Smoke ‘Em if Ya Got ‘Em
In our shop, we don’t have a dyno or engine test stand. We work on a variety of engines from Chevys to Internationals to Continentals, so no engine start stand would suit everything we do. In an effort to find oil leaks, we have started to “smoke” our engines. In our store one of our outside sales guys was demonstrating a smoke machine commonly used in auto body shops to find a leak in trunks, sunroofs or windows. They are also used in exhaust repair to find any small leaks in a pipe or joint. We borrowed it to test an engine we had just finished assembling. We plug up the holes in the valve covers with plastic plugs or masking tape and then we pump smoke in through the dipstick tube. We are now able to find any potential leak, and test all of our complete builds. Looking for those leaks can be a big job. We can easily find the small ones that just sweat enough to make a mess and attract dirt. Our smoke machine use cooking oil to make the smoke, which I would recommend over other machines on the market that take a special solution you would have to order and maybe ship in. Cooking oil is available at the local grocery store.
Brad Luck
Weaver Auto Parts
Sauk City,WI
December, 2014
