In case of a major change in our life style that resulted in a collapse of society, we would be forced to improvise many things that we now take for granted. Just simple things like loosening a rusty bolt would be a challenge to many of us, not being experienced mechanics.
Yesterday a friend sent me information on a study performed by Machinist’s Workshop magazine in their April 2007 issue. They looked at different penetrating oils to see which one did the best job of removing a rusted bolt by measuring the pounds of torque required to loosen the bolt once treated.
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.
Penetrating oils ……….. Average torque load to loosen
- No Oil used ………………. 516 pounds
- WD-40 ………………… … 238 pounds
- PB Blaster ……………….. 214 pounds
- Liquid Wrench ……………127 pounds
- Kano Kroil ……………….. 106 pounds
- ATF-Acetone mix…………53 pounds
The ATF mentioned above is automatic transmission fluid (not a federal agency).
The ATF-Acetone mix is a “home brew” mix of 50 – 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note this “home brew” released bolts better than any commercial product in this one particular test. In some additional comments that I found while double-checking on the article I found that with some of the new ATF fluids it is hard to get a good mix. However if you add a small amount of diesel oil to the mixture this will help.
Howard
Interesting history note about mixing oils and fuel . On the eastern front , the Russian winter is an enemy in its own right . The Russians had a practice of mixing their weapon oil and grease with diesel fuel . This was to extend the supplies and they found out that diesel fuel helps prevent mechanical freezing . The Germans didn’t pick up on this , and they had a much higher rate of weapon freeze at the worst possible time than their Soviet opponents .