I was spraying the manifold to exhaust pipes with blaster and it ran down the pipe and dripped right into my mouth. Tasted kind of sweet but with a distinct trans fluid aftertaste.
I'm testing the acetone/trans fluid preparation on one side and PB Blaster on the other. What do you all think. spray and tap with a punch for a week or so? I don't mind waiting.

 

So it tastes the same but different..

If it were me, and you're not the most patient, I'd try to give the fastners a budge or two. Ya know, just to see if its taking effect. If not, give it more medication and time.

Interesting opportunity to test the results of your experiment. I'll be checking in later Dr. Macadoo.

 

Try that for a few days...then try a propane torch. If you can't get it, take it somewhere and see if they can fit an acetylene torch head in there and rip it off with an impact wrench. Either way, the bolts may break

 

Have you even tried to see if you can loosen them yet? Most often they come loose. A torch will not work as you can't get in there t heat the metal around the bolt.

 

I now use kano aerokroil, it hasnt let me down yet

 

Well yeah I tried to turn them. I'm not THAT patient, lol. Breaker bar, nice tight socket, 1/2" drive. Not even the smallest budge. I'll try again tomorrow. I might be able to get a propane torch in there but honestly, there are so many chemicals soaking in there I'd be afraid to add fire.
I'll try Kroil if what I'm doing doesn't work.

 

Impact will work best, turning a bolt and nut seized together with a breaker bar will break it most likely, an impact will break the rust and pop off,

 

After spraying them, turn down the power on an impact wrench so it won't twist them off, and let it hammer on them a little. The vibration will help the blaster penetrate . . .

 

Spray it and work it back and forth as much as you can tell its not stressing the fastener too much. Repeat again and again until it comes loose. Heat from a small torch will help but if you got the penetrant in your mouth iI would be very cautious of fire! BTW, I would like a WD-40 air freshener in my bathroom. Smells good! Or race fuel air freshener

 

I haven't tried drinking PB, I have gotten it in my eye plenty of times... visine works a lot better to be honest.

On another note, my favorite penetrating oil in the field was seafoam deep creep. Stuff does wonders! it even will eat the nasty film of plastic headlamps! I will usually soak with deep creep. and give the bolts some very good whacks with a hammer! then try working back and forth. best of luck to you!

 

x2000 LOVE THAT STUFF!!

After letting the Kroil do its thing, I use a 3/8 impact and lightly impact back and forth to loosen up the bolts. This has worked on almost everything I have used it on.

 

Heat works best on exhaust manifold bolts I have found.

 

I've always had luck using PB Blaster and a breaker bar. Patience is key (which I usually don't have).

 

With all due respect, you guys in TX and OK do not have "rust"

It's entirely different here. MI, IL...

I have tried Kroil. Other than smelling different, and harder to find, it was no better than
PB Blaster
WD40
various other similar juices

The secrets to actual rusty bolts [not desert SW "rust"] are:
Acetone/ATF voodoo juice or better yet candle wax and heat
time
not too much torque.

Increase applications of these until joy is attained. Especially the heat.

I have actually removed an exhaust bolt that was rusted down to about 1/2 its diameter with the above method.

If you can cut off any bolt portion extending beyond the hole, that will be less rust to drag thru the hole. Then again, you lose any chance to use that stub to remove the broken part after you snap off the head end.

 

KROIL is great, but I agree that on manifold-to-pipe fasteners, there's no substitute for heat.
You can get a Bernz-O-Matic oxy-MAPP torch kit that uses little propane-torch tanks and makes a pretty small flame, for not to much money. The tiny flame is not good for much, but is great for heating small fasteners in places where you don't want too much heat spread.

- Eric

 

Never occurred to me to taste test my automotive penetrating lubes.

 

deep creep is awesome...ive saved stuck motors with it, it takes a little time but it works so good..and it costs 2 times what the rest is..

i pull stuff out of fields and ditches and take them apart, and deep creep is the best ive found so far...except for one other thing....Brake fluid its my fall back on rusty stuff..i put it in pump oil can..it will eat paint so control is a good thing...it works...and it tastes like oily chicken...

 

If I had my choice, I think I'd rather get it in my mouth than my eye, youch!
I thought about using a small butane pencil tip torch. The flame would be precise but not very hot. Hot enough maybe?
I don't have any air tools and honestly, I'd rather not have one more piece of equipment to have to store (compressor).
I have a MAPP setup but I think I'm out of gas. I'm going to spend the day heating, spraying, and tapping. Would it help to try tightening the bolts as well as loosening? Hence the "back and forth" suggestion?
I have Deep Creep also. I thought PB worked better but they were on different bolts so not a fair comparison.
I've read about candle wax. What's the procedure? Heat, apply the wax, wait?
Thanks everyone.

 

Oily chicken! LOL!

 

Brings back memories of my first job working in a Texaco Station when i was 16.
The resident head mechanic's favorite tools were a smoke wrench and a BFH. We had a car up on the lift replacing the exhaust. He would heat the bolts and I stood by with ratchet and socket ready to get on the bolt/nut while it was hot. We were both looking up totally focused on trying to loosen the offending bolt and I feel my leg getting hot. When I look down Howard has the torch pointed at my leg and my pants are on fire

 

Not by a long shot.

The fasteners have to be heated to a dull red, occasionally to a cherry red. Propane or butane can't do this (at least without oxygen).

- Eric

 

If you are not trying to save the exhaust pipes I would cut them off and drop the exhaust manifolds makes it a lot easier to work on. The only real down side to this method is if you busted a bolt off in the heads, you bought yourself more work. With the manifolds off you can really put the heat to it and have room to work, it is also a lot easier to drill out a broken bolt and re tap as well.
Good Luck

 

Good advice Bernhard. Especially since I just snapped off the first bolt. I was using a breaker bar but I didn't think I was applying a lot of pressure. And I'm NOT a big guy. These things must be rusted through. Will the manifold to head bolts be just as bad? I REALLY don't want to snap those!

 

The manifold to head screws (technically, bolts go into nuts and screws go into threaded holes) are usually much easier, but I have broken a couple in the past. They usually break well above the surface, allowing you to get them out with enough heat.

Be sure that you have bent up the safety tabs before you try to put a socket on them, or you'll go insane.

- Eric

 

Thanks MD. I've already started spraying them down with acetone/trans fluid. I'm hoping that if I do that every day, they'll have absorbed enough by the time I get the engine out next weekend. I assume the usual drill; heat, spray, tap, heat, spray, tap.

 

Are you pulling the engine? Just cut the pipes with a cut off tool or saws all.
Safety first goggles/facemask,gloves and dust mask. Stay out of the line of fire as booth can jam/get caught up and cause harm. I always use store bought penetrating lube. There are so many on the market, just not into making my owe . The last one I used was made from a tree oil, I thought it would be **** because it was non toxic/less toxic and found out it worked real good.

 

Usually, if the engine is coming out anyway, it's easiest to just put a wrench on the manifold-to-pipe bolts and break 'em off, then you can get the remains out of the manifolds later when you've got more room to work and to apply heat most directly and safely.

- Eric

 

Oh I've proven I can snap them off lickety-split. Is there enough sticking through the manifold to grab on to after they're broken off? Vice grips or what? I can drill and tap if I have to but I'd rather not.

 

I learned my goggle-lesson long ago Berhard. Goggles are a lot cheaper than the ER. I have both a saws-all and a dremel. Plus the necessary face shield, goggles, masks, etc. But I might pick up swimming goggles. I always seems to get flying bits around regular goggles. My eyes are fragment magnets.

 

Yup. Clamp the Vise-Grips on there real good, then use a torch to slowly heat the entire ear to a dull red, then simply unscrew. Afterward, chase with a tap.

- Eric

 

I suggest a pipe wrench instead of Vice grips when there's enough room.

 

A pipe wrench will give you force in only one direction, while a properly applied pair of Vise-Grips will allow initial back-and-forth movements to loosen the threads.

- Eric

 

If I may address the engineering vernacular, while good sir is technically correct, it is an awkward terminology and acknowledged as such. My practice of a mechanical engineering schooling is to refer to the category as machine screws, with some specific ones being bolts only, as in carriage. I find it to be poor definition to define something based on its use, as opposed to its properties, to wit, a fastener that is attached to a tapped hole is a bolt, whereas one with a nut is a screw, yet one into a welded nut is back to being a bolt even though it is the same piece of machined steel. Studs, fortunately, are actually different.

Fortunately, with a screw application, one usually is backing away from the rust, not pulling the nut through it.

 

Kinda screws with your head, du'nt it?

- Eric

 

Gaaah! I yield!

 

Ha ha!

 

Does this make my ratchet a screwdriver?

 

I have often encountered the exhaust pipe to manifold cap screws extending thru the flange by quite a but, covered in rust.

my "engineer" boss recently got confused over
tap screws [threaded all the way to the head] vs.
tapping screws [which form their own threads upon installation]

 

Valid point on the weld nuts on the exhaust pipe. Those almost act like studs, but they should be called screws, I guess. I meant things like a tapped blind hole in my previous comment.

I would have called it a tap bolt, shankless bolt, or completely threaded bolt, and then self tapping screws, but I take your point.

 

As big a problem as this is and always has been.......I have always wondered why the manufacturers did not use brass or stainless bolts/nuts/studs/screws/tap bolt/cap screw/shank less Bolt/threaded bolt or whatever you wish to call them. Most times when they come out I call them junk. confused: