I have been mulling over how I should clean the pilot vaporizer and I came up with the idea of using a Bore Snake Rifle Cleaner. You can get Bore Snakes for many different calibers. I opted to go with a .177 Airgun Bore Snake because of my small diameter pilot vaporizer.
I had to cut the brass weight off the end of the Bore Snake because it wouldn't pass through the bend in the vaporizer. Then I threaded a piece of the stainless wire into the material so I could feed it through the bend without much difficulty. Once the smaller diameter portion of the Bore Snake has come through you can use it to pull the larger section which fits snugly against the id of the pilot vaporizer and removes the carbon built up on the surface. I pulled it through multiple times to much sure I got it as clean as possible. I won't be sure if it is solved completely until I've got some hours on it but I'll keep you posted.
A small side job of repacking the pilot needle reared its head once I had everything apart. The packing had become hard as glass and needed to be pried out with a small screwdriver. It was due for a repacking to seal it back up.
