Baystate Jeepers

The 'very small evap leak' that's been tripping my CEL fantastic was, strangely enough, going away every couple months. And for the last couple years I was able to sync my annual inspection around it
But it's been lit up for months and it looks like this time, she's not going anywhere

Saw how it's not that hard to make a home-made smoke machine with baby oil, air tight receptacle, a glow plug and some 6 - 12 VDC. My question is, has anybody already done this and if you did, can I borrow it? Or you maybe know a place that would rent out a real smoke machine? I couldn't find any place that rents but I didn't exactly put a lot of effort into it

I can't help you with a DIY smoke machine, but I do have a question.

Have you replaced the gas cap? This happened with Kellys Rubi CEL came on, pulled the code, out popped "small evap leak" replaced the original gas cap and all was good.

Yeah, that was the first thing I did. But IIRC, it was an Auto Zone or Wally World POS. Maybe I'll try a factory replacement

Carl - This spring when I had my 1999 Saturn inspected I was battling the save intermittent Evap issue.
I reset the MIL light and kept checking to see if the Evap system had gone "Ready" for an inspection. The %$@! MIL would pop on after a few days and I'd reset again. Kept that up until the end of the month rolled around and reset it one more time.
Before it went "ready" the month came to and I figured I'd just take it in, have them fail me since it wasn't "ready", buy some time to get it straightened out.
To my surprise the inspector informed me they can pass a car for emission even if 1 or even 2 systems aren't "ready".
I PASSED inspection with my Evap not ready.

You might want to see if your inspection station goes by those rules too.

Noice! I have my little code reset device and it just dawned on me to swap caps with my XJ. Going to reset it and swap gas caps, see what happens. Did not know that about the 'ready' state, TYVM. I'll ask next time I'm there, the family that owns the station, I've known them for years