I picked up an old Quadrajet as a backup the other day. It seems like a decent core and I wanted to rebuild it. So, using the Doug Roe book, I stripped it down and threw all the aluminum parts into a can of Berrymans.

Here's the problem, after a lot of soaking, things look pretty clean. All the original crud is gone, but there is a coating of "powder" on the aluminum body of the carb. I can clean it off with a brass brush, but I can't get into the nooks and crannies of the carb. It is like a dark-colored, ashy type stuff.

At the suggestion of a friend, I've tried:
Simple Green
White vinegar
CLR
Various brands of spray carb cleaner

Nothing seems to get that ashy crud off, though, and when I brass wire-brush a section and re-dip it in anything, it seems to come back.

I don't really care about how it looks, but I don't want any of that stuff get into my perfectly good engine and cause issues.

Anyone had this before? Any ideas how to get it down to bare aluminum?

Mark

 

I restored a carb early the spring. I dipped some in the berrymans tub, used gasoline to wash of that and whatever else that was loose, and used CRC carb cleaner on whatever remained - it just blasts that stuff away!
Here are some before and after pics of a carb I never thought would look this good:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post280536
Get 2 cans of the carb cleaner and wear safety gogs - it is known to splatter and it does not go far. Putting the cleaner on a rag and rubbing it off does not work. You have to spray it off and use lots of cleaner.

Well I misread and it it looks like you tried carb cleaner... Sounds very odd the stuff comes back! Did you spray it or wipe it with the carb cleaner?

 

Q-Jet tops and bowls aren't aluminum, they're made out of some type of pot metal. I generally clean them up with brake cleaner, and if necessary, dip the parts in carb cleaner for a few minutes and blast with compressed air, leaving the parts in cleaner too long takes off the gold finish. As far as the white crud, try a small brass brush.

 

Hmm... I think maybe I am being too perfectionist. The gold plating was gone when I got this carb. I attached some images and in two of them I outlined the areas I am talking about.

In the third one, the outlined area I hit with a brass wire brush. The area that says "Made in U.S.A." has not been brushed. I was kinda' expecting it all to look like the brushed area without the brushing... Maybe I am expecting too much???

 

Yup.

That's just oxidation of elements of the pot metal. They all do that.

If you do get rid of it, it will come back sooner or later.

Just ignore it and put it all back together.

- Eric

 

Carb looks pretty darn clean to me. Button it up and go for a cruise.

 

x2