The world's best penetrating fluid...Seriously

Good to know, thanks John.

 

Werth Rost-off is also very effective. And perhaps a bit less toxic that a 50-50 mix that includes acetone.

It certainly will be less flammable.

D

 

Any preference on the trans fluid? Ford GM etc?

 

My local British car club just published some interesting info on this witches' brew of penetrating oil. I'm not sure how the test was conducted, but the results are pretty amazing and/or unbelievable?

Here's a link to the newsletter- penetrating oil specs on page 12.

http://svbcc.net/newsletters/OYMDec12.pdf

Cheers, Jeff

 

If I remeber my chemistry correct, acetone has a very low surface tension and if it also dissolves ATF effectively, this could be the miracle formula. Newto308 gave me this idea for a stuck harmonic balancer but I haven't tried it yet. Wonder why ATF and not just any oil?

Would be very careful though. Toxic and perhaps fire and explosive risk.

/Pero

 

This was just recently discussed in the Tech section , too

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=390481

 

The best hand cleaner I have ever used is automatic transmission fluid. No matter how greasy your hands & arms get, just smear auto trans fluid on, and when done, plain old soap and water to wash off.

 

Just be careful.

My dad was a lifelong mechanic, did lots of stuff like this. Today he is suffering from Parkinsons Disease. I can't say for sure that the two are related, but just have that sneaking suspicion.

 

Just don't get that acetone mix on the paint!

Doug

 

There is no magic penetrant. They all work equally well or poorly depending on the state of the fitting. No penetrant can somehow cause a seized fitting to release itself. Only the flame wrench will do that!

 

A seized fastener, as in gall welded is not the same a rusted fastener. What penetrating oil does, it keeps the fastener from seizing/galling, which is the real nightmare. In addition, it does seem to loosen gunk. I can attest that the torque to twist a dry rusted nut , is magnitudes greater than if it is lubricated.

Doug

 

With Latex work gloves so readily available at low prices, the caution of avoiding skin contact with possible toxic fluids is worth the effort to prevent any bodily absorption. As a kid, my auto shop teacher stressed this to us.... then he always reminded us what happened to the girl in "Goldfinger". Not sure that this was a good analogy, but it did make me much more careful in what I touched and needed cleaning off. My best friend's father, brother (both deceased now) and himself has Parkinsons which they believed was linked to agent orange spraying for cotton harvesting, so the poster above who reminded us of the danger might be in fairly solid ground in urging care in skin absorption issues.

 

Right. Any advice to the effect of smearing fluid on your body parts to "clean" gunk, is not good. Cancer risk. OK, if done maybe once or 2X a year, no problem, but many of us car guys who dirty their hands once a week, bad practice. mechanics develop over the years "cracked" skin. permanently.

 

Fair enough, but to imply that pen oil applied, will, after say, a year, diminish the force needed in removing a nut, I believ is not correct, Doug. How can one prove that? How can one determine that after spraying mineral spirits mixed with naphtha to a bolt that it will stay there, and stop galling over time? Pen oils are mostly volatile pet distiilled products like min spirits, and naphtha. They evaporate easily. They are not "permanent", and arent even oils. They are solvents. Not the same thing.

 

For those that don't want to mix ATF and Acetone, I can highly reccomend Plusgas. Rolls Royce jet engine go through huge heat cycles and extreme operating conditions, And the fasterners holding pipes and inspection prts, thermocouples etc are held on at high tourques. At our work we've found Plusgas to be the best penetrant for ease of bolt removal.