I ran into this by accident. Cleaning up from some minor flood events (before Christmas) and getting to the machines that did not make it out (after Christmas) - I finally got to the roto-tiller. Uses a single cylinder Briggs. So I pulled the plug and drained the oil/water. Filled the crankcase with WD40 and sprayed a big slug of BreakFree into the cylinder. Let it sit for a day and fired it off for a few minutes. Drained it all and put in new oil. Got the water out of the gas tank and started it for real.
Compression was always weak on this motor. Very easy to pull over. Ran OK once started, but no real power. Anyway after the flood cleaning, compression is noticeably higher. You can really feel it on pull over. Starts much “snappier”. Ran it around the veggie garden plot in seriously wet dirt that would usually bog it down. Just ran on and on
So then I went to do a chainsaw that I though might have gotten damp too … Only did the BreakFree from the plug hole and a little in the carb. No WD40. Bingo, again more compression and seems like more power.
So it seems that BreakFree can actually loosen stuck rings. Never thought of it that way before, but there it is. I’m going to try it on the 1988 Big Bronco with 200K +. See if it helps with at least top ring freedom. Maybe it’ll help, maybe not … But seems to be possible?
The couple of times I’ve had to unstuck a cylinder, I soak it with PB or Kroil, put a piece of appropriate lumber on the cylinder and whack that with a dead blow hammer.
It always gives in eventually.
Breakfree is an oil developed for ordinance (guns) as it is virtually ash free. I have used it for stuck bolts, works better than anything else, never thought to use it to free up rings.
I haven’t tried Breakfree yet but I’m a big fan of PB Blaster. It works great to break up stuck piston rings in all sorts of engines. It’s never failed me yet.
A new “user” puts in their first post, not to ask a question, not to debate a point, but to hawk some fly-by-night product. Why do these morons even try? If I would have encountered “break free” in some store, I may have tried it if I had a need for it. Having been spammed, and now having a negative association with this product, I will NEVER buy it, that’s assured. I just wish there was a way to make this understood to whoever commissioned this spam campaign…
I saw some no-name wd-40 type product on sale at our big box home store. 12oz spray bottle was $1. Reg price was $2. They had a quart bottle for $1 also. I like to buy in bulk but I had no need for 1 qt of this stuff. But, $4/gal is what gas costs? Maybe it is really gas?
Breakfree is not a fly-by-night product, it is a very high quality gun oil used extensively by our military. It has found other applications as a penetrant oil and in testing, it provided corrosion protection for aluminum in a salt water environment that was far superior than the mil spec VVL-800 oils. It is also pretty expensive the last time I checked. I guess that is one reason I never thought to use it to break rings free.
My wife and I had the stuck ring problem. We used liquid dish detergent to unstick the rings. These were our wedding rings that wouldn’t come off after 30 years. We did have them resized by a jewelry store. Maybe we should have tried “BreakFree”.
Whoa, I’m a private citizen w/o stock in the company. I don’t sell or make anything out of this. I was just posting an experience I had with a chemical I keep around for shop work and gun cleaning. The comment about wd-40 was related to a motor that had been under water for a day.
WD-40 will absorb water so I filled the crankcase so it got into all the small spaces and fired the motor for a minute. Drained it and refilled with new Delo 400. No harm done at idle - no load. It’s Briggs with splash oiling for pity sakes. The need was to get the WATER out to stop rusting.
The Breakfree was to stop any top ring rusting or break any up that might have occurred while it was drying out. My thought was that the top of the cylinder has the least oil film and was maybe rusting. I had not been able to get to the tractor shed for a couple of days after the flood. I’d never tried it before. Seemed to work…
Jeez, an old retired guy comes on here to share and I get called a scammer and spammer? What sort of world do some of you live in? If you were a shooter, you’d know about Breakfree. I guess a fair number of you all need to always do you own research and fact finding and never trust anyone for anything. That’s a bit sad
You don’t have to use it or do anything I do. Hope you never get flooded and are trying to get your machines back in order while the rust creeps into everything. It’s a race and we always loose a little bit more each time.
I guess I’ll create a post about all the chemicals I use in the shop and see if I get called a marketer? What do you folks use for jobs/situations like this? Ever have a surprise outcome that made you smile for a moment in the middle of a bad situation. That’s all I was saying …
@brocluno - your initial post is identical to the type of posts that spammers and such put up here, so you got painted with the same brush. We’ll get a post from somebody new, listing the product in the heading, then going on about it in the body of the post. They then start saying things only a saleman would say, pretty obvious that’s what they were doing. Sorry if it’s a misunderstanding.
WD-40 was never designed as a lubricant. WD stands for Water Displacement. And that’s what it’s great at.
The one and only time I have had a similar problem…was on an 1974 Chevy Luv that sat for 3 years. I removed the plugs and poured Marvelous Mystery Oil in each of the plug holes…put new plugs in and let it sit for a day…Started right up. Can’t say if it ran any better…but it did run.
Jeez, an old retired guy comes on here to share and I get called a scammer and spammer? What sort of world do some of you live in?
Presumably the same one you do but perhaps a bit less naive about it. Unless you’ve just crawled out of a cave, you’d understand how your post would be received by the vast majority of people who are all too familiar with the creative ways the current generation of carpet baggers are hawking their wares. Based on the first post, you’re likely to have a lot of skeptics continuing on after your second post…
