We have one at the shop. We bought a Crest Ultrasonics branded cleaner. 7 gallon capacity-we didn't want the little one since sometimes we get a quartet of carbs in for cleaning (4 cylinder motorcycles and outboard motors); and most of the smaller units we looked at were too small to fit all 4 carbs inside of it without having to separate them, which takes up more time and opens up a whole other can of worms. Our objective was not so much to be able to work faster, but to do BETTER work. Many times in this area we'll see some 4 cylinder 4 stroke outboard motors that will sit for years on end without use. Bikes occasionally too but mostly outboard stuff is what we focus on mostly. There's no money in old Japanese bikes; we have done them and lost our tail every time. Anyway-the way the outboard carbs are built, there are tiny internal passages that are plugged with welch plugs. The manufacturer doesn't offer those plugs separate from the carburetor body ($$$$). So if you had to order 4 carb bodies, the customer was looking at thousands of dollars. We picked up this ultrasonic cleaner for just this type of thing. It will reach into those passages and bust the stuff loose without having to remove the welch plugs; which saves us time and the customer potentially thousands of dollars in some cases. I'm highly impressed with it's operation. Saturday I did a set of carbs for a Yamaha F50 outboard, 4 cylinder 4 carb, been sitting for almost 4 years. They were NASTY, green stuff in the bowls and I about puked when I pulled the cowling off. Removed the bowls, the gaskets, jets, and prime starter parts, then dropped them all inside of the cleaner. 30 minutes later, I pulled them out and they were 100% spotless, jets looked brand new, bodies looked brand new, everything clean as a whistle. Reassembled with new bowl gaskets and float valves, adjusted the sync and idle mixtures and it literally sounds like a kitten at idle but you have to listen closely. The thing is super quiet. In years past, carbs that were this bad typically had to be replaced, and on one occasion, the customer spent around $2500 for a new set of carbs. While it ran perfect, it was obiously expensive. The ultrasonic, we are done, from tools out of the box to putting tools back away in under 2 hours, $150 labor and then about $125 in parts. With taxes the customer was out of the shop for less than $300. I'm not a mathematician, but that's a whole lot better than $2500.
I'm using it today to clean my dad's Holley 94, came off of his '51 Ford pickup, 8BA flathead. Wish I could get him to put a Stromberg on it; but he wants to keep it 100% original as it was delivered from Ford in 1951.
