Ultasonic cleaners - for carb and FI parts?

[Will B.]

Are ultrasonic cleaners good for for removing varnish, etc., from aluminum parts? Or do they damage stuff? Can possibly buy one if it's a good idea... Willy

[John D.]

Re: Ultasonic cleaners - for carb and FI parts?

Hi Will, I have been using two ultrasonic cleaners for an eon. You have to be careful as if you use too strong of a solution you will kill the castings. Kill means you will burn them.When I see a dark gray looking fuel injection immediately I think it was cleaned with harse chemicals. Aged is a term a judge will use in that case.Stay away from ALL purple cleaners as it seems they are very potent. Go to Lowe's and buy Zep All purpose cleaner in a gallon. It's highly concentrated so dilute it big time. I don't know the forumla as I don't measure. But less is better than more as you can always make it stronger. The key to using an ultrasonic cleaner is to buy one that has a heater. Make sure the one you buy has a heater controlled by a timer. Don't use flammable chemicals in an ultrasonic cleaner. I don't dare use carb cleaner in my ultransonic. I am always afraid of having a fire as been there.A mistake I have made is leaving the filthy chemicals in the machine too long. With todays ethanol the fuel bowls are absolutely disgusting. So I promptly throw hem in the ultrasonic for the first step just to get rid of the gum, varnish and smell. Ultrasonic cleaners are very fast. Use them with proper ventilation. Plan on spending big bucks for a good machine. John

[Gary R.]

Re: Ultasonic cleaners - for carb and FI parts?

WillAs you are probably aware, Ultrasonics use water/soap mixtures to clean by implosion. There are many ranges of ultrasonic cleaners made and those are broken down into groups of peizoelectric or magnetorestritive transducers. Depending on the frequency and transducer type the cleaning action will vary, from small grouped implosions to buckshot patterns.All that aside, if you have small bench top unit about 2 gallons they work ok. Having heat helps but many don't have controls until you get into the larger units. Probably a 4-1 solution of Crystal simple green and about 120* water will clean most parts but the small units don't have any filtration systems to remove the oils and particles from the bath. If you have one to play with give it a try, never run it without water in the tank or you will burn up the transducers.We use a Bluewave 50 gallon system that I designed with Bluewave 15 years ago, we also have a couple of UFI 30 gallon systems and numerious bench tops. The larger ones are 30 & 40Khz the smaller ones I don't recall the rating off hand but they do not clean anywhere near as good as the larger ones.

[Will B.]

Re: Ultasonic cleaners - for carb and FI parts?

Thanks, gentlemen! The one I was looking at was a Fisher Scientific(?) 2 gallon with no heat. About 300 watt transducers. Wanted $300 for it... guess I'll pass.