@RON ARNDT 091718 posted:I recently had the shell off of my LionChief Plus SOO Line engine. This engine needs plenty of smoke fluid to smoke properly. Since I could see how the wick was absorbing, I kept putting in drops and counting...counting...counting. I got up to 85 drops and the wick was still absorbing. I tipped it upside down next nothing came back out. Put the shell back on and did a test run. Talk about smoke...lots of smoke!!! When the smoke finally disapated after a couple of run sessions, I put in 40 drops. Not enough. I had to put 40 more in to make it smoke properly. The amount of smoke fluid needed varies by engine.
The only other things I would add is that (1) it also depends on Legacy settings, like EFX, and good voltage to the track, and (2) there's a kind of Rubicon at the time Lionel issued the Legacy AC-9 steamers (whenever that was), when they reportedly changed the code to up smoke unit output on Legacy steamers (if not other engines as well).
Over the longer term, there have been so many varieties of Lionel smoke units that it is hard for a mere mortal such as yours truly, without an EE degree, to keep track - let alone understand.
