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Liquid WrenchPB Blaster or ATFWhich works best

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"I found this on another forum

"I found this on another forum and thought you guys would find it interesting. This research was conducted by engineers, so I personally believe the results. Especially considering the fact I find PB Blaster to be not as good as I heard."

Here's the summary of the test results:

Penetrating oil ..... Average
load

None ...................... 516 pounds
WD-40 ................... 238
pounds
PB Blaster .............. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ...... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............. 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix....53 pounds

The
Automatic Transmission fluid (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. A local
machinist group mixed up a batch and 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.""
 
"Kevin:

I've seen simil

"Kevin:

I've seen similar posts but never the source material. What is being measured and over how many trials/time/etc? FWIW, a good engineer always states the assumptions used up front."
 
Am I correct in assuming this

Am I correct in assuming this is the torque required to undo a rusty stuck bolt after soaking the bolt in the fluid shown?
 
"I believe you are correct in

"I believe you are correct in your assumption Chris.

The following is a follow up post about the use of Acetone. I am posting it should anyone try mixing acetone with ATF.

BTW: The forum I read each day and where I got this information is the Trawler forum. It has a wealth of information from cruisers.

Here is the warning about Acetone:

SNIPPET

Penetrating oil and ATF/Acetone mix

COMMENT

The acetone and ATF solution really sounded interesting so I went to my close friend who is a registered chemical engineer and got the following
response which I hope you all will find useful. PLEASE NOTE THE SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS

"acetone exhibits both polar and non-polar characteristics (like a detergent) and thus it is an excellent de-greaser, hence it mixes with
oil completely -- it will de-grease your fingers too,.be careful the fact that it also mixes completely with water means that it could be used on wet/rusted bolts without having to dry them off first could be handy too, as long as there is not too much water (at some point, it will absorb so much water it will stop mixing with oil and separate like oil and vinegar salad
dressing)

acetone is very volatile and flammable -- think fire and/or explosion hazard acetone is also a solvent for many plastics so what are the
implications: 1) the acetone-atf mixture must be kept in a sealed container to keep it from absorbing moisture from the air and "spoiling" or evaporating all the acetone out, 2) the mixture can't be kept in an ordinary plastic container, such as the atf bottle, because the acetone will either melt the plastic (if compatible) or go thru the plastic molecules and evaporate -- so a
metal can, like for paint thinner, a glass bottle or jar, or a teflon lined plastic bottle, like for fingernail polish remover, must be used to store the mixture, 3) given the flammability, glass is probably not a good storage medium, and the fingernail polish remover bottles are usually too small -- so a metal can would probably be best for storage, with a tin foil over cardboard
cap liner to seal it (no rubber or plastic gaskets would be likely to hold up) sounds like a dynamite product if made, stored, and used properly (or just dynamite, if not)"


" now, my last comment is I will mix some up today and store it in a nearly empty pint acetone can I have.""
 
The ATF Acetone mixture might

The ATF Acetone mixture might work well but how do yo get multiple bolts to freeze up to where the same amount of torque is required to break them loose to preform the test. I guess you have to be a rust engineer to do that one.

I will try it though as I'm always running into stuck bolts. I alsways put antisieze on any bolt I reinstall in a environment that will cause freezing up. Might be a good test for trailer wheel lugs. I keep my 25' Carolina Classic on a trailer in a storage building at the coast so it gets dipped regularly in salt water.
 
"Yeah, with all those dangers,

"Yeah, with all those dangers, one has a hard time believing that acetone is a naturally occurring byproduct of the human body."
 
"Good find Makomark. This docu

"Good find Makomark. This document states the following:

2) The original article states ATF was used in the DIY mix. It was actually PSF. I corrected the table to reflect this.
© Copyright 8 February

I assume PSF is Power Steering Fluid, is this correct?"
 
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