Very interesting test results - first time I've seen a test that actually quantified the benefits of the various penetrants! And impressive results for the home brew as well! I used Liquid Wrench for years before discovering Kroil and I have found that it will work when the others don't. Probably like many situations where the first idea is pretty close to working, so it often doesn't take much of an improvement to make a big difference. But typically you never know how close you were to success unless you run a special calibrated test!
ATF is one of the most chemically aggressive of all hydraulic fluids, so maybe there is a chemical reaction going on that has something to do with it's effectiveness. Learned about that years ago when the power trim on my old 1975 Evinrude was slowly bleeding down under load. Took it apart and discovered that a simple rubber tipped needle like a carb needle & seat assy was leaking. OMC wanted over $100 for that dinky little valve, so being the tightwad engineer that I am, I consulted with a colleague in the Pratt controls group! He had a whole desk full of vendor samples of rubber tipped check valve needles! He said you probably need Viton to resist the ATF used in those trim units, and I don't know what sort of rubber these are, so take several different ones and soak 'em in a capful of ATF overnight. Any that don't swell up will work! Did the test and some of them swelled up to about 5X original size! That ATF is powerful stuff! The one that didn't swell up worked great!
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