Removing frozen bolt

Never would have thought of that. I have some old license plates that go back to the twenties. They sell a phosphoric acid solution for soaking them, but it's spendy. I'll try a soak in a Coke.

Steve

I'm not so sure. I used PB Blaster for some time, 'cause I could get it locally, at a reasonable price. But the crowd here said that Kroil was better, so I bought some (more $). In using it I really don't see a difference.

There's a huge problem in comparing rust busters. It's always apples and oranges situations - the rusted bolts, etc are never the same. So you can't do comparison tests. Measurements are another problem - if you can't quantify it, you don't have anything.

Ideally, you'd take 2 identically rusted bolts, apply the rust busters, wait the same time, and measure the torque it took to move each. In lieu of "2 identically rusted bolts", you could do it statistically, in batches of 30 or so. If someone does this, please let us know. I have a lot of other things that I'd rather do.

Bob

I've had cases where an impact wrench would remove a frozen on bolt or nut, where heat and high torque did not.

Kroil is only via web, now, and I remember a couple years ago they were business to business only sales.

In the heat and cool department, I've had results to heat to cherry red, then spray the threads with WD, PB, or Kroil. Cools the bolt while the nut remains hot.

I got some back in the eighties. The ad stuff with the oil was really amateur. But the product was good.

here.

A religious war may be starting soon... Boss has the flammable cabinet full of PB blaster.

Boss is alway right you know.

Wes

iirc, naval jelly is phosporic acid. Don't use in an enclosed area with your other shiny bits of metal since the fumes will cause rust.

Wes

Different, but their heat rizer valve solvent used to be EXCELLENT.

Or go to your plumbing supply and buy Resin Cleaner. Blue stuff - about $16 a gallon and identical to the auto-body stuff that sells for about $90.

He is refering to Kroil.

Yes the ads put me off for a long time they are atrocious (sp?) but once I used it darn if the ads aren't right. :-) ...lew...

Phosphoric fumes don't cause rust. Not like muriatic or sulphuric.

Thanks for that, Larry. Just ordered a pair, I was getting low.

Another product that seems to work really good is Mopar Penetrating Oil, available from the parts department of any Dodge or Chry dealer. We use it along with Kroil in our Community College Automotive courses .

If you want to cool/shrink a part, CRC makes a spray that cools or freezes small items. I've found it at Pep Boys for ~$6.

I read in one of my magazines that a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid beat out WD, PB, and Kroil in a fairly well controlled test. Acetone is a great solvent and ATF is the slimiest stuff going! I made some up and it seems to work pretty well so far. Cheaper than the aresol sprays. I put mine in a pump oiler, You have to be careful as acetone "eats" many plastics.

Sam

[ ... ]

3 in 1 is *not* an oil, and certainly not a penetrating oil, which is what you needed. What it *is* is furniture polish in an oil can. :-)

So -- you can freely give all of the credit to the Kroil.

Enjoy, DoN.

In a case like this where you have a relatively thin outer section, placing the turnbuckle on an anvil and hammering on it will stretch the outer metal enough to loosen it. This is an additional technique which can be aided by heat and penetrating oil. I was shown this by an old plumber as a way to free frozen pipe threads and I have never had it fail where the outer metal is suitably shaped and I could get good hammer blows with solid backup. Try it some time when you have a loose bolt with a badly rusted nut on it.

Don Young

Have a Coke and a smile!

That's about the same reason I tried PB Blaster from NAPA auto parts. I figure if Kroil has miserable amateurish ads and works great, maybe PB is the same way?

I like how PB sprays in a stream, I can soak muffler clamps from a foot away. WD sprays in a fog or vapor. Even with the little red tube, it still sprays a fog.

PB is also good for latches in car doors. Roll window down, pull rubber back, point mini mag into door, spray down and in. I can usually see the latch mechanism that rusts solid.