Buckgnarly
Well-known member
Kroil is good, but Free All is soooo close to it, and sooo much cheaper. It's all we use at school and my home shop now.
Good Penetrating Fluids?
- Thread starter Beemer
- Start date
justintendo
Well-known member
Another vote for Seafoam deep creep. Also a great lube for cables, hot or cold.
the ATF and Acetone works great for me.
mreisner
Well-known member
I've had good luck with liquid wrench also, and on the farm a can of PB Blaster is never far away. But to be honest with you, if you can beg, borrow, or steal an induction heater that's your best bet. Once you use one you'll wonder how you ever got by without one.
roofdweller49
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2023
- Messages
- 180
How do you guys spray the acetone/atf mix? Doesn't it eat the plastic bottle?
Sure shot cans. I did find a much cheaper knockoff (still not cheap) on amazon that seems just as well built https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0069TUXHQ?tag=atomicindus08-20
Prospecter
Well-known member
I use the squirt oil cans. (all metal) The pump oil cans typically have gaskets that get eaten by the acetone. I keep Liquid Wrench around for smaller applications, but the advantage of the acetone/ATF is that it's so cheap I can use it with abandon.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
Why Kroil cost 4X what it used to be a mystery to me. It's good stuff but it's not first born child good. One thing that's worked for me is the combination of a mini-torch and paraffin wax. The Gulf stuff used in canning or any candle. Heat up the rusty **** with whatever you've got, a heat gun on kill works OK and melt the wax all around the bolt. The wax wicks into the joint and makes removal much easier. This method is impractical if you’re in a hurry but if you’ve got time it works quite effectively.
mattthemuppet
Well-known member
I don’t find any of them do much good to be honest. Whenever I’ve had a stuck fastener and got it off, the threads have always been bone dry no matter how long or how many times I’ve soaked it with penetrant.
Heat and freeze cycles however have never failed, plus some hefty application of torque
Heat and freeze cycles however have never failed, plus some hefty application of torque
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
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.
Jswain
Well-known member
1 word - internet
If you can make a product that people rave about on the internet, for right or wrong it's all of a sudden worth more & has nothing to do with the value or how good the product is.
People outside of the rust belt spray kroil on a fastener that looks like new and it comes right off, bam, best penetrant evarrr
And we all know how people love spending more money thinking they are getting a premium product, because it cost the most
What I don't get is the people who use kroil 3 seconds before they remove the bolt, talk about throwing your money away. If you're planning on using it like this the cheapest **** you can possibly buy will work as good.
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American Locomotive
Well-known member
I've used PB Blaster, Kroil, WD40, Liquid Wrench - I don't notice a difference between any of them If the nut is completely stuck. If the nut/bolt moves a little bit, I find spraying any kind penetrant in there and working the bolt carefully back/forth will help a lot.
But when it comes down to it, the only thing that I find truly effective is heat. The more heat, the better. Sometimes cycles of heating then quenching with oil also really seems to work well. I'm not sure if it's just the heat/cool cycles, or if the rapid cooling draws some oil into the threads.
But when it comes down to it, the only thing that I find truly effective is heat. The more heat, the better. Sometimes cycles of heating then quenching with oil also really seems to work well. I'm not sure if it's just the heat/cool cycles, or if the rapid cooling draws some oil into the threads.
shakenfake
Well-known member
So did skip 1st-12th grade where you learned to read? Or did you only learn math there too?
Silly goose.
Ya math. English wasn't challenging enough to catch my attention except for one teacher who got me when she said she changed her own transmission. Oh Annie Byre, you stole my heart.
College math in high school was just the thing to make it worth the time.
So here's a grade 1-8 math quiz; If you dig a hole 3' x 4' x 4' deep, what is the volume of the dirt in the hole?
Zeus36
Well-known member
Kroil or AeroKroil will penetrate to 1 millionth of an inch spaces.
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KSJeff
Well-known member
I use BG In Force. Mostly because they're in town and it's always worked for me. Pretty pricey though.
jbltwin1
Well-known member
Warm it up with a heat gun and melt some paraffin in. It does work for some things.
shakenfake
Well-known member
danielbuck
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2014
- Messages
- 919
I've been using BG In Force alot as well, mostly because my neighbor where I used to live worked for BG and would give me BG stuff all the time, so I never paid for it and still have several cans unused.
I use it on stuff that I suspect will give me trouble like exhaust studs and exhaust nuts/bolts, but I've not really seen any huge difference between various products (I used to use PB blaster alot a week or so before removing suspension components and such on old jeeps). That said, most of my old vehicles (1930's-1950's) are mildly rusty, but not CRUSTY rusty. So maybe I'm just lucky
Someone in the salt belt might have different experiences.I find hammering (somewhat gently) on bolt heads with a brass hammer to work pretty well for stuck fasteners in exhaust and what not.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
Screw the hammering gently with a brass hammer. Bash on it with BIG NASTY! It will either loosen up or disappear.I've been using BG In Force alot as well, mostly because my neighbor where I used to live worked for BG and would give me BG stuff all the time, so I never paid for it and still have several cans unused.
I use it on stuff that I suspect will give me trouble like exhaust studs and exhaust nuts/bolts, but I've not really seen any huge difference between various products (I used to use PB blaster alot a week or so before removing suspension components and such on old jeeps). That said, most of my old vehicles (1930's-1950's) are mildly rusty, but not CRUSTY rusty. So maybe I'm just lucky
I find hammering (somewhat gently) on bolt heads with a brass hammer to work pretty well for stuck fasteners in exhaust and what not.
jayemm
Well-known member
That pretty much matches my experience with the threads still being dry. The penetrant however wicked between rusted bolt heads and nuts and the flat surface they were tightened against, and loosened that bond.
In Project Farm's penetrant test, I didn't put much stock in rusted bolts in threaded plexiglas to show true penetration effectiveness. In metal-metal fastening I think that the extreme pressure on the threads from torque causes localized yielding of the metal, thus forming a liquid (and gas) tight seal, hence the dry threads.
thool
Well-known member
When I don't use heat, this is the method I use.
Then after the work is done, I'll coat the threads with some lanolin spray to help next time.
Like a lot of replies, I've been using Kroil for ~10 years, but it's gotten so expensive that I doubt I'd buy it again. I bought 6? cans directly from Kano before the price skyrocketed, and I'll most likely switch to something else when they're gone.
edit- I'm sure it's not the cheapest place to buy it, but a can of Kroil is now $35 on Amazon! I forget how much it was the last time I looked, but this is insane.
edit- I'm sure it's not the cheapest place to buy it, but a can of Kroil is now $35 on Amazon! I forget how much it was the last time I looked, but this is insane.
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Jswain
Well-known member
Yup. 6 pack of kroil or a induction heater hmm lemme think
. I'll take an induction heater and 1 can of the cheapest lubricant you have pleasevssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
They were always high but I think they got bought recently and it seems as everything changed
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
not anymore as it is as thin as water unless it is another product they sold not the kroil penetrate
The solvent has probably evaporated out of it over the years or decades. Which possibly can be remedied. If you look for the MSDS for Kroil they may list the type of solvent they use.
Like CGarage, I've used Liquid Wrench after viewing Project Farm's tests. Just got a Jacobs 6444 frozen chuck opened after three days. Besides using Liquid Wrench, I put it in the freezer for the better part of a day and then used a heat gun on it for a few minutes. It finally opened up just now.Aaaaaaaaaaaand……….
Still NO MENTION of Liquid Wrench, which performed only slightly below that of Acetone+ATF during Project Farm testing and I bought it last off Amazon for ~ $3.00 US per can!
Since I've tried Jack of All Sprays I've never looked back.
www.jackofallsprays.com
Home - Jack of All Sprays
Jack of All Sprays Get to Know Jack Jack of all Sprays traces its roots back to American Oil since 1895®. American Oil developed the original Vitalife® wire rope lubricant used on the suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, where it is still used today. Inspired by today’s advanced and...
16again
Well-known member
Glad you found a product that worked for you. I'm a firm believer in KROIL. Bought a couple cans a few years ago from Kano direct. Think it was $19.00 delivered at the time for both.
I'm a believer also. But I'm not going to pay $35 a can for it. You?
16again
Well-known member
Heck NO!