Getting Rid Of Carb Dip Smell

[Birken Vogt]

I had some carb dip, you know the old smelly kind slop on the pavement behind my garage and now the stench is killing me...anybody know what this stuff is and how to neutralize it a bit

 

[Delmer]

I'd sprinkle it with wood ashes and dampen it with water. Just a guess as to what it would do, but you've got the alkaline and the powder working together. Let it sit a couple days damp and then hose it off.

 

[Ronsii]

Your post brings back lot of memories.... smelly memories I don't think ever found anything that would clean it off... just time. Even parts hosed down with berrymans/brake cleaner/carb cleaner still had an odor, so anything that gets on your skin or clothes is gonna be that way for a couple days at least unfortunately.

 

[thepumpguysc]

baking soda.. cheap & easy.. let it sit, hose it off.. let us know.

 

[kshansen]

Your post brings back lot of memories.... smelly memories I don't think ever found anything that would clean it off... just time. Even parts hosed down with berrymans/brake cleaner/carb cleaner still had an odor, so anything that gets on your skin or clothes is gonna be that way for a couple days at least unfortunately.

Many years ago we had a large tank of that stuff at the shop, big enough you could submerge a 12 cylinder Cummins block with most of the other castings at one time! Did do a good job cleaning things but THE SMELL!

Agree on trying the baking soda or wood ashes, both pretty cheap and not offensive if they don't work.

If you have more information on the stuff, like brand and product name you could do a search for MSDS on it to see if they give you a basic chemical description. That might point in the direction of what would counteract it's make-up.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I got rid of the can as soon as I saw what was happening. I seem to remember it is some kind of cresol/creosote type stuff. It smells a little like creosote from an old railroad tie only much more offensive/sharper.

I remember years ago a rental house on the farm. Grandma had some dirt bag renters. She finally got rid of them and we were left to clean up their junk. One thing was a 5 gallon metal bucket of this stuff well used. I did not know how to get rid of it so I put the can outdoors one of those barbecue starter heating elements under the bottom of the bucket. It boiled out there for days and the stench was tremendous. It was near my house. In the end I was left with a couple inches of solid black plastic that I guess was all the dirt from the years. Threw it in the garbage.

 

[DIYDAVE]

Take a dump on the stain, that'll take your mind off'n it, for a while...

 

[Birken Vogt]

Just a plain water hose on a trickle for half a day has done wonders for it. I'll wait a couple of weeks and see how bad it still is.

 

[thepumpguysc]

yeah don't spend .60 on a couple of boxes of baking soda.. just wait acouple of weeks..

 

[Old Doug]

I most be nuts because i never thought it smelled that bad kind of like lysol

 

[Birken Vogt]

I know what you mean, in the past I have detected a hint of lysol in the fumes from creosote wood but this stuff is just plain obnoxious. All last week I had to smell the empty can stewing in the garbage can in the hot sun, now it is finally gone and the stench has pretty much dissipated from the area, but my word, that has got to be one of the most obnoxious smells there ever was and this coming from a guy who worked in the propane industry for years.

Reminds me of when we would take the valves out of an old tank from the 1940s for some kind of repair in the summertime and it would sit in the hot sun and stew for a couple of weeks, flies everywhere dying of happiness.

 

[Old Doug]

I work on at a place that sells propane. That smell will go through rubber gloves.

 

[Truck Shop]

Years ago--when I would stop by to visit my dad after work his first words were {been rebuilding carbs today?}

Truck Shop

 

[Birken Vogt]

I work on at a place that sells propane. That smell will go through rubber gloves.

Sometimes old tanks, especially ones that were nearly empty would have more stinky brown oil than propane in the bottom it would seem. If liquid sprayed out it would bubble and fizz like the oil from an air conditioning system. If you had any of that oil get on you, you would smell it for weeks.

Put me completely off garlicky white pizza/pasta sauce for about a year one time, the smell was nauseating to me.

Of course nowadays I can even smell propane on my skin/clothes for a couple hours if some vapor hits me. When I worked there I would never even have noticed it.