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I posted this in a spark plug thread over in the super duty forum, but I figured it might be of some general interest as well:
Here's something that a friend of mine emailed to me a few days ago. (I don't know what the "soak time" was...)
(I don't have a direct link to this, so I hope this is enough attribution for the mods!)
Machinist's Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break out torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist, Bud Baker.
*Don't forget the April 2007 "Machinist's Workshop" magazine comparison test.***
*They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment. ***
*The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.*
*Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one particular test. Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price. ***
I've been swearing by Kroil for years - still using the last pint or so of a gallon my father got in the late 80's or early 90's before he retired. I use it sparingly because it is THAT good but also expensive to replace.
I may have to replace it with the home-brew mix. I wonder if the ATF they used was Dexron V or plain old Dexron. I wonder if the old bottle of Type F I have would work?
I'm guessing that just about any light oil such as a machine/hydraulic oil would do... Can you buy acetone at the hw store? I like to try this, but I don't want to be buying 150 bottles of nail polish remover and pouring them into a gallon jug...
I'm pretty sure that acetone is available in the hardware store. If not, I think that Goof-Off stuff is acetone based. But it probably isn't any cheaper than Kroil which is around $40 a gallon IIRC. But, a gallon lasts a long time since it only takes a few drops of the stuff.
The only thing I would miss making my own is I actually LIKE the smell of Kroil. Not in a "huffing it out of a bag" like but it is a pleasant scent. That and it reminds me of all those summers ago tinkering on VW Beetles and my old Ford Maverick......
I've used liquid wrench a lot, but I've never seen it mentioned in previous threads about freeing bolts. So I was surprised by this test. I thought that I'd been using the wrong stuff all along.
No 'possum, as I said in the OP, what I posted was emailed to me and I don't have a link. I googled "Machinist's Workshop magazine" and found some links to subscription information, but it doesn't appear to be published online. Maybe someone here on FTE is a subscriber and has that April 2007 issue, and can fill in some of the holes in what was posted...
Acetone's available all over the place. At the BORGs it's usually about $10-15/gallon.
Goof-off has a couple different formulas, but I think the more potent one is xylene-based (if it smells like the permanent markers of yesteryear, then it's xylene).
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