Best Thread Locker

[Will L.]

I’ve no clue where to put this thread, as always feel free to move to a better location.

I stumbled across this on noobtube. Amazed that I have been using junk by comparison.

This guy also showed me I am using lower grade duct tape too.

I hope he does one for high strength thread locker as well in the future.

 

[schiker]

Interesting, good eye-opening video.

I wonder if the type of bolt material matters? He appears to be using hardware store fasteners zinc plated grade 2 ????
Would steel /cast iron materials change or the class of thread. Wonder if they needed more time to fully cure or wasn't anaerobic enough??? The thickness of joint usually is a big deal and with no load would give a bigger joint and seems to show the biggest difference in numbers.

Sure made me want to use the vibratite. Will look for it and try it.

 

[Ed HD]

I feel like there is a lot more to it than just that one test though. Like schiker said, what about different bolts, different thread pitches, different loctite grades? They're made to work to a certain spec, not more. Just because one takes more torque to loosen, doesn't make it better in every case. Also, his using of a clicker style torque wrench throws it out for me. He needs the dial type, that tells the exact torque that was used to remove the bolt. Also, he failed to use loctite gel, stick, tape, etc. I'd say this is internet hackery at best...

 

[WarWagon]

Go ahead and just try to get the ARP studs out of my 6.2 without ruining them with a torchwrench. They have red loctite holding them in. At "Red" the brand and a little bit more holding power doesn****ingmatter because if it does it's the wrong fastener for the application or job. There is also didn't use enough or clean the threads that could ruin it. Blue means I would like to take it apart vs. break the bolts off...

 

[Ed HD]

Go ahead and just try to get the ARP studs out of my 6.2 without ruining them with a torchwrench. They have red loctite holding them in. At "Red" the brand and a little bit more holding power doesn****ingmatter because if it does it's the wrong fastener for the application or job. There is also didn't use enough or clean the threads that could ruin it. Blue means I would like to take it apart vs. break the bolts off...

Exactly. The whole point of blue is that it doesn't rattle apart when it's bolted together, but it doesn't take gorilla strength to remove either. Also, yeah, a lawnmower vibrates a lot, but I've seen applications that vibrate a lot more. Should have strapped it to an old 4BT Cummins for a day...

 

[Will L.]

My thought of this being valid is, he is comparing medium strength level. He didn’t compare any brands high strength units against each other.
Maybe loctite hit it’s designed strength and the other brand is just designed a little higher spec, and loctite planned it and figures if someone needs higher they get the high strength one instead.

As for different thread pitches and bolt material, yes that could be different results, but he is a guy like one of us that grabbed the most common bolts. Maybe different temperature and humidity plays into it also but so what. This is the best comparison of thread locker I have seen anywhere yet.

Lawn mower vs cummins - same thing. Thats the way we think cuz it is diesel engine applied forum but hummer guys know right where it counts worse than engine- halfshaft bolts. Other people on boats or planes maybe know of other things I don’t. The test itself was wwhat it was- best backyard comparison an average guy could do. I think it’s cool he is doing them so I can have some basis of it without spending a weekend and bunch of cash to do my own tests. His duct tape test shows the best tape is a company I never heard of, and I never would have deviation from the big brands had I not seen the video. Just like most people won’t deviate from fram oil filters if people weren’t cutting them open and showing people on backyard hackery videos how bad they are.

I’m not sure which brand at all but I want to redo my engine here soon. But maybe I will go out and buy a couple of brands and do tests on them myself just to know.

Really my amazement behind this video wasn’t this guy running a scientific mechanical testing lab of perfection, but my assumption of brand X is the best always. That I need to look into what could be better options now days.

 

[WarWagon]

Exactly. The whole point of blue is that it doesn't rattle apart when it's bolted together, but it doesn't take gorilla strength to remove either. Also, yeah, a lawnmower vibrates a lot, but I've seen applications that vibrate a lot more. Should have strapped it to an old 4BT Cummins for a day...

Lawnmowers are "cute" vs a alternator (and bracket) snapping high compression diesel engine. (No not the low compression stuff of today.)

Want real vibration? Get a single cylinder air cooled diesel engine from the early 90's on a light plant. None of this cushy HPCR pilot injection stuff of today. Loud, smokey, and will shake the fillings out of your teeth at 20 feet away. Run it 12/7, nights, on a job site till it quits. Bulbs followed by batteries vibrated to death usually. Out of fuel incidents and battery run down didn't help battery life any.

@Will L. Respectfully, this comparison is useless. Especially given what @Ed HD pointed out for the flaws in testing. We are not designing a fastener system. Engineers that do put a spec on the thread locker, wire the nuts and bolts down like in aircraft, use locknuts, single use locknuts, etc. The spec makes sure there isn't damage to the fastener when taking it apart (unless its a one time use), that it will hold, survive the environment, and do the job without wheel falls off = warranty, recall, liability.

All 'we' are doing is rednecking something to hold better or in the case of ARP head Studs sealing rather than locking the threads because the engineers screwed up the initial application.

Comparing a product that is, after all, designed to fail at a specific point again is useless hence my "Red" comment for "The Real McCoy" Ultimate title. Blue isn't Ultimate. That's clickbait BS. I'd expect the grade 2 krap used to fail before the "Red" lets go. And in some cases bolts broken in the block or an expensive engine part makes for a more expensive repair. So Yes, they make Blue for a reason and the Rust Belt welds them together anyway...

So the product meets the specs it was designed for or not. I bet it does. Now if there is a problem that needs solved, still, reach for Red, overkill, and forget about "IF" whatever brand of blue had better holding power.

 

[Will L.]

If you guys haven’t caught on by now, automotive engineers don’t run test simulations and then determine exact thread locker requirements. They wing it. How do I know? I asked back when I was doing the overheating tests with the GM engineers. Honda engineers are the only auto engineers that actually have set specs. GM used different contractors and suppliers through the years just like Ford and Nissan. So 1988 “medium strenght” was different than 1998, because they switched to loctite. And it had nothing to do with specifications- it was all $ and when the conversation got brought up all the Gm engineers could do was fight over it. One guy because his brother worked for one of he companies. Hell, they spec a timing chain, pmd on the pump,and tty headbolts- right?

Yeah the dude in the video maybe didn’t hit the nail
On the head, but he tested more than I ever have when it comes to threadlocker.

As for the red, yes it is stronger than blue. But he didn’t compare high strength vibratight against medium strength loctite. The test was heads up. Like I mentioned before, a high strenght test would be good also.

The point of click tourque wrench is valid. Best would be continous pressure be it digital or needle if torque wrench is used. There is a more accurate electric drive (which is how torque wrenches are adjusted when you send yours in every 6 months to 1 year as needed by use and climate). But looking at the fact that this guy isn’t using Mac or SnapOn sockets, or torque wrenches- looks like he is winging it with what he has.

If your happy or convinced what you have is the best, or good enough- use it. Kinda like whatever oil filter- they will all work. Not trying to change the minds of the workd here, haha. I just figured - I have use loctite as well as store name brands assuming they were all done to a set spec and obviously they aren’t. I decided I will investigate further and know what to use in the future for best option for me.

 

[jrsavoie]

As for rust belt Loctite and still rusting. I have had some success by using both blue loctite and anti-seize on the same bolts.

Loctite on the threads and anti-seize above the threads.

One of the worst bundles of duct tape I ever got was 3M - really surprised me. At the same time we had a bundle of some cheap duct tape that put the 3M stuff to shame.

 

[Ed HD]

I do see what you're saying Will. And yeah, after working at the parts counter for a few months, it definitely seems like the engineers don't know what they're doing half the time...