Rebuilt Carbs From Ethanol Damage

[ammolab]

Older BMW carbs had issues with plastic carb floats that could be damaged by E10 fuel....or at least they like to sell you new alcohol resistant floats. I put new floats in my 1972 R60/5 after a few years of E10 just in case. The old floats had not been damaged in any way that I could see. Carb needles looked fine too.

 

[fast4d]

I just had my carb (zrx1100) rebuilt. the needles were 'worn'. this is a 16k mile motor on california's 10% ethanol gas.

I had a jet kit installed at the same time so it was no big deal.

 

[chestermo]

I just had the carbs off my ZR to rejet and install new needles in order to go with pod filters. No damage that I could see.

 

[boraticus]

I just pulled and cleaned the carbs on a...... wait for it.......


1974 Yamaha 200 cc air cooled twin cylinder motorcycle.

One carb was completely clean. The other had some clogging of the pilot jet and a few holes in the needle jet. No visible signs of corrosion or wear. This is a 37 year old engine.

At that age, I'm certain that most of the time on it was done with non-ethanol fuel.

 

[beanoil]

Originally Posted By: kballowe
I'm in the St Louis area and we've been running ethanol-laced fuel for 20+ years.

I don't see a correlation to carb or fuel systems failure.

I have a Genuine HONDA riding lawnmower for 15 years now and use the same ethanol-laced fuel. Never had the carb off of that thing. Same for a 10 year-old push mower with a HONDA motor. Although - I DO use Sea-Foam.

I've always owned a few motorcycles, various brands. Not had to remove n clean a carb (yet). Although - I DO use Sea-Foam.

I don't know if the Seafoam is doing anything for me, but it doesn't appear to be detrimental.




Agreed. I'm in STL area also with the same story. In fact I just finished an '81 YamaHopper (50cc noped) rebuild over the winter. The carb was perfect inside, (in fact much better shape than the rest of the scoot). I've owned many other toys over the years and have yet to have a carb or injector related issue with any of them. I do like MMO in carbed engines though, and always have a bottle at the ready for fillups.