Internal Fire Museum of Power

The only way we have found of stopping rust on flywheels and shiny metal parts long term is the use of an agricultural rust inhibitor made by castrol but there are many simular products from different brands, you simply paint it on and when it drys it leaves a wax layer which stops the rust pretty much dead for a year or so , if neaded it can be re coated every year to keep on protetcing .
When you wish to remove it simply wipes of with some petrol on a rag . other than a thick coat of grease we found it to be very good as oil and wd40 just runs of after a couple of days. it is also very good at producing an uthentic used look when applied to original paint .

HTH
bob

I've found Waxoyl is very good for this. Use it sparingly or don't stand in line with the flywheels when you start the engine though or you get treated against rust as well.
Waxoyl also makes a good assembly compound for stopping components rusting together. A light coat on threads, washers and mating faces makes disassembly much easier.

John

Lanolin is the taditional material used on the surfaces of machine tools when stored. I use deb contect oil which has replaced duck oil.

Hi Bob,
what you say about agricultural rust inhibitors with the wax film sounds very interesting and is exactly what I am looking for presently for my actual engine restoration project. Up to now I have not found something like that here in Germany where I live.
All I found in the superstores are waxoils for wood protection. The oil creeps into the pores of the wood and after some time the wood must be polished and the result is a thin wax film on the wood surface. I am not sure if this can be used also for metal surfaces. Does someone have experiences?
Can you please give me some trade names of the brands you mentioned, which can be used on metal surfaces? Then it should be easier to find something here. Are "Lanolin" of "roadster" and "Waxoyl" of "JohnM" some of these fluids? How long does it take until the fluid has become a solid wax film?
Andreas

The Shell product name is Ensis oil this was still available about 5 yrs ago, otherwise my drum I bought last year is marked as Preserving fluid, and comes as light , medium or heavy acording to how much lanolin is in solution. Mine comes from Pennine lubricants, supporters of I F, link in the sponsors.

Thank you for your infos. I try to find this here.
Andreas

I have found another substance used on outboard engines to stop corrosion called would you believe it "corrsoin gaurd" its a waxy greasse in a can and it is superd and does not evaporate off with time.

Over here in the States, there's a product called LPS-3 which is one of the wax type rust inhibitors.

It can be gotten either as a manually applied liquid or in a spray can. Personally, I use the liquid. A gallon of it is a bit on the dear side but should last me as long as I live.

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Take care - Elden
http://www.eldensengines.com

LPS-3 is available in UK
http://www.flightstore.co.uk/lps-3-rust-inhibitor.asp
I've also used Dinitrol in the past but can't remember how good it is. It's been around for over 40 years though if that helps.
http://www.dinitrol.co.uk/
These days I stay with Waxoyl having had some very good results with in on various cars.

John

ACF50, also available from "Flightstore" (above) is highly thought of by some bikers, and I've been impressed. (I wish I'd known of it when I started restoring my old Land Rover). I'm told that "Corrosion Block" is basically a thicker version of ACF50. There's also a "Corrosion Block" grease along the same lines which I'm trying on the bike, - designed for marine apps, I think.
No connection with the supplier but I understand they're available from ... http://www.ruststopshop.com

Huw

There are two things i use to protect unpainted metal surfaces such as flywheels. First is a white spray grease. I was given a box of this a while back. It comes in a small black aerosol and turns to a sticky grease when it hits a metal surface, so doesn't run off like WD40.

The other thing I use is good old fashioned 'vasoline' which is actually nothing more than petroleum jelly. I was first told about this by a VW Beetle enthusiast who used to put it on the bumpers of his car every winter.

Dirt sticks to both things, so you'll need to remove them with thinners before the rally season, but for keeping the rust away in winter they both work well.

One trick I picked up on from Chemistry class and the Rough Science series is 'sacrificial protection', where a piece of more reactive metal is connected electrically (sit it on the iron, piece of copper wire, alligator clips etc) to the item to be protected, and it stops it rusting as long as there is more reactive metal available to react. Ideal sacrificial metals are zinc (which is why it's used for galv iron), aluminium if it's kept absolutely clean, and alloy pencil sharpeners which contain magnesium, or even straight magnesium if you know where to get it. Great advantages in that one wee pencil sharpener can protect an entire engine if it's kept clean, rather than trying to coat the entire thing in oil etc.
Cheers,
Ben

Back to Lanolin for a moment...... rust protection is a perennial subject on bike fora, and "Fluid Film" is a lanolin-based fluid that some have recommended. This is a link to one supplier .. I've not tried it, however.
http://www.reusablematerials.net/80440/info.php?p=4
and another...
0006 FLUID FILM - Rustbuster
Fluid Film
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=fluid film spray&clk_rvr_id=396745988249&adpos=1s2&MT_ID=10&c rlp=14831738556_2113181&tt_encode=raw&geo_id=32141 &keyword=fluid+film+spray

Huw
p.s. Re sacrificial anodes....most "boaty"-type places, and Claas Olsson (?), sell zinc anodes in various shapes and sizes, but I suspect they're most effective where the parts are more or less permanently under water, not just in a damp atmosphere.

If Im not mistaken, the sacrificial anode can only work when the entire part is surround by an electrolyte (water, sea, damp earth etc). It cant help in open air, nothing to complete the circuit

IMHO, Vaseline (dilute with white spirit for easy application of thin film, or good old waxoyl from Halford. When I was a poor apprentice I used waste engine oil on my rusty old cars, filled the sills, inside doors, wheel arches etc made the car stink and upset my gfs but what do they expect in a 5 quid prewar shed

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The older I get, the more I know
which then shows me, how little I know