Does styrofoam dissolve in gasoline?

[atticus427]

Recently bought a rebuilt carburetor off ebay for my GS400. The seller seemed knowledgeable and the carb looked really nice in the pictures. The price was fair and I've been waiting the last 10 days for the carb to arrive.

When I unpacked it today, I discovered that the seller had packed it in a very unfortunate way. The bottom of the box had strips of foam rubber with the carb placed on top (so far, so good) but in an attempt to stabilize the top of the carb, a large flat piece of styrofoam was placed directly over the bare, open top of the carb. The box was then taped up and shipped.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the box were all the hundreds of small pieces of styrofoam that had been rubbed off the larger piece during shipping. Inevitably, many of these found their way into the carb itself. Ended up disassembling the entire top half of the carb and found styrofoam bits in the main fuel bowl, secondary wells, and within one of the jets. To make matters worse, one of the metering rods is bent.

The carb supposedly has a warranty and I've contacted the seller. If the styrofoam hadn't fallen into the carb though I may never have known the metering rod was bent. I bet that thing would've run like a real POS and I probably would've been looking everywhere but the carb, seeing as how it had just been rebuilt. We'll see if the seller will give me a partial refund but I guess in the end it amounts to caveat emptor. Probably not worth getting worked up over in the grand scheme of things.

[MattRush10]

Yes Styrofoam does dissolve in gasoline. That's how homemade napalm is made, by dissolving a large amount of Styrofoam in gas, and it leads to an extremely flammable substance. Hope all goes well and you get a working carb!

[doc]

Mike ,,, Yes, gasoline is definitly a solvent for styrofoam,,,, one of my favorite tricks was to tell a helper at the shop to go out back and pour a little gas into a styrofoam cup and not spill any of it.....

[Rad005]

Carb cleaners like Gumout will also dissolve styrofoam. Made that mistake once. I sprayed Gumout on a carburetor then sat it down on a sheet of styrofoam and went in the house. Came back later and found the styrofoam gone and the carb setting in white goo.

[Golden Oldie 65]

Mike ,,, Yes, gasoline is definitly a solvent for styrofoam,,,, one of my favorite tricks was to tell a helper at the shop to go out back and pour a little gas into a styrofoam cup and not spill any of it.....

[atticus427]

It's good to know that the styrofoam probably won't hurt anything ... unless it obstructs an air passage I suppose. I still have the bent metering rod to contend with but I have several spares. Should be no problem to get a working carb, just the inconvenience and annoyance of having to fix something that should've been ready to install.

[steve covington]

Actually, it WILL hurt stuff. It dissolves and STICKS to where-ever it stops... (Sick joke, but the line from movie "An Officer and A Gentleman" was based on a cadence call; the response is 'Cuse napalm sticks to kids')

[69GS400s]

old trick in making hollow molded parts - sculpt it with styro, glass over it, then use gas to dissolve the styro leaving the fiberglass shell

[brandotheamazin]

if you disolve enough styrofoam into gas, it becomes like extremely flamable silly puddy! we used to do that at the boat yard, and light little bouncy balls on fire and toss them at each other. dumb? yes. Fun? extremely.

[redbullz]

atleast you got some free napalm

[Poppaluv]

I've learned a lot reading this thread......

[1967GS340]

Mike ,,, Yes, gasoline is definitly a solvent for styrofoam,,,, one of my favorite tricks was to tell a helper at the shop to go out back and pour a little gas into a styrofoam cup and not spill any of it.....

That's just cruel, and funny.

[atticus427]

Still no reply from the seller. We'll see if he owns up to the problem(s).

[12lives]

Oh Man - I hate it when that happens! Those styrofoam crumbs get into everything when they are shipped that way. I tell the sellers to please put the item in a plastic grocery bag and seal it. At least then there is a fighting chance that the part will come out clean!

- Bill

[atticus427]

Did hear from seller (oceangrl51 in Texas) and hopefully everything is on the way to getting straightened out. He's sending a replacement metering rod and refunding me $25 for the hassle of having to take the carb apart. I'm happy with the deal. It's nice to see someone try to do the right thing rather than just try to sweep it under the rug or deliberately screw someone over.

[Poppaluv]

Mike , that is great news! Does Ocean girl deal with mostly Buicks? I hope you tell her how stand-up that is. She'll get much love from this board!!!!!! Glad to hear of a good one!!!!1

[lapham3@aol.com]

Glad it's working out-a 'carb guy' should know better and in a plastic bag to keep any contaminants out. That doc was/is quite the character-if I had been working with him over the years-one or both of us would probably be dead by now!!

[atticus427]

Mike , that is great news! Does Ocean girl deal with mostly Buicks? I hope you tell her how stand-up that is. She'll get much love from this board!!!!!! Glad to hear of a good one!!!!1

The seller's name is John and he's from Bulverde, TX (I also figured it was a woman with the user name of oceangrl) I don't know what his inventory primarily consists of but he's sold quite a few GM carbs (Buicks and Pontiacs mostly from the looks of it). Does seem like a good guy to do business with and has 100% positive feedback.

[atticus427]

Update:

Got the $25 refund and the seller mailed me a set of primary metering rods free of charge. Got everything put back together but did find out that the power piston retainer was loose and may explain why the metering rod got bent in the first place (piston popped up during reassembly and the rod got bent when the air horn was screwed down). Did have some trouble getting the choke linkages straightened out but it went much better when I stopped trying to put the rod in backwards.

Anyway, glad there are still people out there who care about their reputation enough to fix an honest mistake.

[Joe Kelsch]

I've also heard that styrofoam disolves in brake fluid.

Someone told me a great way to destroy someone's paint job is to fill a styrofoam cup up with brake fluid, place the cup on the roof of a car and walk away.