This just popped up on the Yahoo Mopar New Yorker Newsgroup.
“The April/May 2007 edition of Machinist’s Workshop did a test of penetrating oils where they measured the force required to loosen rusty test devices. Buy the issue if you want to see how they did the test. The results reported were interesting. The lower the number of pounds the better.
Mighty interesting results for simple acetone and tranny fluid!
Penetrating oil . Average load … Price per fluid ounce
None … … 516 pounds .
WD-40 … … 238 pounds … $0.25
PB Blaster … 214 pounds … $0.35
Liquid Wrench … …127 pounds … $0.21
Kano Kroil … …106 pounds … $0.75
ATF-Acetone mix… 53 pounds … $0.10
The ATF-Acetone mix was a 50/50 mix (1 to 1 ratio).”
Maybe, but all I can say is that from my personal experience, Liquid Wrench never worked for me on anything, but PB Blaster does. All I’d get is broken bolts with LW but PB actually loosened the part.
Hmm, might be worth a try.
I’m skeptical of how they would be able to get test devices consistently rusty, and I imagine that there are different types of corrosion and different types of fasteners that the different kinds are probably better for. We have to buy the magazine to know?
I’ve had GREAT SUCCESS with liquid wrench…and with PB Blaster too.
WD-40 is NOT a penetrating oil. I’m amazed it worked better then doing nothing.
'fraid so - though I haven’t read the article personally.
I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t want to be messing around under a car (or anywhere else for that matter) spraying an ATF / Acetone mixture about though.
PB Blaster is my personal weapon of choice.
I avoid any job that has a stuck or rusted component with a vengence. I give peolple alternate solutions or make my labor so high they go away. On the 10% I can’t get out of I use the best frozen fastener tool known to man,the torch.
It would be of value to me to have a apprasial of what works best to lube door hindge pin points,probably the area where I use a “penetrating oil” type product most. I never skip this part of a service along with hood pivots.
I like to use this waxy stick product called “door ease” on the stricker side of the door with sometimes amazing results (noise reduction)
Maybe they don’t sell the trans fluid and acetone because it is infla…flamm…it catches on fire. Maybe. There would be a good profit for anybody selling the stuff. Imagine buying something that worked.
The data are meaningless without some expression of the variability within each group. I assume that they did some number of measurements for each treatment = group.
WOW a whole new set of ones I have not tried! I know bustedknuckles had a fav not on the list but great info, now all I have to do is try and find the suggestions, good post, thanks!
“I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t want to be messing around under a car (or anywhere else for that matter) spraying an ATF / Acetone mixture about though.”
You could brush it on. I’d hate to gunk up a good atomizer with this mixture. The acetone will evaporate out of the spray head, leaving the very viscous transmission fluid.
Personally, I’ve had good luck with PB Blaster.
I’ve used ATF mixed with kerosene in the past and that has also worked pretty well.
If one wants to make their own penetrant on the cheap, concoct a mix of 50% kerosene, 35% mineral spirits, and 15% ethyl alcohol. That also works well.
For those who do a lot of drilling into metal, aerosol Pam cooking spray works wonders for lubricating drill bits.
I’ve got a mill and metal lathe and use it all of the time when machining metals.
(It does give off a “burning French fries” type of smell though.) 
Not listed is SeaFoam DeepCreep. What I like about this stuff is, when it’s sprayed onto a heated part, it doesn’t flash off as other penetrants. Instead it gets drawn into the rusted parts through capilary action.
Tester
That was the one BustedKnuckles spoke of, thanks,!