# Homemade Penetrating Fluid - the BEST you can use! DIY too



## DaleH

FYI, there's been a few posts lately about stuck bolts and such. Here's a great easy-to-mix DIY product that will be the best penetrating fluid you could use ... 

*Jim *- Perhaps this should be a stickie post ... 

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FWIW *the best penetrating oil one can use* is a DIY homemade mix of 50% acetone and 50% automatic transmission fluid (ATF). 

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 mix): 50 lbs


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## bobberboy

My dad used to use brake fluid


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## overboard

Since reading about the ATF and Acetone mix awhile back, I started using it.
All I can say is: It Works!


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## Johnny

and I agree - since Dale posted it, I have seen it discussed
in other forums such as vintage car and truck restoration.
It is not easy to compare the ATF to the others without having
a base line with several equally stuck bolts.
I keep a pint squirt bottle nearby and use it frequently.

yes, IT WORKS !!


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## onthewater102

Keep in mind though Acetone does not play nicely with a wide variety of paints & plastics & overspray/spilling etc. will be more of an issue. I stopped using this combo after too much collateral damage.


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## IADIVER

I've used KROIL for the past 40+ years, I love the product and it has no adverse effect on paint, I have used it to dry out points etc. on distributors when they have become wet and motor wouldn't run. very good product, only downfall is you have to order it directly from Kano laboratories, but well worth it.


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## perchjerker

IADIVER said:


> I've used KROIL for the past 40+ years, I love the product and it has no adverse effect on paint, I have used it to dry out points etc. on distributors when they have become wet and motor wouldn't run. very good product, only downfall is you have to order it directly from Kano laboratories, but well worth it.



I just walk over to our machine shop and fill up a little bottle of it 8) 

I am lucky


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## overboard

I just walk over to our machine shop and fill up a little bottle of it 8) 
I am lucky[/quote]

I am lucky too, I have a buddy that works at a machine shop! :wink: Good stuff!
One thing I found interesting when they did the test, liquid wrench tested better than the much acclaimed PB Blaster.


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## fishmonger

Thanks Dale. Going to remember this as my usual go to tool is my oxygen and acetylene torch but sometimes it's not practical.


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## IADIVER

perchjerker said:


> IADIVER said:
> 
> 
> 
> I've used KROIL for the past 40+ years, I love the product and it has no adverse effect on paint, I have used it to dry out points etc. on distributors when they have become wet and motor wouldn't run. very good product, only downfall is you have to order it directly from Kano laboratories, but well worth it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I just walk over to our machine shop and fill up a little bottle of it 8)
> 
> I am lucky
Click to expand...


you are lucky perchjerker, I used to work on typewriters, adding machines, cash registers, etc. in the family business, and used it all the time for a machine that would either lock up, not type because of sticky key's etc. we used kroil to "unstick" everything and then use a mixture of liquid graphite and kroil, kept the machines working extremely well for a long time after.


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## Steve A W

IADIVER said " and then use a mixture of liquid graphite and kroil, 

Kroil now offers a graphite/penetrant. Works real good especially on choke and throttle cableson lawn mowers.
They sent a can with the last gallon I ordered.

Steve A W


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## gunz

I use aero-kroil because I got a lot of it free. 

When I run out I will probably mix my own again.


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## Al U Minium

From experience in antique engines with anything you can think of froze stuck, iodine. The same thing you use on cuts. Give it some time to work if it doesn't release right away.


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## WaterWaif

I used transmission fluid on brake line fittings(wanting to at least save a rear junction) of an old ,many salty winters truck.
Soaked fittings down daily a few days first.
Perhaps my only success with well rusted brake fittings coming un-threaded.


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## ocbinva

I just seen this older post so thought I throw in my 2 cents. I used the acetone and Trans fluid mix. An old tractor guy told me about it. I work in an office so to maintain my sanity I work on anything with a motor when I get home. I just rebuilt the entire front end and A-arms original to a 1980 Z28. VERY serious rust. Mon - Fri I hit the nuts once in the morning and once at night. That Saturday I was able to remove everything without using a breaker bar. Next I am using it on header bolts. Best I have ever used. I also use it on vintage garden tractors and it has never failed me. Between that, vinegar, and using electrolysis I can clean up just about anything vintage.


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## DaleH

ocbinva said:


> I just rebuilt the entire front end and A-arms original to a 1980 Z28. VERY serious rust. Mon - Fri I hit the nuts once in the morning and once at night. That Saturday I was able to remove everything without using a breaker bar. Next I am using it on header bolts. Best I have ever used. I also use it on vintage garden tractors and it has never failed me. Between that, vinegar, and using electrolysis I can clean up just about anything vintage.


Awesome testimonial - thanks!

Now go buy a vintage tin boat, lol 8)


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## driz

I use it and it works great. It takes a bit of time though. For better try using your air chisel with a blunted (cut off) tip. You take that rig soak it in the mix and hammer away on the end of the bold or side of the nut . The vibration will get that oil right down in there. A guy showed me that trick on a 2" pin on an old Northcountry back hoe once. Sure works better and is far easier than beating with a BFH.


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## onthewater102

I'd been digging trying to find this thread to recall the proportions & composition of the mix (whether it was just atf & acetone or if something else were in the mix).

This is my last hope before I take a saw-z-all to the '85 60hp Merc parts motor I've got and...amputate...the block so I can get to where the driveshaft is seized to the crankshaft. All I'm after is the complete lower unit as a spare, or for ebay, but I can't separate it from the powerhead. I've got a hole through the exhaust plate at the moment so I have access to the splines on the shaft.

The FSM suggests drilling a hole in the side of the driveshaft housing and using a torch to cut the driveshaft should the situation i'm presented with develop, which is highly troublesome that it happens so often Mercury thought to comment on it in their literature.


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## DaleH

onthewater102 said:


> I'd been digging trying to find this thread to recall the proportions & composition of the mix (whether it was just atf & acetone or if something else were in the mix.


Uhhhhh ... it's a 'sticky' post (always stays at the top of the list) under the Motors forum ...


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## onthewater102

Well that's the second time today I've felt like an idiot...I'm not going to admit to how many failed google searches I made looking for this #-o


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## DaisyCutter

ATF & acetone is my gun solvent. ;-)


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## lovedr79

PB blaster. But before I knew about that I used vinegar. Yes vinegar. The veterinarian I used to work for wanted to be a chemical engineer prior to vet school, he discovered that the vinegar/acetic acid would break whatever and reverse the rust process.


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