I had an intake leak, and after looking at prices of smoke machines and the cost of having someone do it for me, I made my own.

Here is what you will need:

1. Soldering Iron
2. Mineral Oil. (you can get the cheapest food-safe mineral oil on amazon)
3. Duct Tape
4. Glass Jar (mine was from pasta sauce)
5. Fluid transfer hand pump. (https://www.harborfreight.com/multi-...ump-63144.html)
6. Rubber/Latex Glove

Building the smoke machine
1. Pour enough mineral oil so that it is about half an inch deep in the jar.
2. Put the (cold) soldering iron in diagonally so that the tip is in the fluid and touching the bottom of the jar.
3. Tape the hose from the transfer pump to the side of the jar a couple inches deep. Make sure it doesn't touch the soldering iron or is in the fluid.
4. Using tape, try to make an airtight seal by taping over the top and around the soldering iron and hose. It doesn't need to be 100% airtight as you need air to get into it somehow, but taping it as well as I could still had enough of a leak to let air in.




Plug in the soldering iron and the pump on the other end of the hose, and voila, you've got yourself a smoke machine. Make sure you connect the jar hose to the "suction" end of the pump. When connecting to the car, there are two ways that I have tried. Taping it onto the pcv nipple, or where the evap line connects to the intake. If you squeeze the hose onto the evap line nipple on the intake over that little ridge, it should create a good seal.


note the tape here is just because I couldn't get it off, and is not needed to connect to this evap fitting.


Disconnect the intake tube from the air box, and put a glove on it like so.

The glove should fill up as you use the pump, and maybe slowly deflate. If it doesn't blow up at all, then you likely have a very large leak somewhere. If the Glove keeps popping off, you can reconnect the intake hose to the air box with the glove still on like so:


After smoke fills the jar, you can start using the pump to fill the intake with smoke. If you have a larger leak, you will see lots of smoke coming from the location. For smaller leaks, look closely everywhere with a flashlight.

 

I did basically the same thing, but instead of the jar and soldering iron, I tapped a cigar to the input hose of the pump. Worked like a charm.

 

1. Cheap cigar

2. Short length of tubing, to connect to the port on the upper intake.

3. Rubber glove over the port on the opposite side of the upper intake, after removing the air intake tube.

Works like a charm, every time. No "machine" needed.

 

I did similar based on some instruction a few years ago using an air mattress pump:







This is a quick video on it working. I’m of course clueless, but it sure enough worked. Of note, it ruins the pump as it will perpetually smell like a cigar from then on out.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/Land..._9903-1280.mp4

 

I used one of the covers that comes with a MAF and put a hole in it for the hose, similar to above.