Anybody with an EVAP smoker/tester in Charlotte area?

bigwaylon

bigwaylon

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Charlotte
My '03 Ram is giving me an EVAP leak code. At just over 100K, it's not really a surprise, but I don't want to just blindly start replacing hoses. I've tighten the gas cap (not yet replaced it) and reset the code a couple times, but I always comes back. Definitely appears to be a leak and not just a random code.

Anybody have access to a smoke machine to help me troubleshoot?

Thanks.
Greg
 
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the help. I'm well aware that there are a lot of places the leak could be...hoses, connectors, solenoids, valves, canisters, etc. I've eyeballed most of it and don't see anything obvious. With the mileage and age if the truck, every rubber hose on it has small cracks on the outside. But I don't know how bad any of them are, or if any of them are cracked all the way through.

Which is why I want to smoke test it for leaks instead of just going in and replacing every hose/fitting/etc that shows a little wear after 10+ years and 100K+.

Thanks.
Greg
 
I don't have one, but I have found several evap system leaks by buying a cheap non vented gas cap, drilling a hole through it, and sealing a shrader valve in the cap. Then put the cap on, lower your regulator way down, and put no more than 5psi in the tank. You can then listen for the air escape and track it down. (This also works awesome if you have a duramax or other diesel without a lift pump to prime the fuel system, works 10x faster than hand pumping, that's what I originally built the cap for) I've used that method to find two evap leaks on my wife's Infiniti, and one on a family member's Honda. There was one other I was able to hear escaping but never found the leak so they had to take it to a shop with a smoke machine, wound up being the gasket around the sender.Be sure not to put more than 2-5psi in, or you may risk creating another leak.

I have heard of others using my method, but using a party fog/smoke machine and pumping the smoke into the tank, then pressurizing the system to push the smoke out.
 
GCncsuHD said:
I have heard of others using my method, but using a party fog/smoke machine and pumping the smoke into the tank, then pressurizing the system to push the smoke out.
Click to expand...

I've read quite a few posts where people have done this successfully. The fog machines are $30 or so, and the liquid fog is $12-$15.

That might be my next step if I can't find somebody with a real tester.
 
Just to add, my method works best on a nearly empty tank, as you can get more air in the tank (as opposed to a full tank with incompressible fuel in it). On a nearly empty 15gal tank in my wife's Infiniti, filling the tank to about 5 psi gave me about 2 minutes of time to listen and feel around for the air escaping through an 1/8" broken off nipple on an evap solenoid before all the air was gone. On a full tank, with say only a gallon or so of airspace to fill, that may have only lasted 10 seconds or so.
 
Back
Top