Smoke Tester made

[colb]

Got around to making a smoke tester after thinking about doing it and the need of one to check a members car cropping up. Used bits I had lying about in the zshed and utilises a large can my block paving sealer came in. Sacrificed my old soldering iron for the heat source and treated myself to a new iron. Hooked up to my compressor and burning baby oil soaked into cotton material produced a good supply of smoke. Just got to try it out on a car now. This is going to be a useful addittion to our South Wales Z Shed.

 

[Pingu]

I bought one, but I like your style.

I used mine to test straighteners in the MAF, are you testing for cabin leaks?

 

[colb]

Mates 2.2 is running lean, we suspect air leaks in the system letting unmetered air in, plan on shooting smoke in via the brake booster hose with the maf removed and inlet bellows hose capped. Hopefully we will see the smoke from any leaks, visual check of what we can see didn't come up with anything. Someone else recently put a new lower intake hose in but I don't think that was the only leak it had. The smoker is in a 20 litre can, bit over the top but thats what I had in the garage so rather than bin it I used it, really good seal on the lid, it has an expanding ring that locks on with a lever on the ring so the lid won't blow off if it gets too much pressure. Found that setting the compressor on about 1.5psi it blows a nice stream of smoke.

 

[handsomejackuk]

nice one can't wait to see it in action. shove some woodbines in there and you and Dave be set up for the day...!!!!!

 

[Mario]

I'd love to get this done to my 3.0 I think I have a small vacuum leak somewhere and I can't pinpoint where with the usual methods

 

[Lee]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing what it shows

 

[mrscalex]

I have to say that looks very ingenious. I’d like to come and hook up my Titan Silver 2.2 up to try it.

 

[Mario]

I am surprised there's not one on the original Zed Shed already happy to donate baby oil for the project

 

[mrscalex]

I am surprised there's not one on the original Zed Shed already happy to donate baby oil for the project

Has the happy event taken place yet?

 

[Mario]

Has the happy event taken place yet?

Yes it has

 

[colb]

May try it out on Davester2.2sport's car at the Brecon Classic car show on Sunday, worked out how to power it up away from the garage using a 12v -240v transformer plugged in to the Z and a large bicycle pump stirup pump type to push the smoke. May try a 12v pump on it if the bicycle pump fails, think handsomejackuk carries one in his boot. If anyone wants to test their car your quite welcome to pay me a visit and we can fire it up.

 

[handsomejackuk]

i got a track pump too if thats any use to bring with me tomorrow.. maybe we can start charging other cars at the show for our services...!!!!!!

 

[handsomejackuk]

@colb tested this out today at Brecon classic show, and it works great i got a few pics i will upload later. i did try to get the smoke but not sure it can be seen.,

 

[colb]

Yep worked a treat, found Daves leak straight away, its the pipe that dissappears under the inlet manifold through a small pump. Couldn't see much more needs stripping down a bit to get at it, thats a job for next Saturday once the parts are obtained. Its No 2 in the oem picture, may also be leaking from the small pump No 1 in the picture. Dave is going to renew the set, will be getting them from Sopers.
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=CN12-EUR-09-2001-Z3-BMW-Z3_22i&diagId=11_6241
The pipe is secured by those awful crimp type clips, will be using good jubilee clips on the new one.

 

[Lee]

Thats awesome, and the fact it found it so quickly.

 

[handsomejackuk]

67688765_726904204412662_6058876709103468544_o by handsomejackuk, on Flickr