I'm not in favor of wholesale replacing of hoses. It might be a good idea on
an engine with hard, brittle, stiff hoses, but ot all rubber hoses are made
equal.
I had my old Honda for 16 years, and only had to replace one hose (it rubbed
on a bracket and developed a hole). I replaced the hose with a good quality
hose - about 4 times during the 16 years. After 16 years, all the rest of the
hoses were in good leak free condition. I have also managed (on other cars)
to break the (plastic) nipples of various devices while changing hoses. Tends
to tick you off when you have to replace a $50 vacuum solenoid to replace
a $0.50 hose.
I have used a propane torch to check for leaks before. It works very well.
Just do it outside, and as someone mentioned, let it air out between tests -
i.e.
don't crank up the torch and continue testing non-stop for a hour. In any
case, I highly doubt that the propane will ignite from the heat around an
engine. I suspect that you are going to need a spark to ignite it - I know
that I can turn off the flame in my BBQ, and when the flames are gone,
crank the gas back on. No flames until I hit the "spark ignitor"...
By the way, I even bought a "special" tool for testing for vacuum leaks.
It's a regulator that attaches to the propane tank with a hose. The end
of the hose has a wand that I can probe around the engine to put the
propane "up close" to suspected leaks. It works quite well...
An as someone else mentioned, I hand held vacuum pump (such as
MityVac) can prove invaluable for searching for leaks and faulty components.
Tim Mullen
///
/// shop-talk@autox.team.net mailing list
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe shop-talk
///
///
|