http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/ (http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/)
Anyone have experience/opinion on this (says the man who is about to receive one of David's wonderful carb kits and has never seen the inside of a carb, much less cleaned one... :crazy:)
Personally, I'd skip ANY abrasive and only, use chemical cleaning methods. IMHO, the passages are calibrated and any 'porting' would effect mixture proportions. But do tell us how it works for you.
I have some experience with soda blasters (actually, I own one...) and IMHO they'd be fine for the outsides of the carbs, but that soft aluminum and brass is machined to a fine tolerance on the inside (at least theoretically) and while it'd likely be OK, why take the chance?
Also, there'd be a risk of those soda particles getting where you can't easily get them out - and believe me, they get in EVERYWHERE! That alone could cause you more work than using the blaster would save.
When I cleaned my carbs, I bought 6 large spray cans of Gumout Carb and Choke Cleaner (because they were running a good sale and it was the cheapest ;) ). I used 5-1/2 of them, but then my carbs hadn't been touched since the bike was new and had 18 years and 34K mi. of crud, inside and out.
As I was spraying them down, I collected all the runoff in an old metal coffee can, which I then poured fairly quickly into a large glass bottle with a tight-sealing cap. That stuff (or at least one of the ingredients) is extremely volatile, and I wanted to save it for a parts dip and for cleaning shop rags. Thrifty is as thrifty does! :)
Then it was down to the fine cleaning, with more spray and an assortment of tools. See my "Running Ragged in SoCal" thread for a more detailed description if you fel the need...
Cheers, and good luck!
threejagsteve