Penetrating oil test

[Danglerb]

Most of what I use WD40 for is to clean stuff, same for Marvel Mystery oil. Both are cheap in bulk, so I keep a spray bottle full of each of them handy.

Nobody mentioned them, but I am looking forward to some fastener that makes me buy one of the small induction heaters, but no luck here in Calif with no salt.

 

[txlonghorn1989]

Interesting. I have a can of PB Blaster I bought last year to try and free up a plane blade. It still hasn't come free. I figure that can will last me the rest of my days but if I ever do run out I'll try the Liquid Wrench.

 

[pullen0]

Shop welder at work removes a lot of broken/rounded bolts. After tacking a new bolt to it, he melts beeswax over it.

 

[Fender1325]

I restore cars. The absolute best method I've found (and I've used kroil, wax, PB, WD, etc) heat with a propane torch for a minute, then ice down, tighten the fastener a little by hand, then loosen. This might take 2-3 applications but it works every time for me, and what's also great is it doesn't destroy the threads. Most recently I used this method on some 63 year old rusted exhaust studs. Works like a charm. The wax's and oils just make a mess and don't really work that well.

That being said, if it's something I can't use heat on, PB blaster is my favorite, and yes it can take days (unless you just drill and retap.)

 

[Maui]

I wonder what would happen if I used Evapo-rust overnight to try and loosen up a rusty nut/ bolt instead?

Maui

 

[Tduby]

My tests show the roil I get free from work works the best but that could change if they decide to stock something else

 

[bpjr]

I restore cars. The absolute best method I've found (and I've used kroil, wax, PB, WD, etc) heat with a propane torch for a minute, then ice down, tighten the fastener a little by hand, then loosen. This might take 2-3 applications but it works every time for me, and what's also great is it doesn't destroy the threads. Most recently I used this method on some 63 year old rusted exhaust studs. Works like a charm. The wax's and oils just make a mess and don't really work that well.

That being said, if it's something I can't use heat on, PB blaster is my favorite, and yes it can take days (unless you just drill and retap.)

I use heat and ice for the difficult fasteners too...I've cycled this method up to maybe 10 times before breaking tough ones loose. Over the yrs I found most frozen nuts are locked at the outer joint with the stud and aren't frozen in the middle of the threads. Wire brushing is the first thing I do if access is possible. I use one of the HF mini butane torches for tight places and pinpoint accuracy on the stud or nut. PB Blaster is used before wire brushing to make it easier but it hasn't worked alone very good compared to brushing and heat. Back in the day I used Liquid Wrench in the rectangle can and liked it but as of late I don't rely on any of the penetration oils to do much.

That being said, I'm a home diy guy and most of my difficult work is on outboard motors and old rusty lawn equipment.

 

[JerryC]

My opinion over the years has come down to what you are doing is very little to help break the fastener free but you are doing a significant amount to help it come off the rest of the way after it is loose.

Wire brushing the rust off the mating surfaces and threads and then lubricating those points is pretty much all you can do. I never believed that "penetrating oil" penetrates very far on something that is rusted through. Certainly not in just a few minutes.

 

[Broke_Again]

My go-to has been PB, but I'm inherently impatient and have a low threshold for breaking out the "heat wrench" as my dad used to call it.

 

[ItsNemo]

I have PB and Liquid Wrench here (and WD-40 because everyone has a can of this stuff). From my experience, Liquid Wrench does seem to do a better job on rusty suspension parts and such than PB blaster which never feels like it helps. It does take sitting for 5-10 minutes to have an affect but I've had situations where I need to pull say a half dozen sub frame bolts...first one is difficult, spray the rest with LW, wait, and the rest come out noticeably easier.

 

[kelpaso1]

I personally don't think any of these chemical sprays do anything when it come to actually breaking the nut or bolt loose. Take for example ride on mower blades that haven't been taken off for years. The big bolt or nut is rusted to the blades and the threads. I spray them for a couple days and when I do get them off with my "advertised" 1000 ft/lb impact there is NO evidence that the spray made it to the threads or even under the bolt head or nut. Once you get it loose it does help unscrewing it the rest of the way.

 

[Schurkey]

I get never-ending chuckles from folks that soak rusted/seized threads, when the item is specifically designed to have a gas-tight seal.

You want to soak an O2 sensor? Isn't there a metal gasket on the thing, that seals so well that hot, pressurized gas can't escape...and you figure an oil squirted on the outside can get in there?

Guys spray the heads of bolts screwed into blind holes, even though they know that the underside of the bolt head has been forced against the casting with thousand of pounds of pressure.

Penetrating oil is 90% hope, 10% useful. I'm being deliberately generous on the ten percent. And the ten percent is only on items with exposed threads, 'cause otherwise it's 0%.

 

[jonesg]

I get never-ending chuckles from folks that soak rusted/seized threads, when the item is specifically designed to have a gas-tight seal.

You want to soak an O2 sensor? Isn't there a metal gasket on the thing, that seals so well that hot, pressurized gas can't escape...and you figure an oil squirted on the outside can get in there?

Guys spray the heads of bolts screwed into blind holes, even though they know that the underside of the bolt head has been forced against the casting with thousand of pounds of pressure.

Penetrating oil is 90% hope, 10% useful. I'm being deliberately generous on the ten percent. And the ten percent is only on items with exposed threads, 'cause otherwise it's 0%.

Exactly,
common sense doesn't come in a can.

 

[Danglerb]

Sometimes a stuck bolt is tight, some point inside the nut/bolt the pressure between nut and bolt was sufficient to make a metal to metal connection, which sort of welds them. Aluminum I think does this all the time.

 

[-OSIS-]

I think penetrating oil works best once a bolt has been broken free and you need to avoid snapping the bolt because of rust binding up. We recently tried a new to us product called Free All at the shop. Apparently it’s been around for a long time but it’s the best we’ve used. It’s awesome for working fasteners back and forth. Panther piss haha.

 

[JRC3]

Nice vid and test but not real world. 20 years old shock or pickup bed bolts are a different story.

These discussions finally got me to try acetone and ATF. I actually think it works best. I'll just put it 50/50 in something as simple as a plastic bottle cap and then mix and apply with a cheap flux brush. There's no need to mix like 8 ounces like some people do. When done it all gets tossed in the trash.

IME WD40 is worthless for this application, PB always worked great and so did Sea Foam, never tried Kroil.

 

[SRSemenza]

In the test it certainly seems that some worked better than others. But even within one type of lubricant on the set of four nuts there was a lot of variation in torque.

I also think the test to see which would help break a frozen nut free would be better if they were actually stuck. The control group came free with no spray.

Seth

 

[peter2772000]

Funny that I would find this thread.

Our techs usually use WD40, PB Blaster and Reduce 4. Buddy of mine is back from Florida and wouldn't shut up about this miracle juice he was told about and then tried himself. Stuff's called Fluid Film. Can states it's a lanolin-based non-toxic penetrant & lubricant.

To hear my bud talk about this stuff, it may even cure erectile dysfunction and cancer...

 

[ItsNemo]

Funny that I would find this thread.

Our techs usually use WD40, PB Blaster and Reduce 4. Buddy of mine is back from Florida and wouldn't shut up about this miracle juice he was told about and then tried himself. Stuff's called Fluid Film. Can states it's a lanolin-based non-toxic penetrant & lubricant.

To hear my bud talk about this stuff, it may even cure erectile dysfunction and cancer...

Fluid Film is a great rust protector, use it on the underside of my vehicles rather than doing Krown or similar...but it won't take stuff apart.

 

[Mr. T]

I’m very jealous of people that use penetrant on small bolts. If I’m breaking out the ‘Blaster things have taken a terrible turn.

If you are a millwright (downtime is money)

If the alternative is cutting a $4,000 part with a 3 week lead time (plus another grand or so in air freight) that is seized in a $30,000 part with a 3 month lead time (and $20,000 or so in air freight) then “letting it soak for a few days” becomes quite attractive.

And once you cut it... you still need to pound it out of the bore. It’s just that now you’re only pounding on the stuck bit instead of the whole 500ish pounds of it.

 

[6PTsocket]

AvE did a video on this too. Not sure any of these are conclusive.

That is what I got out of the various tests. Inconclusive. I suspect that most of the commercial ones have similar chemistry. It was interesting that in the AvE tests, the very high priced Kroil may not be superior to it's cheaper rivals.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I am positive the best is anti seize applied when you assembled the dumb thing in the first place