• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Questions about success with penetrating oil[s]

Share this page

J

Jim 58 BN6

Jedi Trainee
Country flag
Offline
Good Morning,

My BN6 has sat unused for many, many years. It belonged to a fellow who passed away, and his relatives do not know why he parked it. At that time, it was 'just an old 100-6", which IIRC, wasn't worth a whole lot, so maybe it is not grenaded, but was just too much trouble/money to fix (one can hope!), and it appears to be the original motor!

The car came from a humid state, but was sheltered, and it doesn't seem to have a lot of rust. It is fairly complete, has "good bones", and is a lot nicer than what BHCC usually offers!

I want to add something to the cylinders and then let it sit a bit before attempting to turn it over by hand. In the past, my favorite go-to penetrating fluid for fasteners has been Kroil, or just plain ATF if no Kroil was available. I've been hearing lore about using ATF (or Marvel Mystery Oil), plus acetone, in a 50/50 mix. A quick "googling" found references, and a sort-of-scientific test that showed this mixture to be the best choice (see below).

So, does anybody have any experience with this, or another concoction, and if you were successful, how long did the mixture sit in the bores?

I'm getting to the point where I now can begin to at least evaluate parts of the car, to see what's ahead. First I would like to know if the engine can be saved. If not, I may be a future Nasty Boy, since I have a 351C in a junk '67 Mustang (which was an attempt at performance by the PO). The motor is rebuild-able, but unfortunately, the body of the Mustang is trashed, and not worth fixing. If a 351 is too big, then maybe I can trade for a 289, 302 or another Healey engine. There is also a Jag V-12 in the garage (don't ask!), which I guess would make me more a Beastly Boy than a Nasty Boy. We'll see what happens!

TIA, Jim

p.s: If this has already been covered as nauseam, I apologize in advance. I did a cursory search of the site, but did not find much.
212342.jpg
 
I've had success using diesel fuel on seized marine engines. The trick was to rock the crank to and fro over a few days to gradually let it penetrate. I dare say any thin oily mix would do the job. You've nothing to loose in any case.
 
My 100 sat untouched for over 25 years (thanks dad). I removed the spark plugs and used Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinder heads -- just squirted a about a tablespoon in each and let it sit until the weekend. I then used a wrench to hand-turn the crank (in the correct direction) until it seemed to free up (in my case, about one full revolution).

So I recommend Marvel Mystery Oil.
 
Kroil; an ounce or so per cylinder and let sit a week. Repeated applications, if you have the patience for it would yield best results.

Back in the mid-80s, I had bought a BN6 parts car__mostly complete, but pretty rough__that had sat outside near the coast in Virginia, then I hauled it to my backyard in Louisiana. I used Kroil in the engine, and liberally (painful to use that term right now, with so much peaceful rioting taking place...) applied it to all the fasteners throughout the chassis. After a month or so, I started dismantling the car, and was genuinely amazed at the ease with which I was getting everything undone.

With easy access to the engine, I wanted to assess its health before pulling it out, after having previously applied Kroil to the cylinders. Memory fades, but if the engine was stuck at all, I don't think it was too badly so. In any case, the Kroil was still a benefit to loosening the ring pack before firing the engine.

Carburetors with cracked and dry-rotted diaphragms, I was able to dribble gasoline down their throats to keep it fueled, and a garden hose wedged into the water pump's inlet for it cooling. I stood there spoon-feeding it until it reached operating temperature, running it a half-hour or so, long enough to take useful compression readings afterward. At some later point, I robbed the oil pump out of that engine, and removed the rockershaft. Replenishing the oil in the cylinders, and with all the valves now shut, I turn it over by hand whenever I think about it__living now under a bench in my shop__it's still never been taken apart.
 
Thanks guys! I've never tried diesel fuel, but it's an interesting suggestion. Low viscosity is probably what's needed here. I have both Kroil, and MMO, so I'll probably just go to one of those, and avoid the "concoction", unless it doesn't free up. Kroil has always worked a lot better than anything else I've tried on fasteners, so maybe that's what I'll try first, since I recently got a brand new can, and a couple of spray cans, from Amazon - it's hard to find locally.

Rick: My dad built a Factory Five Cobra replica about 10 years ago, and he chose a Ford crate motor, a stroked 302 (347?) long block. It has an Edelbrock manifold and carb, and an MSD ignition. It runs pretty strong. My brother has it, and is fixing a few things where Dad had cut a few corners. Dad did a very good job, but sometimes he just couldn't get away from the Great Depression mentality...

My preference would be a 289, but that might be difficult to find. The crate 347 would certainly be a real possibility, but I've always enjoyed building engines, and I hope the original 6-banger is OK.

Randy: I've also run engines as you describe, using a running water hose, and a windshield washer bottle filled with gas to gravity-feed the carbs. One night many years ago, a friend called me in a panic at about 10pm. His (now my) 124 Spider had the plugs out, the fuel system disconnected due to a bad pump, (he was awaiting parts), and the hood just set on the engine compartment. A storm blew in, and dumped a buttload of rain. When he checked on the car, the hood had blown off, and he was terrified that the water had gotten into the plug holes - which are on the top of the motor, between the cam towers. I went over, calmed him down, and in the downpour (fortunately it was not winter!), we turned the engine over to blow out any water, put a small amount of oil into the cylinders, and replaced the plugs. The distributor cap was also off of the car, so I used a lot of WD-40 and some rags to sop it up to dry it out (remember, the "WD" stands for "water displacement"). I rigged up a gravity-feed system for the Webers. It started right up, and we ran it until it warmed up - no damage. His across-the-street neighbor was an older gentleman (and a WWII vet), and came over to help, and watch the show. He stood there, dressed like a Gloucester fisherman, while holding a large umbrella over us! A great guy! He was just amazed that we got it running with that lash-up.

Sometimes you just gotta do what it takes!

BTW, where in LA were you? My folks grew up in Sherevport, and I spent a lot of time there with my grandparents.
 
Last edited:
Diesel for me too..it has more 'creep' ability than oils. I've used it for a number of rusty occasions and it works well.
 
ATF or Diesel oil is probably best. I have used ATF and regular oil in the past and ATF does seem to the absolute best penetrating oil in my experience. I will say that when you do get the motor freed up and get it started, it will smoke like you are fogging for mosquitos until all that extra fluid burns off no matter what you do.
You can also do it on the bench (without the smoke) by letting it soak with the head off and either turning it or using a press to break the pistons free. More likely to damage the pistons this way, but they are probably hosed anyway.

Cheers,
Dan M.
 
Yes, thanks to everyone! I really appreciate your contributions.

I'm not certain that it is stuck; I just don't want to try rotating it without letting it sit for a bit with a lubricant on the rings. Jim
 
I initially lived in New Orleans, then moved to Lafayette. I spent the last fourteen (14) of those twenty (20) years in Breaux Bridge__The Crawfish Capitol of the World!

I really loved it there, the people are outstanding, and the food__OMG__the food!

Even though I hated to leave, but there was this RedHead, see; worth moving to Bum-Fart Toledo, Ohio for...
 
I've been to Breaux Bridge, and yes, the food is beyond words! I'd probably be as big as Paul Prudhomme was, if I lived there.

My downfall was a tall blond with blue eyes. Golly (that word got past the censor-sorry), that was an expensive diversion-but that's a story for another time...

The dog however, is ALWAYS happy to see me!
 
What an interesting segue this string has taken--from rusty nuts to red heads and blonds!
 
A friend likes 'Goodson Oil Gallery Wax Sticks', and he uses a candle to provide the heat to his rusty nuts rather than a torch - safety, I guess.

And - Jim 58 - thanks for thinking the same as the rest of us folks parts that have deteriorated due to inactivity. Doug
 
I think Wayne Carini's chief wrench favors Marvel Mystery Oil for seized engines. I have owned Kroil for years--it was often used for tough chores like freeing military rifle barrels from their receivers--but I now use the acetone/ATF mix about which so much has been written. This is not a criticism of those other products.
 
RDKeysor said:
I think Wayne Carini's chief wrench favors Marvel Mystery Oil for seized engines. I have owned Kroil for years--it was often used for tough chores like freeing military rifle barrels from their receivers--but I now use the acetone/ATF mix about which so much has been written. This is not a criticism of those other products.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. I'm glad to also hear from someone that has actually used the stuff.
 
Back
Top