Vacuum leak testing smoke machine

“Hi you mention on lots of posts in your guest book about getting the air manifolds etc smoke test. Can this be done without having to buy a smoke machine.”

Well, you can use someone else’s smoke machine or pay a mechanic. They are REALLY handy for finding vacuum leaks. There are of course older methods that don’t work as well. Such as spraying carb cleaner around and area and seeing if the engine idle changes (indicating a leak in that area.) Guys used to use a little can of propane to do the same thing, but that’s PRETTY dangerous due to the possibility of a flame out burning your car down. And some guys use an ultrasonic sound machine and headphones to listen to where the high pitched sucking sound is coming from (like the Marksman that I personally use at times.) Smoke machines are Fast and Accurate. Now a smoke machine only uses 2 psi or so, so anyone really could invent their own smoke machine using a small fish aquarium pump and any source of smoke. But the smoke machine already built is really handy for us mechanics, as it’s all in one box, easy to use, and does hundreds of cars before it needs its smoke supply refueled.