Spent a few hours tonight researching how to make one of these. I have to say that your setup makes sense. I like the valve to adjust again at the can to make sure that the system isn't too pressurized. That's important because there are seals and parts that aren't designed to take much pressure. You have it right. Just enough to push the smoke, and having the visual with the can lid raising up and down helps to get an idea where it's supposed to be. You can say that if the can lid does pop off, it's like a safety pop up valve in a way. Nice job. I'll be making mine like yours. Thanks for the video.
Thankyou for the clearest best presented video on this subject. I hate it when people post mumbling videos then halfway through say "well, uhhh, that didn't work so we did something else..." etc etc. Good job and spurred me on to make my own.
I saw some guys videos were they were using a propane regulator and I contemplated on wether to get one at the time, but I decided not to for mine. With the intake, I plugged it off at the air filter to check all those couplers I have in between. My MAF sensor gets cleaned on a regular, but I believe I did clean it after this test for the same reasons you mentioned. I thought the baby oil might have contaminated it a bit.
Mine has a propane pressure regulator that drops the psi to 1. Also it is a good idea to disconnect the air intake hose and cover the throttle body to keep the smoke away from the MAF sensor. Mineral oil will leave residue on the MAF and can damage it. One reason there are thousand dollar machines is they use inert gas (argon) to provide smoke.
This is a good video. I have to make one for my vac leak problem. I like the ball valve at the can like you explained. Can you clarify --- the wick and wire --- is it to the bottom of the can immersed in the oil or above the oil with the wick dipping in the oil, drawing it up ?
Would you mind letting us know about the resistance wire in more detail? You are using a one-gallon can so exactly how long is the 20 ga. wire before you wrap it around the three wicks and where can I buy this wire....what is its brand name? If you would go over in detail all the necessary parts that would be great. Really like your workmanship and the video. Really helps out this old guy a lot and I am looking forward to building one as soon as possible. Thanks, Kenny
If you want to know the details of calculating the nichrome wire length, the link below will allow you to do that. Using it you find: Wire Length = 36" Wire gauge = 22 Temperature Produced = 762f Resistance of Wire = 1.9776 ohms Current = 6.072 amps Voltage = 12.00 volts www.easycalculation.com/engineering/electrical/nichrome-wire-calculator.php Show less
The video mentioned that overall wire resistance should be 2 ohms. It should be possible to calculate length of 20 gauge wire that gives this resistance.
The throttle body should already be in the close position since the engine is off. You could plug the line from the airbox if you also wanted to check between mass air sensor and plate.
put a rubber glove onto the air intake after you removed the intake box and the MAF sensor johns and put the rubber glove on the intake hose and cut a bit of one finger on the glove, put the output of the smoke hose into that cut finger and seal it.
