Penetrating Oils Compared

Machinist's Workshop magazine is reported to have tested penetrants for break
out torque on rusted nuts. (I'm waiting for vevrification)

Significant results! They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.

Penetrating oil ..... Average load

None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ..............214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ...... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix... 53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

the interesting ads and other things in the 1915 AAA blue book (map guide)

Above: elagant advertising

Cool ads!

Just a reminder that these photos are pre 1915

That's not an oil leak, it's a Bugatti marking it's territory with horsepower sweat

Castrol ads celebrating the world championship of the Shelby Daytona Cobras

Does this mean castrol was snake oil? Yeah, corny, but c'mon, you thought of it too I bet

Vintage oil containers

Via: http://www.atimetoget.com/2009/03/vintage-oil-cans.html but for the source, and lots more of these go to: https://automobiliaplanet.com/shop/vintage-oil-petrol-cans

The better oil test; Seeing is believing; just add weights (pressure) until weak competition oil can't hack it any more and surrenders to friction

His accent masks the way he said that after 3 hundred pounds, "it fails". The Mobil One oil that is. Not that the ordinary lifter springs are 100 pounds of pressure on the camshaft, but they are over 100 pounds of pressure on most mild performance engines, like my double spring 906 heads on my last 383.

And the whole point of showing the pressure between the two surfaces, and when the oil fails, is that your engine has little or no oil between surfaces on start up. The con rod to crankshaft gets a beating every ignition stroke, the lifter to cam surface has constant high pressure, and the piston to sleeve contact isn't oiled up very well either.

He shows that he has treated the oil in the small sump area under the spinning metal contact area with a capfull of Justice Brothers oil treatment and how it can now withstand many hundred pounds of pressure without failure.

Then he added water. That is the kiss of death in any oil system, and normally water only gets into your oil if your head gasket fails, and then your oil will turn a chocolate milk color



The scoring to the right, hightlighted in the red reflection, is the competition. The slight scoring on the left in the white bar of reflection is the JB oil treatment

Coincidently, a couple things about the 1903 Paris - Madrid race happened to fall in my lap at the same time

Louis Renault at 90 mph

Castrol vintage ads

Lubrication, anchient to modern, A Castrol tutorial.

This last page is a good trasnslation of the old Castol oils to the new SAE numbers

Thanks to Newt and Tris for letting me share this with you.

Marvel Mystery Oil, still around since 1923

Why did he give it the name Mystery Oil? Is it said that Burt Pierce refused to divulge the formula for his new product and, when asked about its ingredients; he would say “It’s a Mystery”, and the name caught on The Marvel Oil Company was founded in 1923 by Burt Pierce, inventor of the Marvel Carburetor. His carburetor was standard equipment on eighty percent of all vehicles produced after World War I.

You can find more information on Marvel Mystery Oil and it application here: http://www.marvelmysteryoil.com/