Homemade Penetrating Oil

**Arcadia** · Apr 25, 2017, 09:01 AM

I found out a few years how great this concoction really works. I bought a hundred plus year old 25 pound Little Giant power hammer from an old timer. It had been laying in the dirt for 10-15 years. Some of the bolts were rusted off or partially off. All the linkage bolts and nuts looked original(to me) and were really rusted up. It was laying on the linkage side when I dug it out. I mixed up the ATF/Acetone and repeatedly applied for three or four days. After that, the old square nuts turned off with moderate force. I swear by the stuff.

**fastserver2u** · Apr 25, 2017, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by Stale Trooper

For All of you Mechanic's and Self doer’s out there.
Penetrating Oil - interesting
This was in one of the Military Vehicle Club newsletters

Here is an interesting finding on Penetrating Oils
Recently “Machinist Workshop Magazine” did a test on penetrating oils. Using nuts and
bolts that they ‘scientifically rusted’ to a uniform degree by soaking in salt water, they then
tested the break-out torque required to loosen the nuts. They treated the nuts with a variety
of penetrants and measured the torque required to loosen them.
This is what they came up with:
Nothing: 516 lbs
WD-40: 238 lbs;
PB Blaster: 214 lbs;
Liquid Wrench: 127 lbs,
Kano Kroil: 106 lbs
(ATF)/Acetone mix (50/50): 50 lbs.

This last “shop brew” of 50% automatic transmission fluid and 50% acetone appears to beat
out the commercially prepared products costing far more.

NOTE: I can't personally vouch for the results, 'cause I haven't read the magazine or tried it yet.
But I am maybe going to mix some up to try before winter sets in.
Stale Trooper

Another home brew I have used is antifreeze. I found an old pair of pliers in the yard that were rusted solid and put them in some used antifreeze I had saved. Next morning they were useable again.

**NortonDommi** · Apr 25, 2017, 03:18 PM

I've been trying all-sorts for about forty years and the best I've come up with is 50/50 ATF and Kerosene. I don't know where the Acetone came frome it seemed to crop up about ten years ago.
I do various testing and one is to use a piece of rusty plate, place drops with a pitot and measure at ten minute intervals over an hour,(beer helps). Then check a few times the next day. The Acetone mix falls short of many mixes due to the Acetone evaporating.
The Kero mix can have a bit of Aliphatic thinners added, ( about 20% to the mix), for slightly increase speed.
I wasted money on Kroil once just to see how it compared. I stick to the ATF/Kerosene.

Speaking of rusty stuff heat and a candle for those 'just won't move' nuts and bolts and 40 - 60: 1 water /mollasses for soaking,(degrease first).
I save old tools and machinery for a hobby and while I am always looking for a magic bullet the above get the job done.

**buck** · Apr 25, 2017, 08:56 PM

dont store anything u want to keep in a plastic milk jug, uv(sunlight) breaks it down and it will crumble whether you touch it or not,, buck

**Moby Duck** · Apr 25, 2017, 11:05 PM

Thanks for reminding me. It now makes me wonder if it is wise to melt these milk bottles and cast them into machineable blocks. The end product will obviously not last very long.

**NortonDommi** · Apr 26, 2017, 04:18 PM

Hello,
Just a quick note on the mollasses.
I mix it at anything betwen 40 parts and 60 parts of water by volume to 1 part of mollasses. I use a 240 liter 'wheelie bin' and throw in a haqndfull of Citric acid.
My last bin full lasted over 30 years and was still working until I slipped and dropped a rusty Land Rover axle in and spiked the bottom.
It makes the grass grow like crazy so used stuff can go on the compost. An occasional top up with water to cover evaporation may be needed and a bit of fresh mollasses once a year.
Metal will not deteriate in it and I have left items in for well over a year. Stuff comes out with a blackish smut that wipes/washes off easily. oil after rinse,(dipping in Kero works), or hit with a primer.
I use one bin with Simple Green in it to degrease, rinse then into mollasses.
Hope this is of use.

**rbjracing1** · Apr 28, 2017, 03:54 PM

I only ran it for a few days after the engine all but stopped leaking. Did not get worse the whole time I had it.

When you think about it the seals are not soaking in it they only see splast and residual.

**NortonDommi** · Apr 29, 2017, 04:57 AM

Well I went and picked up the stock sale ISO 46 hydrualic oil the other day and mixed some 50/50 with kero to try as cutting oil and of course put it up against the ATF/Kero mix to see if there was a difference,(using old Dextron III which is the same viscosity over -20C to 100C as ISO 46), the ATF mix was slightly better.
I had a bottle of Morey's Heavey Duty Oil Styabiliser out and thought I'd add a couple of drops to the Kero/hydrualic mix to see what happened.
A big improvement is what happened which led to a late dinner.
The final mix I came up with was equal parts of Kero, ATF and hydrualic oil by volume and then add 6% Morey's. Why 6%? well by the time I'd finished mucking around that's what it turned out at. I usually only use 5% in auto trannys and 10% in engines, manual trans and diffs.
I'm now wondering what Morey's feul additive will do??
This new mix spread nearly 50% greater than Kero/ATF overnight which really suprised me. There is very little difference between the hydrualic oil I am using and ATF as anyone with farm equipment can tell you but somehow the seem to enhance the penitration of each other.
I'd be interested to see if anyone else has the same results. It's certainly cheap and not to volitile and most people will have the ingredients knocking about.
- Barry.