leak down tester - which brand

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:22 pm

Hi there

I need to buy a leak down tester to do a bit of investigation on my 2 engines.

I've been checking out testers on ebay and there are a couple of brands that I recognise the name, but as they are in the $200 - $300 price range I thought I would ask for any ones experiences with a particular brand.

Thanks for your time
Scott

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:59 pm

build one yourself for about $20, all you need is two gauges, a regulator, a few fittings, and a piece of flexible grease gun hose.

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:54 pm

I'll have a look on the way home today but I think a regulator here is about $60. Worth a thought though.

I'm a bit slack at times and like the idea of clicking a button and having it turn up on my doorstep.

Thanks
Scott

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:55 pm

I bought mine from Harbor Freight for $45.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cylinder-leak-down-tester-94190.html

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:11 pm

I should see if they ship to Oz.

I just looked on the web site of my local machinery shop and regulator is $69 gauges are $30 each.

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:49 pm

headless wrote:

I bought mine from Harbor Freight for $45.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cylinder-leak-down-tester-94190.html

That's the one Ive got right now. If I ever get my hands on the guy that grabbed a milk crate of my snap on stuff... Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:39 am

Let me know if they can't ship to AU or it is totally crazy pricing. I can mail (intl 1st class) a 1kg package to AU for US$34 if you needed me to grab one and mail it out.

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:56 am

Hi Scott,
I have a regulator for the air line and I made a fitting out of an old spark plug,the steel part.I simply welded a BSP socket to it and screwed an air line connector into it.

Chris.

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:59 am

sillygoose wrote:

Let me know if they can't ship to AU or it is totally crazy pricing. I can mail (intl 1st class) a 1kg package to AU for US$34 if you needed me to grab one and mail it out.

Thanks for the offer. I will check out a few options here. There may be one that I can borrow.

Scott

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:27 pm

Gday sillygoose

Mate thanks for the offer. I haven't heard back from my mate who was going to see if he could get me one, so I checked on Amazon and there was one that they would ship to Oz. It's on the way and not too much more than buying the parts and making one myself.

Have a good day
Scott

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:00 pm

Great, I looked there and then on amazon.com.au and was surprised to see they only sell books there.

Glad you are squared away on that one.

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:26 pm

I'm not sure where it is coming from but only one type would ship to Oz and the others would not. The one I ended up getting was only around the $80 mark but if I bought the same one here it would have been about $140

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:11 pm

scottx wrote:

I'm not sure where it is coming from but only one type would ship to Oz and the others would not. The one I ended up getting was only around the $80 mark but if I bought the same one here it would have been about $140

Oh noooo the first negative I've heard about OZ!!! Cheaper to buy and ship in???? That $60 is more than a few cans Scotty!!! Good shopping bro....

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:37 pm

Things here in general are not cheap. For my genuine Honda parts I buy them from a dealer in Arizona he ships them to a re shipping company and they give me a couple of options for shipping and charge a fee. This is plenty cheaper than buying from a local dealer.

I look at my local sellers first and if it is 15% or so more than overseas I buy it here, but once it gets 30 or 40% more expensive they can jam it up their arse.

It doesn't take much longer to ship from O.S

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 5:08 am

Leakdown testers are an odd deal. There's no [automotive] standard for their construction, and the calibrated orifice between the two gauges makes as much difference in the indicated leakage as the actual leakage does.

I have a Snap-On single-gauge leakdown tester that I've used forever. It is extremely sensitive. Brand-new automotive engines show 20--40 percent leakage. Ten percent leakage is unusually good with this tester.

A few years ago, I discovered that the (U. S.) Federal Aviation Administration has specs for leakdown testers, based on bore size. A tester for engines with bores smaller than 5" is to use a certain orifice size, and a tester for engines with larger bores uses a larger orifice. This is at least a standard for comparison, but may not be optimum given the small bores of the typical motorcycle.

I also discovered that Continental aircraft engines are supposed to use a leakdown tester having a "Master orifice", it allows the leakdown tester to be standardized against a separate, calibrated leak with regard to ambient temperature and pressure.

I bought a leakdown tester suitable for Continental engines off of Amazon, current price is about $120. Claimed to be "Made in USA" but the gauges say Taiwan. As this is sold by an aircraft-specific vendor, you'll need to tell them you don't want the 18mm spark plug adapter, you'd prefer 14mm, or smaller as the case may be.

http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Tool-Supply-Differential-Pressure/dp/B005VR9H24?ie=UTF8&keywords=Continental%20leakdown%20tester&qid=1460696591&ref_=sr_1_fkmr0_1&sr=8-1-fkmr0