I just grabbed a can of this Seafoam penetrant from my local NAPA a couple months ago and have actually been pretty impressed with it the few times I've used it now. I just used it on the cables on my Toro snowblower as a test as well. It may not be a good test though because there are no current issues with the controls on the machine, I did it solely as a preventive measure.
For the past 35+ years as an Industrial Maintenance Mechanic I have been using Kroil. I love the stuff but I understand many don't like it because of the cost as I think it is the most expensive penetrant known to man. I had actually never heard of it growing up but once I got into the professional field back in 1988, I quickly became familiar with it, especially in our environment. The equipment we work on has many heat cycles between the freezer boxes and ambient multiple times a day and over time corrosion becomes a big issue, maybe even moreso that vehicles sitting in ambient for years exposed to the elements of mother nature.
I also have a small plastic squeeze bottle with a needle tip that have a mixture of AFT and Acetone. I know people swear by it and I do think it works well, but not as good as Kroil.
Last year when I pulled the turbo off my Duramax I was worried about breaking fasteners as that seems to be a common theme amongst turbo removals. I soaked the up-pipe and turbo stand fasteners the night before beginning the disassembly. I applied Kroil to one bank and the other was a mixture of Acetone/ATF and PB Blaster as a test.
While I didn't break any fasteners on the whole job, which is a blessing in itself, once the fasteners broke free I noted that the side with Kroil and those with the Acetone/ATF seemed to release slightly better as far as being able to thread them out by hand sooner in the removal process. The several that had PB Blaster I had to use the ratchet and socket a few more revolutions before being able to thread out by hand.
The interesting part was once the fasteners were fully removed, I noticed that the ones soaked with Kroil had more of the threads further away from the head of the fastener coated with penetrant than any of the others. This to me proved the slogan "the oil that creeps" to actually work.
I didn't have any of the Seafoam Deep Creep at the time but I would have liked to have thrown that into the mix as well.
I have also learned that having the ability to get access with an oxy/acetylene torch will do wonders on fasteners alone. Then drip in a little candle wax and makes for a smooth extraction.
