I'm talking about GM's Rust Penetrant and Heat Riser Lubricant. I had a nasty rusty job to do and went to the local Chevy dealer to get a can or two, and he said they haven't had it for about 2 years (Just about the time I bought my last can.)
He figures that someone in California fed a whole can to a lab rat, and it died so they outlawed it. He suggested PB Blaster, to which I responded, "That stuff SUCKS!"
He also said the techs keep asking if it's ever coming back, but it doesn't appear so...
If you put it on really rusted bolts, they would work free like new. If you put it on lightly rusted bolts, in three days they looked brand new. Great stuff, too bad it's gone.
Look for "PB penetrating catalyst" at your better parts stores. I found it at NAPCO. I've used it to free up rusted receiver hitches, it just melts the rust, It really works.
I'm still a fan of Kroil or Wuerth Rost Off. Also reference the recent thread (/flamefest) about penetrating oils, I have been trying the ATF/acetone mix although as I've already said, don't have enough experience with it to say if it works or not.
I was really, really impressed with the Wuerth product. I thought one time I was well and truly stuck as I had a transmission out of one of my old VWs and there was one little rusty looking screw going into the aluminum trans case that needed to come out and it just wouldn't. Don't remember all these years later what it was, but it was small, rusty, and wouldn't budge. Hit it with Rost Off, took about a half- beer break, and it came right out. unfortunately the only reason that I had it was I needed to buy something to get to the minimum dollar amount for free shipping from some German parts mail order place; I have never seen it in any stores :(
I am, however, getting some more experience with penetrating oils as my most recent project is freeing up all the hardware underneath my Jeep in preparation for new bumpers and some suspension work. I'm reversing my previous statement - I do find Liquid Wrench to work better than PB. And WD-40 still sucks (flame on!) Most of the fasteners I'm working on I've already hit with the ATF/Acetone mix previously, I've just been taking an oiler can with me any time I need to get underneath the vehicle. What I'm doing is just removing each fastener, running a tap through any captive nuts, replacing the fastener if it looks really bad, and using anti-seize on everything. My hope is that this will provide for less frustration if/when repairs and replacements start to become necessary, and/or I get a wild hair up my butt and start removing, derusting, and painting components...
improve your gas mileage, clean your engine! it must be true - people say so right there on the interwebs!
or you can add acetone to atf, close your eyes, cross your fingers and hope evaporation won't leave you with ordinary atf in about 5 minutes. i mean, with all those cunning tribologists out there without a single one of them having run out to the patent office to stop you putting them out of work with this fiendishly potent cure-all!
no it isn't, and no there's not - that's the point. the acetone is highly volatile and disappears rapidly. especially when spread thin like when applied to a metal surface.
the only conceivable reason to dilute with acetone that i can see is to bring the viscosity down to use in a spray bottle, but an old paint brush will do that job just as well.
i doubt any of its, uh, "proponents" have. and certainly not in a back-to-back with the undiluted product.
bottom line, there's tribologists out there with phd's, and there's millions of snake oil sales dudes looking to get rich. if all it took to revolutionize the penetrating oil segment, on either count, was a trip to the nail salon, then i don't think there'd be a knowledge vacuum that allowed people to blather on usenet.
Tribologists have engineering degrees and we all know what you think of engineering degrees... so this is a very odd argument to authority on your part.
Not to mention that students are first introduced to GC-MS during the first year, second semester, qualitative analysis chemistry class in any core engineering curriculum that I'm aware of, at least when I matriculated in the seventies. But he "don't cotton none to that there book lernin' ".
No, it's not that simple, but that's a reasonable description of how penetrating oils in general work. Some of them (kroil and PB blaster for sure) also contain a reducing agent. There are other things in there, but that's generally the mechanism.
I don't have a tribology PhD, but I did take intro to tribology as an undergrad a long long time ago. I can still calculate loads with Archard's Constant of Wear and determine flow and creep rates. Which I figure is not bad for an electron-pusher.
if the thread is clear enough, but once it's full of corrosion, you're in for a long wait and substantial chromatographic separation.
true, [hence the corrosion if left after application], but that's reaction with the "medium", not simply wicking through as with a simple penetrant. [and atf /definitely/ doesn't contain reducing agents!]
indeed! i just wish there were a few people who think they did mech eng who'd bothered to stay awake for stuff like that. or at least, not presume to bleat about what they clearly can't remember or can't be bothered to reacquaint themselves with.
I would like to know how you reconcile ridiculing degreed engineers in favor of backyard hackism with when someone presents a backyard hack you defer to the authority of degreed engineers.
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