rubber debris etc. this will not work.
If you have "White Snot" in there from emulsified whatever it is it may work.
This has saved my butt regularly.
However now that I have purged my fuel system of all the gunk I don't have a problem anymore.
I have a 115ETXJ. Similar to yours in design.
 

rodbolt

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Sep 1, 2003
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20,066
Re: carburator cleaning

you can try your idea, however its possible to run it lean and burn a piston long before the carbs are cleaned.
to acces the low speed jets on a US market V4 you have to remove the carb.
the reason why the 10mm drain was omitted is now you remove the 12mm hex head plug that accesses the main jet to drain it.
would it be to hard to simply buy 2 fuel bowl gaskets and spend 1 1/2 hours and just remove,dissasemble,clean and reassemble your baby ?
 

douglloyd

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Jun 13, 2005
Messages
147
Re: carburator cleaning

The LS jet screws on the top carb are easy.
The screws on the bottom carb one side is medium hard and the other side is almost impossible.
I bought a screwdriver with a spring "keeper" to hold it as I R/R it.
Luckily most of the gunk headed for the top carb.
If it works it's great if it doesn't well start strippin' those carbs.
 

ronjon123

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May 27, 2009
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Re: carburator cleaning

Well thanks everyone for your feedback to my problem. Sounds to me there is no easy way around pulling my carbs. As rodbolt said, it really isn't hard to just remove and clean them properly which will give me peice of mind on the water. Thank's again.
 

rodbolt

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Sep 1, 2003
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20,066
Re: carburator cleaning

better yet, study the carb.
your wrong on the low speed jets.
those are idle mixture screws.
on those carbs the low speed fuel jut is in the fuel bowl.
the low speed air jet is in the carb throat.
the screws on the top with the springs DO NOT adjust air/fuel the simply allow more or less of what the pilot fuel and pilot air jets allow.
 
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