anybody heard of the propane torch trick for vacuum leaks?

[tb3]

just heard of this.
apperantly you can find vacuum leaks by turning on a propane torch (without lighting it), and run it along each vacuum line while the engines running, and when it speeds up or stumbles, you've found the leak.
anybody tried this?

[The Radius Kid]

Eeyup,I've heard of it.
I don't know if I'd want to be shooting an uncontrolled,flammable gas around an engine compartment though.

[earlbrown]

Heard of it, but I've never done it. No idea if it works better than spraying brake parts cleaner all under the hood.


Also heard of people using it to test 02 sensors. The science is that if you shoot propane down the intake tract, the 02 should o rich.

[Steve Wood]

I have done it...figure it was safer than spraying liquid all over the engine...

[TexasT]

If you decide to try it, at least do it outdoors. Any flammable gas can get contained in a confined space with disasterous results. You want the roof to stay on your garage.

[SuperSix]

If you decide to try it, at least do it outdoors. Any flammable gas can get contained in a confined space with disasterous results. You want the roof to stay on your garage.

And video record it, if you fail, at least you can become YouTube famous.

[Top Speed]

+1 on the video

[motorhead]

I am always spraying propane into my engine... and causing more vaccum leaks, than fixing them.

[Steve Wood]

If you decide to try it, at least do it outdoors. Any flammable gas can get contained in a confined space with disasterous results. You want the roof to stay on your garage.

One would have to spray a heckuva lot more than than the few seconds it takes to hit the vacuum hoses with in order to obtain an A/F that is roof lifting in your garage.

[TexasT]

When things become idiot proof, along come better idiots. Better safe than sorry.

[Steve Wood]

Nothing like creating science on the fly

[daveismissing]

one little hand held propane thermos dispersed across an entire garage?

[Steve Wood]

one little hand held propane thermos dispersed across an entire garage?

all you have to do is calculate the volume of the garage and the volume of the cylinder....I believe the leanest mix of propane that will ignite is about 45 to one...gonna take a bunch of those cylinders unless one has the world's smallest garage...

good thing about using propane is that if one did spray the nozzle across a spark, one would get a quick "pop" and that would be it..but if one was spraying brake clean...then everything that was wet would catch on fire...

I always wonder how all those cars in Europe that use isobutane as the refrigerants have not yet blown a parking garage into orbit...someth ing about science, I guess

[tb3]

seems like it would be cleaner than spraying with fluid if you had a nice pretty engine compartment  and what-not.
next time I check for vacuum  leaks I'll give it a try. 
I'll make sure I'm in a well ventilated  area.

I bet Hank Hill would approve 

[Pyro6]

As much as I enjoy a good explosion, I bought an economical smoke machine. It's almost mandatory for finding evap leaks for our stupid emission program.