1999 V70XC Homemade smoke tester

aquamann71 · Post by **aquamann71** » 12 Apr 2014, 08:50

I made my smoke tester out of a plastic bucket that has a rubber o-ring inside the cover. I got it from the grocery store. It had pickled meat in it but any bucket with a gasket in the lid will work. I drilled two 2 inch holes in the lid. I used 4 quick connects that are used on pneumatic tools, 2 male thread and 2 female thread. Applied a bit of Teflon tape to the male ends first and screwed them down tight.

On one of the fittings i connected a 5 foot piece of clear tubing with a plastic fitting that comes with tire pumps used to fill air mattresses. On the inside of the same fitting i put a 2 inch piece of clear tubing. In the short piece of tubing I stuck a Colt cigar( I nipped off a bit of the filter so it would fit inside the bucket) and lit it with a blowtorch. I snapped the lid on tight and used my aid compressor to blow a small amount of pressure into the other fitting, making the cigar smoke backwards, blowing a steady stream of smoke out through the air mattress filling nozzle.

Turn your regulator on your compressor down to a bare minimum. I could stop the air flow by putting my finger over the air fill nozzle. From there I connected to the evap line up by the radiator and had someone blow shot puffs into it as I followed the line all the way back to the gas tank. I found a leak at the j-hose and at the line on the filler neck that allows air into the charcoal canister. I had a crack in the j-hose and the purge valve was stuck in the open position allowing gas to evaporate through the 2 spots even when the car sat over night. After fixing both things I smoke tested again and everything was tight and the top of the bucket swelled a bit from pressure and some leaked out around the lid of the bucket which was good because you should only be using low pressure anyway.

It worked so well I geared up a large rubber plug that fits in the filler neck and used this to test the gas tank for leaks. Found one at one of the sending units. I got about 2 minutes of burn time out of each cigar, which was plenty long enough to find the leaks. I hope you find this as useful as I did. And all for under ten bucks! Happy hunting.

Post by **januwan** » 12 Apr 2014, 11:26

Could you attach few pictures. I would be interested.

chrillew · Post by **chrillew** » 12 Apr 2014, 13:33

Yea pictures would be great! Video aswell

Post by **matthew1** » 12 Apr 2014, 16:58

Entered into the Volvo Repair Database.