I scored this old smoke machine.

[discostew]

Hey so this thing was getting tossed a couple years ago and I took it off the cart they usually sit on. Parts is using the hand truck and I’m finally looking at the good part.
So here’s my question. It states on the side of the unit that it should only be run on nitrogen to not damage the unit. I plan to disregard that warning and run the thing on shop air supply. Unless of course somebody can come up with a good reason not to do that

 

[jymmiejamz]

I’m pretty sure it is nitrogen only because it’s made for testing an evaporative emissions system. Even though everyone uses shop air in the newer JLR machine, it does say to use nitrogen in a Evap system

 

[discostew]

I’m pretty sure it is nitrogen only because it’s made for testing an evaporative emissions system. Even though everyone uses shop air in the newer JLR machine, it does say to use nitrogen in a Evap system

Yeah that makes sense. But I’ve been using the new smoke machines in all these evap systems and they use shop air. Plus with all the shitty additives and ethanol in the fuel these days my shop air supply isn’t going to be worse.

 

[JUKE179r]

Congrats on a great purchase.
You will be good using shop air with a good filter to trap moisture and contaminates.

 

[jymmiejamz]

Yeah that makes sense. But I’ve been using the new smoke machines in all these evap systems and they use shop air. Plus with all the shitty additives and ethanol in the fuel these days my shop air supply isn’t going to be worse.

Yeah same, I think it’s just the fire/explosion danger of adding compressed air to the fuel system, not cleanliness of the air

 

[discostew]

Yeah same, I think it’s just the fire/explosion danger of adding compressed air to the fuel system, not cleanliness of the air

That makes sense.

 

[JUKE179r]

It’s not like you are pumping 60 psi into the fuel system with the smoke machine. It’s like 2-3 psi max.

 

[discostew]

It’s not like you are pumping 60 psi into the fuel system with the smoke machine. It’s like 2-3 psi max.

Yes that’s about right. The machine says to input nitrogen at 50 to 160 psi. Then there’s a regulator inside probably similar to what’s on a propane grill. So I’m just going to input my shop air supply. I’ll regulate it down cause sometimes I like to crank up my air supply to about 170 psi