Hi, I’m new to karting, and I just cleaned my clutch. Now, I’m planning to try cleaning the carburetor. The used engine has 5 hours of runtime over its whole life. However, I’m unsure how frequently I should clean the carburetor. Additionally, there is a green residue on the outside of the carb, and I’m not sure what it is or if I should take any action to address it. Thank you!
Green residue is the gunk that fuel with ethanol leaves behind when it sits in the carb. If you drain your fuel every day you run before you store the kart and maybe fog the engine with WD, you can eliminate that build up.
Carb cleaner, a soft brush, and some time will clean it up good as new. Make sure the jets aren’t clogged.
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Where is the plug or screw that I need to take out to drain the fuel from the carburetor? Additionally, what do you mean by “fog the engine”? Thanks!
You can use the screw on bottom side of carb bowl to drain the carb through the drain tube you have running to your catch tank - that is the least messy route.
You can also pull the plug out of the bottom of the bowl.
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Spray WD into the fuel inlet while it’s running until it dies.
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Got it, thanks! When you say “store,” does that mean after every day of use or over the winter? Also, I recall reading a thread a while back where they recommended storing your engine somewhere warm. I live in Houston, where the coldest it will ever get is around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and only for about 5 days of the year. Should I still bring it in? Also off topic but at where I live we run race fuel and i think a lot of people use pumped gas at there local track would it be ok to run pumped gas for practice and race fuel for race?
I would not put 10% ethanol fuel into your engine. If you do, then be prepared to clean the carb afterwards. When that gas evaporates it will gunk up the inside of the carb almost like corn syrup.
If you run ethanol-free pump gas (87 octane) or race fuel, then you can get away with ~never cleaning your carb… or once a season for piece of mind. Still, drain it if you’re not driving in the next week or two.
Finally, it doesn’t matter if the outside is dirty. It’s the inside that becomes a problem.
Thanks! do you think i could change from ethanol free to race fuel and do that every time i have a race?
The fuel you use would be determined by the track’s rules. Some require pump gas with ethanol and some don’t, however, after the race you could non-ethanol fuel to “flush” the system.
I don’t see the point of race fuel unless it’s mandated by the track. But if it is, then sure, you can drain the fuel out of the carb and tank, and swap to whatever fuel you need to run.
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Thanks! It is mandated by the track