Carbon?.

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Huskybill

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
May 21, 2018
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
6,346
Location
Northeast
i just honed and ported another 2100 cylinder. My problem now is the combustion chamber is caked up with carbon. How do you guys get the carbon out of the combustion chamber?
Do you soak it with seafoam? Oven cleaner?
 
I was just working on my 372xp project and ran into the same thing. I did find some info on berryman carburetor cleaner but not too sure if it works. I'll be following closely.
 
If you honed the inside, you already removed the nikasil, soda blast it and nickel coat it.

He would most likely have to have put the NiSil in the cylinder first in order to remove it. Most likely all he did was hone some hard chrome.

The crap in the combustion chamber is a bit of carbon, calcium and metal preserved with an oily film. Use steel or copper course wool and WD 40 or naphtha, want it polished, work through the grades of wool and dust it off with a green scotch bite and WD40.

To cheap to buy metal and plastic wools, get a bag a charcoal, bit of leather and yes you guessed it some WD40.
 
OMC makes a product for cleaning outboards that’s added to the fuel. I have a gallon but have yet to use it. It is supposed to remove even the most stubborn carbon from a saw jug.

I generally let mine soak in my USC, which is filled with Mean Green overnight. I have small with wheels to remove stubborn stuff from the chamber, and the lathe generally removes all the carbon from the band when I cut it.

This one was caked.

8E1323CD-1007-4015-BE14-B374C9FD4E2B.jpeg
 
If it's bad I put the plug in, fill the combuston chamber with WD40 and let it soak. After that I chuck a screw driver in my drill, wrap the handle with a red scotch brite pad with a little overhang. Most of the time it cleans right up.

Edit: If you try it this way, don't forget to pull the plug out because it will chew up your screw driver.
 
@Huskybill, how did you hone it?

RE the carbon, soak in diesel fuel.

First let’s clear this up ball honing isn’t boring. All it does is clean the surface and put a cross hatch on the cylinder walls. There’s no way I removed the nikasil. I do have a gear driven hone that can bore nikasil, steel and cast iron sleeve cylinders. My early husky saws are industrial chrome plated.

https://www.enginehones.com/niapho.html

Note, I do not run the hone full on, I jog the drill in, then jog it out clockwise, then I jog it in, then jog it out counter clockwise. A quick fast short jog. That’s it for a nice cross hatch. Again do not run the hone full on.
 
Even if I was just using a wood stick.
I'd have decarboned the cylinder before grinding in it.
Little flecks of grinding swarf and any sandpaper grit will be in the carbon now.
Wiping or rinsing wont get all of it out.

Ever wonder why we sometimes see top ends go scratchy for "no apparent reason" after a "port job"?
Ask the person IF they skipped the decarboning.

Gotta clean the combustion chamber.
Decompression valve or the hole plug needs to be removed too, before, doing any port work.
Spark plug too, unless you're using it to hold the cylinder.
Then the plug gets removed and tossed before final clean up.
 
My cylinder is hard industrial chrome not nikasil.

I asked about removing the carbon rather than me scraping it you gurus might have a faster better slick way of doing it, im learning too. It will be squeaky clean when it goes together.
 
@CausticUC , have you ever honed or seen a chainsaw cylinder honed?
Never saw a nikasil cylinder honed, went researching for honing materials a few years ago as I had one that could have used it and kept running into the same warnings from both platers and materials companies: once a cylinder has wear, if you hone it, you will need to replate it.

Perhaps it was premature of me to make a guess it was a nikasil cylinder he was asking about.

There is no issue with honing a chrome, nickel plated cylinder, or sleeve. They can all benefit from it and sure look pretty when done!
 
I have a set of the honed for most two stroke bores I buy the under size hones instead of the bore size I want a light finish cross hatch. Like I said don’t run the hone full speed, jog it in, then jog it out.
 
Even if I was just using a wood stick.
I'd have decarboned the cylinder before grinding in it.
Little flecks of grinding swarf and any sandpaper grit will be in the carbon now.
Wiping or rinsing wont get all of it out.

Ever wonder why we sometimes see top ends go scratchy for "no apparent reason" after a "port job"?
Ask the person IF they skipped the decarboning.

Gotta clean the combustion chamber.
Decompression valve or the hole plug needs to be removed too, before, doing any port work.
Spark plug too, unless you're using it to hold the cylinder.
Then the plug gets removed and tossed before final clean up.

Where does the chips go when the muffler is cut to modify it? Into the carbon inside the muffler, does anyone wash the muffler out? When running with chips in the muffler where can they go? During the two stroke cycle there is a blow back or scavenge where they could end up in the cylinder.
 
I’ve honed many Nikasil cylinders. It does not ruin them. One has to use some light oil and some common sense.

I use a 3 stone hone and only do it if a jug had extensive amounts of transfer in the bore. I finish it with medium and then fine Scotchbrite.

NEVER use a ball style hone. They will catch the port edges and remove the plating.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top