setting floats with water instead of gas

Is it ok to use water to set my floats instead of gas? I know this is going to take "many" try's and I'm not in a place that will deal with fumes well. Hope its not 'too' stupid of a question.

Not too stupid, but I thought this one out. On the surface it seems like a good idea, but it might go wrong for two reasons. The good, no fumes, not flammable, essentially free. The bad, gasoline has a lower specific density than water. It will actually float on top of the water. What does this mean? Well it means that the floats will "float" higher in the water than they would in gasoline. Thus, this will give you a false reading. It might be negligible, but .... Also, although there isn't anything that is likely to rust inside your carbs, but if the water wasn't totally eliminated, then it could lead to some tuning issues when the carbs got installed on the bike. My $.02

Gas is less dense than water (this is why water collects at the bottom of your gas tank) and the level you get with water in the carbs would be different than with gas. The floats would float higher in water than in gas and a level set to the proper height with water would be low with gas.

I wouldn't recommend using water, but if you do, set the levels high with water and then recheck using gas. Also make sure that you get all of the water out of the carbs, you don't want the passages to plug up with corrosion and your engine won't like running on water either!

I guess I typed too slow!

At least we agree!

JakeB wrote:

I guess I typed too slow!

At least we agree!

Great minds think alike.

A solvent like mineral spirits would probably be closer to gas and not flammable or stinky.

Didnt you like the answers on the other forum you asked the same question ?