I thought I would have a go at making a cheap version of a smoke machine to test for vacuum leaks
First of all started with a jar:

then a soldering iron, this ones' a wood burning tool from Lidl at £6.99 but same idea

I cut off the shroud so it would go lower into the jar:

Then drilled a hole in the top and sealed it in with some gel superglue (don't use hot melt)

I then bought some tyre valves and fitted two of them:



removed the valve part from inside one of them

then fitted a hose to that one

Then I put a microfibre in the jar and poured loads of Johnson's baby oil over it
shut the lid and plugged it in:

Now connect a bike pump to the other valve and pump away to get the smoke out of the black tube:

Cut a fingertip off a glove to fit the black tube end in and jubilee clip it on, remove the air filter and MAF and put the glove (wrist end) over the inlet hose and jubilee clip it on.


when you pump the bike pump the smoke pressurises and fills the vacuum lines (and glove!)

then just look for leaks:
I had one above that was coming from the joint by the jubilee clips.
so removed cleaned and refitted.
Checked also around the manifold vacuum plugs, the dipsick tube, oil filler cap, the manifold top, and all CCV hoses etc.
I had another puff of smoke from the middle of the rocker cover:
so had to remove it, clean off the old gasket and refit:

the leak however was from the rubber washers under the centre bolts, so swapped them for new ones and now OK.
Quite pleased that there were not many leaks, and for less than £10, I found some I would never have been able to see.
The videos didn't turn out well so will have to take some more, There is a lot of smoke from this set up, and the videos show it much much better.
First of all started with a jar:

then a soldering iron, this ones' a wood burning tool from Lidl at £6.99 but same idea

I cut off the shroud so it would go lower into the jar:

Then drilled a hole in the top and sealed it in with some gel superglue (don't use hot melt)


I then bought some tyre valves and fitted two of them:



removed the valve part from inside one of them

then fitted a hose to that one

Then I put a microfibre in the jar and poured loads of Johnson's baby oil over it
shut the lid and plugged it in:

Now connect a bike pump to the other valve and pump away to get the smoke out of the black tube:

Cut a fingertip off a glove to fit the black tube end in and jubilee clip it on, remove the air filter and MAF and put the glove (wrist end) over the inlet hose and jubilee clip it on.


when you pump the bike pump the smoke pressurises and fills the vacuum lines (and glove!)

then just look for leaks:
I had one above that was coming from the joint by the jubilee clips.
so removed cleaned and refitted.
Checked also around the manifold vacuum plugs, the dipsick tube, oil filler cap, the manifold top, and all CCV hoses etc.
I had another puff of smoke from the middle of the rocker cover:

so had to remove it, clean off the old gasket and refit:

the leak however was from the rubber washers under the centre bolts, so swapped them for new ones and now OK.
Quite pleased that there were not many leaks, and for less than £10, I found some I would never have been able to see.
The videos didn't turn out well so will have to take some more, There is a lot of smoke from this set up, and the videos show it much much better.
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