Rust proofing engine parts

Old engine parts coated in nasty black baked on oil residue seem to stay corrosion free for ever. I have a bad habit however of cleaning everything in my dip tank and then letting them go rusty later on. Clean engine oil is pretty poor for long term corrosion protection as it drains off over time to leave a microscopic layer which water gets through. I suppose the real answer is to buy a proprietory product like Waxoyl but does anyone have any experience with medium to long term rust proofing for small parts with anything likely to be found for free or cheap? I tried engine oil mixed with grease to make a thicker product but without much success. Grease on its own is fine but needs brushing on over everything rather than a quick dip which is what I'm after for intricate components.

Reply to
Dave Baker
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everything

Dave, I use Crocell, which although neither free nor cheap is reuseable time after time. It's the stuff cutting tools are dipped in and it leaves an oily plastic casing that can be peeled off and tossed in the pot. Before ebay provided me with a genuine Crocell pot I used a deep fat fryer from Argos that only cost about £15 iirc - conveniently the hot fat temperatures are in the Crocell range - use a fryer that has elements bonded to the outside of the pot rather than immersed in it for ease of cleaning. J&L sell the lumps of Crocell.

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

No good matey. This has to be ok to leave on when the parts are built into an engine and will either stay on or wash off in the hot engine oil. I may have found a solution online though. Dissolve candle wax in white spirit and add a bit of cheap engine oil. Makes a Waxoyl substitute you can dip or paint on.

Reply to
Dave Baker

Have you thought of a drying oil? Sunflower, linseed. Can add a little candle wax and some oil or grease, but mostly drying oil.

Haven't tried it in harsh/wet conditions, but it works well in reasonable ones over a very long time (decades).

Total bitch to remove once well-dried though :¬)

-- Peter F

Reply to
Peter Fairbrother

Neither free or cheap, but Shell Ensis and Castrol Rustillo can be dipped or applied by sprayer. Waxoyl, while readily available "retail" is too thick for most uses. No problem, just dilute it with paraffin or diesel :-)

220 ISO way oil is pretty good for medium term storage, but leaves thing oily rather than waxy like the other products. That may be an advantage if you don't want to clean them on re-assembly.

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

Dave,

I second Mark's recommendation for Ensis. I bought a gallon can back in the 80s and use it all the time for wiping on steel parts. It seems to protect very well, and although it does leave a film it's very thin and does not get in the way of functionality (for example, threaded parts seem to work just as well as before). I must have used as much as a quarter of the can now - I guess my heirs will be using it in decades time.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

Note to Dave:- all of them will dissolve in warm engine oil :-)

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

I use 1 part lanolin (wool fat BP) in 3 parts white spirit for dipping or brushing. The white spirit evaporates and leaves a tough greasy film. Even if most of this film is polished off with a paper towel the residual film retains much of it's rust protection.

Jim

Reply to
pentagrid

Texguard XT in 25 litre drums from Texaco is very good - it can be brushed on as is or diluted with white spirit and sprayed or dip coated if a thin finish is needed (as for stored parts). I've used paraffin wax dissolved in white spirit with a bit of fresh oil added and that works quite well - but not as well as Texguard.

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Reply to
Peter Parry

I've been using LPS 3 for decades with generally good results:

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It protects a freshly machined steel surface from rust for several months out in the rain, and a few years under cover. If applied to lightly rusted surfaces like undercarriage bolts it soaks in and keeps them easy to remove for at least 20 years, the age of my truck so far.

It's a fairly good grease to salvage old dried-out ball and roller bearings like lawnmower wheels and "sealed-for-life" universal joints.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Many thanks to all for their advice. As it happens I have a bag of old candles that have been sat around for 30 years that I almost chucked out recently but couldn't quite overcome my hoarding tendencies and the inevitable fact that just after you chuck something you find a use for it. I'll try grating up some of those and dissolving them in white spirit and adding a bit of gear oil and report back. If no joy it looks like Ensis or similar.

Reply to
Dave Baker

You will probably find you need to warm the mixture up a bit to get the wax to mix in. Put in cold it takes many days to mix.

Reply to
Peter Parry

Another product that works as a rust preventer is Duck Oil made by Deb and now sold under the Swarfega name by Buck & Hickman etc. Its very thin and only needs a cheap hand spray to apply it. I use it, when I remember, on my steel 'stock' to keep the rust at bay. Just wipes off with no residue.

John H

Reply to
John

wrote

I always thought that Lanolin and white spirit were two of the ingredients of WD40, plus it also contains another heavier oil. If you give an item a good dose of WD40, it does leave a greasy film after the other two ingredients have evaporated.

Just my observations.

David

Reply to
David

I experimented with lots of things to lubricate bicycle and dirt bike chains and sprockets. WD-40 let them rust and rattle in a week. LPS 3 was the best rust preventer, not the lowest-friction grease and it picked up grit if I applied too much. Commercial chain lube was probably best all-around choice. Industrial chain lube worked better but was hard to find and really messy.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

For the application you mention, I have a well tried alternative or two! When building kit cars, I dismantle the donor car and put all the 'small' bits in a bucket and after parts cleaner treatment I get them zinc plated and clear passivated, cost is about =A35 for a cars worth, they look good and last a long time, For the black steel bits that are neither plated or painted I use chemical black, (caustic soda and and an oxidising agent) the salts are costly but a bag will last years, you clean the bits and boil them in the solution followed by boiling in clean water. Finaly I dip them in Duck Oil, this repells the water and leaves a fine oil film. Duck oil alone is a great penetrant and will work as a protective layer on clean steel parts, but if they are blacked and duck oiled they will stay rust free in normal conditions for years.

Peter Colman

Reply to
Drawfiler

A cheaper (and likely less effective) alternative way to blacken steel is boiling in sodium thiosulphate, photographers' hypo, then spraying with preservative oil. It's worked well for me on 12L14, a wonderfully free-machining leaded steel that a withering stare will rust.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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