Air Leak Question

[watkins]

Ok.. just finished putting my Passion 12 Port Stoker together and am getting ready to take it out for the weekend... before taking mounting the motor to the frame I made a leakdown tester with a mighty vac and some tapered rubber plugs..... for some reason it kept leaking vaccum, and the more i messed with my rubber plugs the slower it leaked.. but in the end.. after 10 trips to the hardware store trying different plugs, caps, etc.. it still leaks slow (loses 6lbs in 10 seconds).... so... i put some pressure into the motor.. sprayed it down with soapy water... and no bubbles....so i fired it up... soaked the motor in starter fluid and no change in rpms (no reving or dieing).....

 

 

so.... perhaps my leakdown tester that I assembled is just a POS and isnt sealing properly... what do you all think? I have blown holes through pistons before for having an airleak and dont want to go through all that crap again.

 

Any suggestions? The bike runs fine.. both spark plugs are the same color.

[BigRed350x]

Ok.. just finished putting my Passion 12 Port Stoker together and am getting ready to take it out for the weekend... before taking mounting the motor to the frame I made a leakdown tester with a mighty vac and some tapered rubber plugs..... for some reason it kept leaking vaccum, and the more i messed with my rubber plugs the slower it leaked.. but in the end.. after 10 trips to the hardware store trying different plugs, caps, etc.. it still leaks slow (loses 6lbs in 10 seconds).... so... i put some pressure into the motor.. sprayed it down with soapy water... and no bubbles....so i fired it up... soaked the motor in starter fluid and no change in rpms (no reving or dieing).....

so.... perhaps my leakdown tester that I assembled is just a POS and isnt sealing properly... what do you all think? I have blown holes through pistons before for having an airleak and dont want to go through all that crap again.

 

Any suggestions? The bike runs fine.. both spark plugs are the same color.

 

Try putting some petrolium jelly around your plugs. Also, check out this post over on DuneReview. Guy made his own tester and it works good.

 

http://www.dunereview.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3476

[watkins]

Thanks for the tip. I just finished reassembling the bike and am going to take it out this weekend... i am going to do a couple plug checks about 1 min into riding to see if they both are the same color... should tell me if one is leaning out.... and I guess I will just keep an eye on it.... I just get really anal about this stuff because like everybody I hate it when stuff goes wrong.... but I did spray the bike all down with start fluid after it was warmed up and nothing happened.... so unless I have a bad crank seal i think I am ok.... i think :shrug: