Cleaner solution

[JayDee24ca]

I just bought a medium quality 10 litre ultrasonic cleaner. I know some folks here clean carbs etc in one, and some use Pinesol or some such cleaner as a solution. What strength solution is used to best effect? Will full strength Pinesol be too strong for cast aluminum carbs and other bits?
Thanks
John D.

[cliffrod]

The cleaning action is produced by the scrubbing effect of cavitation (bubbles of air imploding), which is best produced by the water in whatever solution you use.  If you use a basic/caustic or acidic cleaner, it will attack the items being cleaned like it usually does.  The real ultrasonic cleaning solution is designed to emulsify whatever debris is loosened by cavitation from the dirty object and suspend it in solution.   the vigorous cleaning stops when the solution's capacity to emulsify contaminants is exhausted.  It may still loosen dirt, but it will be like washing dishes in really dirty water.  You'll have to clean things all over again after removing them from the tank.

The more you can completely degrease everything before putting into the cleaner (like hot commercial dishwasher, gasoline or similar soak & dry, etc)  the better things work and the longer the solution will last.  Wipe, scrape, rinse, brush or blow off anything easily removed first as well and your solution will last much longer.

I have used all kinds of solutions from 100% water to off-the-shelf caustic/acidic cleaning solutions to the real solution in a range of dilutions.  Over a wide range of things cleaned, I've gotten decent results with a variety of cleaning mixtures.  No matter, The real stuff works best when mixed to the recommended 1:10 cleaner-to-water mix ratio.  Anything super concentrated instead of diluted with water will not produce much cavitation so usually doesn't clean much better. 

Start with 1:10 first, then up it if you like. When we used it, Simple Green works better than pinesol.

[Groover]

I used to work at an R/C warranty repair center for small glow engines (~8cc - ~50cc), and we used a small ultrasonic cleaner, maybe about 1.5 gallons. We found that a cap a Dawn dish soap worked best for this application. We tried some other things, but if left in too long, they'd darken the aluminum.

Edit: just clarifying that the choice for us to use dish soap was a choice based on cleaning performance. These glow engines we serviced run on fuels made up of methanol, synthetic or castor oil, and nitromethane which created a certain type of caked on gunk, and they'd need to be in the ultrasonic cleaner sometimes longer than maybe some other things. Anything harsher than dish soap would typically stain the aluminum making it dark and dull, whereas the dish soap kept the aluminum parts natural and bright. This was in the mid 90's, so I'm sure there are more tried-and-true products out there now, but wanted to pass along a few more details on my experience on this.

[ajpjive]

I second using dish soap. It works quite well and is a hell of a lot cheaper than dishing out for the fancy stuff.

[JayDee24ca]

It sounds as though I would be well advised to pick up a bit of correct solution for the tank. At a ratio of 1:10 as suggested, it might be economical. Thanks!
JD

[canuck750]

Sharpteck sells a purpose made carb cleaning solution for ultrasonic cleaners, not cheap but excellent. I just tried CLR in the black plastic container for degreasing in my ultrasonic cleaner to clean a set of carbs, worked very good.

[Cdn850T5NT]

I used to work at an R/C warranty repair center for small glow engines (~8cc - ~50cc), and we used a small ultrasonic cleaner, maybe about 1.5 gallons. We found that a cap a Dawn dish soap worked best for this application. We tried some other things, but if left in too long, they'd darken the aluminum.

I keep hearing good things about Dawn dish soap. I have some Dawn Ultra ("4x") and also some Dawn "3x" that I'm going to try as a first tier product at degunking the varnish from old fuel in a gas tank. I fully expect to have to go with something more potent... but i will try it first before i ultimately use that rust removing product concentrate (forget its name... Metal-something i think).

[Cdn850T5NT]

Metal Rescue... after some carb cleaner treatment. I'm worried about protecting my paint though... re the carb cleaner.

[ozarquebus]

At the place I once worked, they had large tanks of pure hot MEK running 24/7 for some forgotten process. It would clean parts very well just soaking in it in a short time, but it contaminated the MEK with grease and rather miffed the chemist.