I just bought a "new" car. A '92 with 123K miles. It's "new" in the sense that it's 4 years newer than my previous one, with 100k fewer miles.
Catching up on some maintenance included changing the ATF. There's a drain plug on the tranny pan, but I decided to do it "right" by pulling the pan & cleaning the filter. A decision that was most regretful.
The very first pan bolt broke. Gaahh!! So I got out the Kroil & hit the others with it. While they soaked, I took another 6mm bolt and determined what air pressure on my air wrench would break it, then set the regulator well below that.
After a day or 2 of repeated Kroiling, I tried the "safe" air wrench & broke 2 more bolts!!! Geez!
While more Kroil was working I remembered I gizmo I had. A "Torq-Mate" by Jacobs. It turns a hand drill into an impact driver, kind of. I never found it very useful - too little torque. But too little torque was what I needed now. It worked beautifully. No more broken bolts in the remaining 10 or so.
Meanwhile the dipstick tube is fastened to the side of the pan & it needed to come off. Yeah, right. I used Kroil on it for almost a week, I heated it (very hot) with a MAPP turbo torch, I hit the wrench with a
3 lb hammer, & I used a piece of pipe slipped over the wrench. Without the flare-nut twitching. When I did get it off, there was no rust! But a big section of broken-off threads. 2 threads long & about 40% around:It's not over: one of the filter bolts was blocked by a tube (on the right in the pic). In getting the bolt out, the tube came loose! Another dilemma: do I just push it back (it didn't take much to loosen it)? If not, what do I do?
So, after a week I have 3 broken bolts to get out, broken threads on the flare nut, and a loose tube. Did I say that my decision to drop the pan has been regretted?
Doing it right isn't always best, Bob