Technical FINDING VACUUM LEAKS the easy way

I sometimes read about people asking advice how to find a vacuum leak.
Almost always a common recommendation is to spray something flammable around the engine area that's suspected, and see if engine speed changes.
I can't imagine that method working unless the leak is huge.
Besides, I really really am cautious about creating a zone of flammable vapors and fumes around hot and possibly spark-inducing machinery.
I stumbled across a few helpful hints for finding leaks the safe way that is far more effective than hoping the engine changes speeds.
SOOO..... Here is a cheap device I made from spare junk laying around my used parts bins.
A jelly jar, a soldering iron, some baby oil, and a little epoxy.
Thats a wad of fiberglass cloth you see inside the jar to act as a wick to keep the soldering iron wet with baby oil.
Voila le smoke generator.
I blew smoke into the intake, or you could blow into the brake booster hose, and easily saw smoke signals coming from three hidden hose leaks that were making the engine idle rough.
I found other ideas on Youtube. It made me wonder why it took me so long to actually do it.
I think it cost about $5

Just plug in the soldering iron, wait a minute or two for the smoke, plug almost any of the car vac lines to the jar, then blow on the other hose.
Any well hidden vac leak will send smoke signals that are easy to spot.
...and you won't get a fireball from spraying too close to something...

Oh yeah - P.S. That tape you see where the wire enters the soldering iron is to seal up a smoke leak when I blow into the system. I put rtv gasket sealer around the cord, then taped it so it wouldnt leak smoke when I blew in the hose


WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

Nice device,thanks.

 

Cool. As I was trying to figure out what I was looking at and went back to reread, I had all my questions answered.........thanks for the edits, lol

 

Good idea,
Can make a "Lucas electrics replacement smoke generator" as well

 

does your fan not blow the smoke every where

 

Apparently, you do this with the engine off. Neat trick!

 

Yeah, but I wanna know what happens when you inhale? Jack E/NJ

 

We don't inhale,,,,,,,,,,,,,

He said

 

Spray never worked for me either..

I'd like to make something to come out the exhaust to get tailgaters off my bumper..

 

Now it makes sense! I am going to try this, I have an annoying vac leak which whistles on idle, and this is after changing 3 throttle bodies!

 

You have to pressurise it a tiny bit or the smoke won't want to come out.
Some ppl use a low pressure regulated air hose at 1-2 lbs, some use a bicycle pump.
I was about to use a harbor freight 6$ kayak bilge pump to push the smoke into the manifold, but simply blew on the hose, and that worked.

WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

A handful of pastachios out the driver's window takes care of that. Sounds like a gun going of when it hits the windshield.

 

1 idea that is "just blowing smoke" is good

Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Smoke um if ya got um. I like it!

 

Reminds me of my nights in the HOOKAH bars in ancient Persia, thanks for the tip.

 

I can appreciate the engineering, but how about firing up a big ole, uh, Marsh-Wheeling, take a Bogart drag, and shotgun it into the vac-port on the intake for the same effect?

 

A container of automatic transmission oil mounted above the carburetor, with a hose going to the carburetor ought to do it. Dont remember which movie that was in

 

Excellent, thanks for posting! Gonna make one soon. You said "That's a wad of fiberglass cloth you see inside the jar to act as a wick to keep the soldering iron wet with baby oil". So it's a big balled up wad you poke the iron into? And how much oil, just enough to wet the cloth or some actually sitting at the bottom? I have olive oil, vegetable oil, motor oil, why baby oil?

Thanks again!

 

Baby oil is just scented mineral oil and it has a flash point of about 280 deg F.
Canola or vegetable oil has a 621 deg F flash point but it also has a much higher smoke point of 500 deg F. Mineral oil's SP is 265 F and is used to make smoke in toy trains so it seems like a good candidate.
Please experiment with the different oils and get back to us.

Edit: Just realized a 25 watt soldering iron can get above 400 F so now I'm totally confused.

 

You will completely forget why you are doing it in the first place and go and get a snack.

 

Hey, don't want you guys to get the wrong idea:

Btw, anybody else hungry?

 

I'm not a cigar guy, had no clue. Can you tell I grew up in the 60's-70's.

 

..........C'mon mon, not this............

 

OK ,I get it now ,thats what Cheech and Chong were doing in that 64 Chebby ,checking for vacumn leaks.

 

We used an oil can full of trans fluid with a small hose thru firewall, wired to top of carb. Get rolling, start with a pump of oil can to see how much smoke it makes. Go from there. It will be funny. You can make the rest of the world disappear, if you keep can keep the engine running. Do not hang around the area after.

 

I built one and used it yesterday. Works great. Thanks for posting.

 

I just now made another smoke machine because someone borrowed mine

Here's a pic of what I do to make sure I get good contact between the baby oil and the heater.
I buy a kerosene lamp wick from the camping section at Wal Mart, and wire it tightly to the soldering iron with a bit of picture hanging wire also from Wal Mart. That way I know the heater stays wet with oil, while the wet fiberglass wadding in the jar keeps the wick supplied with baby oil. I keep the wadding damp without a puddle.
One wad of oiled glass fibers lasts a long long time without needing an actual oil puddle in the jar.
Just simple wetness is the smokiest.
We just finished tracking down several impossible-to-find obscure vacuum leaks in the strangest places on a smog-controlled rotary engined turbo Mazda, and it made a world of difference

Like the guy said, baby oil has a low temperature smoke point, so it is easier to use, and you shouldn't need welding gloves to handle the bottle.

WHY BE ORDINARY?

 

Got one done and it worked great on the bench, took it to the car and plugged it back in, nothing. The cheapo HF iron I bought won't even get warm now. Dang, all nicely glued in too.

 

blowby is that jar full of oil? Might be too much.