Frozen bolt removal

In looking for advise as to how you handle a frozen rusted bolt. I was thought to clean the bolt and area, use a penetrating oil spray and apply steady pressure with a properly fitting tool or socket. If it was being stubern you could use heat to the metal the bolt passed through to break the bond. I've been told to heat the bolt lately. I'm afraid that will soften the bolt and it will break off when pressure is applied. What were you thought or what is successful for you?

Thank you Greg

What I do is use ATF on bolts like that. If ATF alone does not do it I heat it up and then put ATF on while still hot and let ti sit. Some times it takes 2 or 3 times of heating and pouring ATF on but most of the time that works. I keep an old pumper oil can full of ATF for such things

When you heat the bolt, you don't try to turn it while it is still red hot, you will twist it off for sure then! Heat the bolt red hot and then let it cool to air temperature. When the bolt is still warm, squirt some oil around the threads at the heat will wick the oil down in the threads. Once cool, try to turn the bolt. If you can get it to move a little then keep applying oil and working it back and forth until it comes out. You may have to heat the bolt again and let it cool. I have removed a LOT of rusted bolts and have learned by trial and error what to do and what NOT to do :lol: You have to be patient when trying to remove a rusted bolt without twisting it off. Sometimes heating the metal around the bolt will expand it enough you can unscrew the the bolt while it is still warm. Then, sometimes despite your best efforts to get the bolt out, it twists off and you have to drill it out.

I just had a bolt on the corn head that was so rusted in place that the head busted off it leaving the bolt and a nub of thread sticking out of the casting. I did what I always do and heated the part in the casting until it was cherry red. Let it cool down. Hit it with penetrating oil when it is cool enough not to burn the oil if you want...but probably not necessary. Put a vice grip on the exposed nub and walk it right out. Never fails me. Sometimes they turn out by hand.

if its a bolt that for sure you do not want to break off, ie in a casting, engine block , head, ect, i ake my time. wire brush or sandblast all the rust away from the fastener first. give the bolt a couple wacks right square on the head with a ball peen hammer, or, i have a hammer head attachment for my air hammer. just enough to shock the bolt a little. then hose it with your favorite penetrating oil. i have been using pb blaster here at the shop, but we have switched over to deep creep. it foams up and sticks better, instead of running all over the place. seems to work good too. i soak spray and tap for a day or two, the move to my trusty rodac 3/8 butterfly impact that is about wore out. not a lot of power, but enough to rattle the bolt tight and loose without trying t remove it. this helps break the bond with the rust. a little more spraying, and then go to a more powerful impact, but carefully. you want to "sneek up" on it, not kill it, or you will break it off. heat does help, also heat and apply candle wax when the bolt is hot. it will wick in and help lube the bolt for removal. last resort, bust it off, drill it out and put a heli-coil in there.

What do you heat it with? I only have a propane torch and it just doesn't get anything hot enough to turn red. Any torch suggestions short of an acetylene torch which would be more of an expense than I want to make. I just paid a welding company $80 to drill out two rusted bolts(I broke one) in a John Deere 953 running gear hitch - the tongue bolt and the king bolt.

I have always used candle wax, heat it up,apply wax, your torch would probably work, smack it with a hammer and try to work it back and forth.I have sometimes done this over the course of a week but it works for me.

(quoted from post at 16:40:10 10/13/15) What do you heat it with? I only have a propane torch and it just doesn't get anything hot enough to turn red. Any torch suggestions short of an acetylene torch which would be more of an expense than I want to make. I just paid a welding company $80 to drill out two rusted bolts(I broke one) in a John Deere 953 running gear hitch - the tongue bolt and the king bolt.

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If you are going to be working with old machinery, you need an oxy-acetylene torch. Nothing else will do the same thing. Yes, they are pricey, but you will have it for the rest of your life.

Well I tell you Joe, at least 20 years ago I bought a used set of tanks and torches at a farm auction. Never have found the time to learn to weld but in all those years I have managed to learn how to set up my cutting torch so that I can heat and cut metal. These are Oxygen/acetylene tanks. Started out being used once a year. Then once a month. Now I use them several times a week. I paid about $125 for the setup back then and have only exchanged tanks a couple times. I have never seen a bolt in a casting that I could not remove using the steps above. Once had a whole set that held the battery box on a Cub Loboy and the heads were nearly completely eaten away and the battery acid had gotten down in the threads. As long as there is enough exposed to clamp a vice grip onto, I can remove most any fastener in 15-20 minutes. Almost all of that time is waiting for it to cool. This is something you really need to have. I have so much old equipment that if I let a rusty bolt hold me up for 2-3 days I would never see the end of the repair line.

Remember heat expands metal. Quickly heating what the bolt is rusted into will expand it more than the bolt until the heat soaks thru to the bolt and it expands. I have always heated what the bolts are screwed into when possible.

I do the same as Dune Country...apply candle wax as it cools. If the bolt is in a casting, I heat the casting. Bolt gets too hot too quickly if I heat the bolt. Latent heat in the casting keeps melting the wax into the threads. It has never failed me in years of use.

(quoted from post at 10:24:28 10/14/15) Remember heat expands metal. Quickly heating what the bolt is rusted into will expand it more than the bolt until the heat soaks thru to the bolt and it expands. I have always heated what the bolts are screwed into when possible.

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Good advice, but sometimes the iron that the bolt is screwed into is inaccessible. The head of the bolt is the only thing you can apply heat to. Takes a lot more heat that way, but it will eventually get results.

Put a yellow tank on it and you can get nuts to turn red hot. That is all I have at home. Takes to much time to load the torch cart from the tool shop and then take it back. I use the yellow tank on a bernzomatic torch to bend up to 1/4" bar stock in a vise.

Propane is hot enough for a bolt. By getting the bolt as hot as you can you are expanding it inside the hole it is in . When new and rust free there is a space between the bolt threads and tapped hole , small as it is there is still a gap . When the hot bolt expands it will squash the corrosion that has frozen it in place . By heating it well and then letting it cool to air temperature as has been suggested a small gap will be re created by this squashing. For really stubborn ones I may have to do this two or three times , penetrating oil after the third , then try to unscrew it . Cooling down overnight seems to work the best , it takes patience but patience is cheap compared to a snapped off bolt .

Use an acetylene torch to heat the bolt. Hal

Everybody's info above is good. Important to heat, let cool, PB blast, heat area around the bolt, smack that dude a couple times like they've been saying and be careful. I have never heard of the candle wax thing, I guess I'll have to try it.
I've had acetylene torches for yrs and can't imagine removing bolts without them. But my father has lived his life time, and done many things with only a pair of bernzamatics with map gas
2 creates twice as much heat as one (that's common sense huh)