Block Tester BT-500 Combustion Leak Test Kit - Made in USA

This is a nice piece of equipment. It was impressed me how well made and useful the tool was. In other words, it is basically a thick-looking piece of cloth A thin plastic tube capped with heavy rubber stoppers at both ends. It is added to a tube, and then the tube is pressed into the radiator filler neck with a small amount of liquid reagent. By pressing the rubber bulb repeatedly against the top of the tube, an air bubble will build up in the tube. Through a porous metal aerator, which bubbles the gases into the reagent, gasses are drawn from the radiator. When hydrocarbons are present, the reagent turns from blue to yellow after a few pumps. In the cap at the bottom, there is a check valve to prevent the reagent from draining out a check valve is also established in the bulb to ensure the pump doesn't pump the reagent out. In the unfortunate event that this tool was successful, I found that my 2003 Civic head gasket Putting the tube into the cooling system was easy, but I encountered difficulties if I accidentally drew coolant into the system. It took me two times to siphon off enough coolant from the radiator to perform the test successfully. The instructions recommend you remove enough coolant to give a few inches of space before beginning the test, but once the car started warming up, that was not enough to ensure a successful test. The design change that would help here is to provide a floating ball valve to prevent liquid from entering the tube (similar to that found in a wet/dry shop vacuum). After finally doing the test, I was still concerned that the yellow color of the reagent, which is similar to antifreeze, might be contaminated by coolant, but I discovered the level of reagent in the tube was still about the same as before (at the green line). In order to change the reagent's color to pure yellow, I added antifreeze directly to it and determined that it took a considerable amount of antifreeze. It would still be beneficial to use a dye that changes the color of the reagent that is used to substitute for antifreeze, if chemically feasible. My only other complaint concerns the rubber cap at the bottom of the unit, which I found to be inaccessible for cleaning, even though the top rubber cap is designed to be removed for cleaning. Although the cap is attached by a strong adhesive, the adhesive is too weak, and the cap can be removed without a lot of force if it is accidentally broken. In addition, the bottom cap can not be reattached securely after it has been removed, requiring more adhesive. This should be addressed by either making the bottom cap removable by design, or by using a strong adhesive that prevents the bottom cap from being removed. Here are a few other details You will be able to do several tests with the materials provided in the supplied bottle. The shelf life of the reagent is about a year, according to its instructions. If the reagent is used from a positive test (and it is yellow), then it can't be reused, but it is not clear whether reusing reagent from a negative test would cause any negative effects.

Karter CHARLTON

| Mar 16, 2021

Delivered quickly on Prime. Background I used it to confirm (?) that it was what I expected. (d) the Honda dealer diagnosed low coolant as two quarts owing to a leak in the radiator A radiator that is filled with bubbles Driving it is not recommended A more thorough diagnosis is required. Apparently, when they saw the bubbles, they opened up the engine and ran a leak-down test none of the cylinders were more than 3% leaking. They told me that they needed to perform a five-gas test, but they couldn't do so In order to keep it overnight and do more work on it, they would have kept it overnight, and that would have interfered with My first question was why they did not perform that ten minute long "five-gas" test before spending an hour tearing into the engine. And I wondered why they didn't just use one of these testers during the five minutes they had to spend. I found the story to be a bit shaky, or perhaps they were just clumsy and not very However, I wasn't entirely confident in their abilities at that point, so I sought the advice of someone else. Please use the tool provided below to enter the block You can find a lot of YouTube videos if you are not familiar with it. The level of the radiators should be lowered by 2 feet, following the directions on the card. The turkey baster should be used to remove 3 inches from the surface. The tester should be filled out. The tester should be placed tightly over the radiator opening and the bulb should be worked for an entire minute to draw the gases through it. 1) I ran the engine at a warm temperature. There were no bubbles to be seen. 2) I drove it on the interstate for a bit. I didn't observe 1) I tried it from scratch 2) I also tried it from the beginning 3) The overnight temperature was low. Did not see any of the bubbles the dealer mentioned. Every time I ran a visual test, I used fresh fluid in the Block Tester. Imperial royal blue remained the dominant color of the fluid. During one of the tests just for fun, I waved the fluid in the exhaust tailpipe plume with no negative effect at all (unless of course you were a very observant person). Translucent hot chrome yellow in an instant. There are no combustion gases in the radiator, so the fluid works, but it doesn't The color of one of the tests took a slight turn away from the deep imperial royal blue (almost indigo-like) and went toward still being strong blue but with the slightest hint of aqua after vigorous pumping for at least another five minutes. There were some concerns in my mind. Nevertheless, I did a follow-up test with fresh fluid out in the open, and it took a similar amount of time (spastic?) this time. It's pumping to get the slightest bit of aqua in the air. Here too, the conclusion is that there were no combustion gases in the cooling It is unclear what the Honda mechanic saw in the shop. A test that is amazing
Conclusion This is a really good tester. I really like the way it works. It is something I would recommend to a.

Terrance Winter

| Sep 02, 2020

The vehicle I bought was really good value for money, so I purchased it recently. It was built into my checklist to check for milky residue under the oil cap and to keep an eye out for white smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. Despite the absence of these signs, that vehicle still had a head gasket leak, which ultimately exposed the cooling system to It confirmed that for me within a very short time after I bought it. By using this tool, I was able to confirm a HG leak in its early stages before any serious damage to other engine components could occur. In addition, I will take this test kit with me now on every inspection of a used car and test for exhaust fumes in the coolant there and then. A few minutes later, you will receive your results with a high degree of accuracy, and it is non-invasive.

Aarav Patel

| Mar 02, 2021

An early delivery was made. took me no time to figure it out. To reduce the coolant level, shoot it down about a few inches from the top of the filler neck (so that the tester doesn't Adding the blue fluid to the tester fill line will make the liquid blue in color. Putting the rubber tip into the radiator filler hole is the next step. When the engine is The primer bulb must be pumped. I had to pump about thirty or forty times to get it working. The blue fluid in the coolant system will turn yellow when exposed to exhaust fumes. The one I had A bad head gasket is likely to be the cause. In the next step, I will perform a compression test to see how deep I should cut a long story short, it does exactly what it is supposed Getting a diagnosis is easy and cheap.

Lilyana Dyer

| Sep 22, 2020