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Dropped $340 on a smoke machine for finding vacuum leaks and I still can't decide if it was worth it
Bought a cheap smoke machine about a year ago for $340 after chasing a rough idle on a 2008 Silverado for two full days with carb cleaner and getting nowhere. Hooked it up, pumped smoke into the intake, and within 4 minutes I watched it curl out of a cracked intake gasket right at cylinder 6. Job paid out in under an hour and the customer was happy. Then last month I used it on a Ford Escape and the smoke just billowed out from somewhere near the firewall and I still never pinned down the leak, ended up shotgunning a purge valve and getting lucky. Half the guys in my shop say a smoke machine is a must have and the other half say you can find 90% of vacuum leaks with a water bottle and your ears. I'm leaning toward it being worth it just for the time saved on the obvious ones, but that $340 could have bought a lot of other stuff. What's your cutoff for buying a diagnostic tool versus just fighting through it the hard way?
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