BORESCOPE On Sale...

[~JM~]

Right now Harbor Freight has a Borescope on sale for $69.99

You need to find the coupon in their mailers to get the lowered price.

Here is the Ad for the Borescope: http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-67979.html

It's a pretty neat tool & is constructed a bit better than the usual Harbor Freight standard. I bought one yesterday & have played with it in the house a bit. It will be a very handy addition to the tool box.

Hurry up & go check them out before the sale is over.
~JM~

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks for the tip JM. Question: Is the camera head small enough to get past the FJ's spark plug threads into the cylinder?

TiA

[~JM~]

It won't make it past the small diameter sparkplug holes. It might make it through the large plugs.

~JM~

[Pat Conlon]

Thought so.....I'll pass.

[ribbert]

Thanks for the tip JM. Question: Is the camera head small enough to get past the FJ's spark plug threads into the cylinder?

TiA

Cool tools but what are you going to look at in there?

Noel

[Pat Conlon]

I ain't taking the bait Noel, Rather than wasting my time in listing what you could observe by looking into a cylinder with a scope, why not cut to the chase and have you tell me why it's a stupid idea....
You being a master mechanic and all.....

[Capn Ron]

After the first post, I wondered..."What cool things could you figure out by shoving one of these down a spark plug hole?"...seriously...what?  I even wondered how tough it would be to fabricate something like this in the garage...  A tiny CCD cam, an LED light, a flexible/bendable arm with a cable feed to one of about six spare monitors I have laying about.  I've always wanted one for work around the house...Is there a plumbing line behind this wall before I tear it down?  Does that light switch that seems to not do anything have wires running up to the second floor or out to the garage?  

So...in as humble a mannor as I can possibly muster...for the guy that just wants to learn from the collective...what information can be gained from sticking a borescope down a spark plug hole?  Maybe I'll just put one together in the garage...

Cap'n Ron. . .

[ribbert]

I ain't taking the bait Noel, Rather than wasting my time in listing what you could observe by looking into a cylinder with a scope, why not cut to the chase and have you tell me why it's a stupid idea....
You being a master mechanic and all.....

Pat, you seriously made me laugh out loud. Clearly my absence from the forum was not long enough and you remain suspicious of my simple questions.

That was not a loaded question and I had no intention of commenting further, the drugs are working.

Noel 2.0

[Arnie]

Capn Ron has come up with some good uses for a borescope,
but the more I think about it, the less use I can think it will be shoved down a spark plug hole.
With a borescope you could see all kinds of catastrophic damage, like a hole melted in the crown of the piston, or the head of a valve half buried in the same piston crown.  You might even see a huge crack in the cylinder or head itself if the resolution was good enough.  But in all these cases you'll have to tear down the engine anyhow.  And, you'd already have a pretty good idea that there was major damage.

Oh, if you were a perve, it could come in handy too. :-)

[~JM~]

C'mon guys... A mere $70 for a Do-It-Yourself Home Colonoscopy Kit! It even has an outlet jack & wire to send the picture to a TV or recording device. With Obamacare looming upon the horizon, you just might be money ahead.

Actually I see several uses for the tool. The camera head measures 16mm or .630" across the width of it. It also comes with 3 attachments that snap onto the camera head. It has a hook attachment, a magnetic attachment & a mirror set at about a 45 degree angle attachment. The camera head is water-proof & the hand-held portion has controls to adjust the lighting levels of the LED's, plus the orientation of the picture. You can feed it into a wall to check for mold, or find wires, etc. Run it down a pipe to see the condition of the pipe. Use the magnetic attachment to locate & retrieve that nut or bolt that you dropped. You can even use it to horrify & chase the Old Lady around the bedroom with.

~JM~

[Pat Conlon]

You guys are sick, I love it. I've wondered about a discount on the Obama Care insurance premium for self colonoscopys.... or even OB/GYN exams for the wife. Down load the pictures and email them in to the doctor that the Federal Government assigns to you....gotta be some cost savings right?
The wife wants to know if borescopes come with the option of a vibrating tip....

But I digress...

Sorry Noel, I really thought you were setting me up...( although still suspicious)

My experience with borescopes is third hand. I never needed one.
Let me explain. I have a Miata. Fun car, but normally aspirated a bit underpowered at ~125rwhp in a 2400 lb car. The 1.8 liter iron block 4 cylinder used in the Miatas originally came from the turbo 323 Mazda and as such, are a natural for adding Forced Induction. The engine comes stock with a Forged Crank, oil squirters, etc. Randy knows were I'm going with this.... The Miata crowd I'm involved with here in the desert regularly track their cars at Chuckawalla. 6 locals have turbo kits on their Miatas and have, depending on boost, between 280 to close to 400 rwhp. I gotta tell you, a 2200 lb track Miata with a power to weight ratio of 5.5 lbs/hp and wide R compound tires, that there are very few cars that can carry the corner speeds that these cars generate, and on a short curvy track like Chuckawalla, these cars are hard to beat.
As you can imagine, careful tuning on a dyno is critical. Egt's , fuel/air ratio via o2 sensors and microphones used for knock sensors are employed on the dyno.
However, as they say, the dyno is the dyno and the track is the track. The track is unforgiving.
Enter the borescope.
After a hot session and cool down, looking into the cylinder with a borescope one can see potential trouble spots before further damage $$ can occur. The borescopes I have seen used have a articulating tip that can look back towards the spark plug hole for inspection of the valve face, boundary and if open, the condition of the valve seat.
Valve cracks can be detected before a piece breaks off and FOD's the turbine stage of the turbo.
Piston crown's can be observed for center damage from pre ignition and piston edges observed for detonation.
Cylinder walls inspected for high rpm scuffing. A few keystrokes on a lap top can save thousands of dollars of damage.

I suspect what Noel was getting at...that for diagnostic work, a leak down and a steathscope will tell you where the damage is, but this is *after* the damage occurs. The borescope inspection can head off trouble by correcting any tuning issues *before* the damage occurs.

Sorry for the long story....Pat

[FeralRdr]

Well, at least those of us who haven't made it to an FJ Rally yet, now have a better idea of what goes on at such soirees.   

So please leave all colonoscopy scopes at home.   

[airheadPete]

Yes, Pat's right, borescopes good! Very popular inspection tool on our airplanes to inspect without having to disassemble, and looking for trouble before it finds you.
This is the cheap end, and the old saw about you get what you pay for still fits, but our dollars go so much farther in China.
This could potentially save someone a lot of money. (And cool bragging rights. "Excuse me while I whip this out.")

[rktmanfj]

Well, at least those of us who haven't made it to an West Coast, New England, or Aussie FJ Rally yet, now have a better idea of what goes on at such soirees.   

So please leave all colonoscopy scopes at home.   

FTFY...   

[FJscott]

We commonly use borescopes in the marine industry to diagnose/troubleshoot big bore 4 cycle Diesel engines.
The 2 strokes you can visually inspect piston rings and cylinder walls thru the intake ports however, the 4 strokes you must use a bores cope thru the injector hole. Usually we are trying to ascertain which cylinder is
is responsible for high oil consumption. With our FJ, we have a spark plug that tells the story with a trained eye
Along with a handheld infrared heat detector you can narrow dow