Acetone & pwr steering fluid mix to remove rust

[bigeasy1]

I have tried several rust penetrants to free up the seized 150 hp Johnson on my newly aquirred 20' Seafari with no luck.
I tried WD40,liquid wrench,PB Blaster,Free all,and (as recommended),Kroil,and a few home made concoctions.None of them worked yet.

So In my web search,I came across this on a few gear head sites.The guys on a few of these sites have claimed that a 50/50 mixture of Acetone and Power steering fluid worked better than any of the commercially made products,so I think I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.
I came across this on Bobs the oil guy site and thought you may find it interesting.I cut and pasted it below.Anyone ever try this?and if so what were your results?

PS.. I only copied the first page,you can find the original on bobs the oil guy site.

************************************************** ****************

From a motorcycle mailing list I am on....
...........
It looks like the original article was in the April/May 2007 issue of
Machinists Workshop.

Quote:
Machinist's Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break out
torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They are below, as forwarded
by an ex-student and professional machinist, Bud Baker.
Don't forget the April 2007 "Machinist's Workshop" magazine comparison
test.

*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. Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we 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 results have been widely quoted on the internet, but the picture in
the magazine allegedly shows power steering fluid and not ATF, and
according to lbender (who claims to be the author) in this thread, it
actually was power steering fluid (mixed with acetone) that they tested
with. Lbender begins participating in the thread on its second page.

[flyingfrizzle]

This may help, acidtone is just a thinner in this case and any oil that is thinned down will penetrate into a rusted area better possibly. You could probably thin down some of the other oils and make them thinner to get better penetration. I think if you tried the can stuff now with no luck you will be pressed to get this to work. Best thing to do is fill that sucker up with some penetrate oil and (thinned or not) and let it sit for a few days to get it time to adsorb into the stuck areas. You may need to pull the heads and fill each cylinder with the oil and use a wooden block on each piston and try to knock them down. That or split the case and knock each piston out one by one then hone them back if they are not too far gone already. Good luck, thin down some oil and let it soak for some time and see what happens. You never know?

[kmoose]

I've seen several cases like this and not one was ever freed to the point the end result was worth the effort. If you really knew the history of the motor you could make an educated decision on moving forward but statistically it sounds like you may be chasing a rainbow.

If its just a valiant effort of spare time you could rig some compressed air to the cylinders in the sealed position above the ports. Unfortunately those are probably not the crusty ones needing the most help.

[Bushwacker]

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!

[bigeasy1]

Believe me,I'm not expecting any miracles.Even if I was to get it to turn,I'm not planing on using the motor,it's too old and I want reliability.I'm in no rush anyway.I still haven't touched the boat other than trying to get the engine to turn over.
I think my plan is to maybe get a late model outboard and use the boat for some close by salt water fishing on the Connecticut coast.
I'm still not sure. I may decide to sell it,or take it to Florida,If I can ever sell my damm house up north.

Anyone know what the value of this motor (1985 150 hp Johnson with the separate oil reservoir) would be if I decided to sell it for parts?

[Handful in NC]

Please try the ATF/acetone and let us know if it works!

[Bushwacker]

[QUOTE=bigeasy1;237284 . . . Anyone know what the value of this motor (1985 150 hp Johnson with the separate oil reservoir) would be if I decided to sell it for parts?[/QUOTE]

Big Shrimpin may have some idea of what it's worth. Those old motors will last for years if properly maintained, but I have no idea how many are still around. You should be able to at least sell all the electrical stuff off of it . . . the stator assy, rectifier, coils and power pack should be worth something, as those are expensive parts if bought new. Lower unit might also be worth something. The carbs might even be worth something IF PO didn't let them set with phase-separated E10 gas in 'em! Years ago a buddy of mine blew up his 135 Evinrude trying to soup it up, so I bought all the electrical parts off of it. Ended up using everything but the stator assembly in the 31 years I owned my 115!

[GameOnSalmon]

The magic Number with a Seized block is $300. Thats what i sell them for all the time when i pick up boats. They sell fast at $300 and Pretty dam Slow at $400 There you go.

[flyingfrizzle]

$300 is a reasonable amount, some one will pick it up and part it out on ebay and make a few hundred bucks. If you got the time to part it out yourself you may can make twice to 3 time that. I pick up outboards for parts all the time and usally pay $100-$300 for an old blown motor. Some times I can make over a grand selling the parts on ebay off each outboard.

[bigeasy1]

Thanks all,I appreciate the info and help.
Just for the heck of it,I'll try the Acetone and power steering mix over the weekend,and let you know the results.I'm sure that this motor will be going on craigslist,whether I get it to turn over or not.I don't want to make a project out of a 30 year old motor.

You know how that works.First you remove the heads and possibly get it to turn,but now you realize that it needs rings etc,so you do that,then the carbs at the least need rebuilding or replacement,so you do that,then it needs a water pump,then the power trim craps out so you do that,then some electrical items need to be replaced,and on and on and on.Before you know it you have dumped far more money into it than it's worth.
That's a road I'm not going down.