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Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:05 pm

Think of the peanut oil like Fluid Film...it must be reapplied to keep its protection working for ya.

FF is NOT for exhaust parts for those who are not familiar.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:34 pm

Can't really say how it works on exhaust...

I have been working on fishing boats with diesel stoves for many years and peanut oil has always been what we treat the steel cooktop with. Works great and if not treated will start rusting.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:46 pm

Doug - here is a tidbit on how it works:

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

Note that steel is a 'solid' but is also an alloy - moreover there will be surface irregularities even if rust has not already caused pitting on a more macroscopic scale. I bet some former colleagues can find better info on this as it is just the thing for some grad. students in chemistry or engineering to play around with in their off time.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:28 pm

All this peanut oil talk and seasoning of pans is making me hungry.

Maybe we should start a poll...Chick-fill-A or KFC :lol:

Peanut oil cooks a good chicken and one hell of a good fried turkey :wink:

Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:41 pm

I was thinking about a Pizza tonite, changed my mind--

Popeye's it is.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 5:08 pm

Its sunday, not everyone has had the chance to read thesamba, so for sure other people will shim in tomorrow, monday. Patience my friends... Patience...

Well in the mean time, i decided to test this myself! I went to the grocecy store and bought peanut oil, and transfered the oil in a used peanut butter plastic jar for ease of use with a brush...

I cannot test this on one of my vanagons since they are in storage for winter, i decided to use it on my one off oversees special edition volkswagen rubicon edition... (Shhhhh..... Please dont say anything to the moderators or they will eliminate the pics since its actually my 2009 jeep wrangler rubicon)

At this point i applied the peanut oil on half of the muffler to show the difference between the dry area and the applied peanut oil. Here you can see a very used, at the end of its usefull life old aftermarket cheesy exhaust muffler. I had to flake off the layers of rust before application... :shock: wow thank you previous owner... The rest of the original exhaust system is actually very good.

All exhaust system had a generous application of peanut oil... The junction on the left of the pic is what separates the original exhaust system from the aftermarket muffler.

Went for a half hour drive and the first 15 minutes the smell was overwelming when you stopped. I stopped and checked, the oil was burned off close to the engine, and the metal looked darker. The muffler was still with a wet appearence, but less. Obviously it is not as hot at the end of the exhaust system. It got too dark for pictures. Tomorrow i will post pics... What i can say now is that its much less wet to the touch, and less smelly too. It needs a couple more drives...

Thats it for now!

(Edit: please mods, keep the pics! We don't have much going on so far... I promise i will find a VW to coat it...)

Sun Nov 15, 2015 5:21 pm

Forthwithtx wrote: I've used vegetable oil to season the Scout Troop's cast iron, as well as my own, by wiping it on and baking it in the oven. Unfortunately, we had a Scout with a peanut allergy, so I never used peanut oil. The oil will, in fact, harden to a semi-durable finish. I don't know how it would hold up to road salt and mud spray, but it is a sound approach for ferrous metals.

This is why - in part - if you run veggie oil in a diesel, you need to change the motor oil more frequenty. It can acidify and plasticize in with the dino oil and cause all kinds of problems. I've seen a 7.3 Ford's crank bearings burned to shite.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 6:12 pm

Pedro...kudos my Man :!:

I really like the look of the bent pipe.
That sums up what any exhaust part I have oiled looks like.

I dont coat CATs or mufflers.
I pay extra attention to elbows, tight bends and the flanges.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 6:53 pm

insyncro wrote: Pedro...kudos my Man :!:

I really like the look of the bent pipe.
That sums up what any exhaust part I have oiled looks like.

I dont coat CATs or mufflers.
I pay extra attention to elbows, tight bends and the flanges.
Thanks Dylan!
I took the plundge... For the best or for the worst! :wink:
For the bent pipe, it was pretty rusty! A couple layers fell off :shock:
I got lucky that enough metal was left for me to treat it with peanut oil. It will be actually a very good test to see how it wil last during this coming winter salt fest.

Hum... Why don't you coat CATs or mufflers?

Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:02 pm

...as the driver next to you at the stop light goes into anaphylactic shock due to their peanut allergy... :shock:

Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:39 pm

pedrokrusher wrote:

Hum... Why don't you coat CATs or mufflers?

Most of the CATs I am dealing with are stainless steel so they don't need it, my opinion.
The mufflers don't get as hot as those bends..they didn't really dry well.
Plus the heat shields are a PITA to work around.

Maybe if I was to keep doing it, I would just coat the muffler the first time around and than just focus on the bends and flanges.

Again, the color of the bent pipe is exactly what I saw and it stuck around.

Maybe TK will comment on how many coats/heat cycles would be a good baseline and than more people willing to give this a shot can all do the same, so we have some consistency.

I vote for three coatings and than see how it goes for 30 days...sound like a good plan or just one coating and see???

I have a super busy week ahead, but will try to get my daily driver coated and some pictures uploaded.

Thanks for helping to get this technique shown and documented.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:54 pm

IdahoDoug wrote: Well respected paint and coating companies routinely try to develop paint coatings for exhaust that routinely fail in the real world. These are companies with chemical engineers and big budgets and they fail to develop exhaust coatings. So, I (and others here I'm sure) have a hard time accepting that a random member of the legume family has magical properties to coat super hot steel against rust.
Hi Doug

I totally understand your point, i went and googled different ways with the words "peanut oil", "rust", "anti rust", "treatment" and nothing comes up! Nothing! The only mention was right here on thesamba... Wow...

Why does no car manufacture use peanut oil treatment at their factory? They could do like 4 cycles of the treatment mechanically. Easy! Is it that its too much work and needs yearly treatment? Is it because they would use food for industrial use instead of nourishing people? Is it bad rap to use that? Would the rest of the world laugh at them?

So if it really works why nobody else outside of thesamba mention it? I don't know. But that does not mean its not true. The account of several members mentionning it works is enough for me to believe it, and to try it!

Now, instead of partial information spreaded in different threads, we can have all info, pictures, experiences, ways of doing the treament right here on this thread.

Now, lets hope more people will shim in in the next couple of days... With pics please! Pretty please!

Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:00 pm

On rusted up exhaust tubing, it for sure will take allot more than pipe with average patina.
(I know, what's average?)
Anyway, drive it till it cooks off, or sucks into the rust well.
Slap some more on it, and let that cook.

What you'll find is that there will be a point that after it cooks after a drive it will pretty much maintain a darker color, like it isn't going to require anymore to darken up.
It's at this point, like a frying pan, it's seasoned, and won't take anymore to get to this point.

I'm going over to youtube and see if there is anything on seasoning frying pans to give you a reasonable comparison to let you judge from.

I would think 3 good coats should be enough, but I've gotta say them pipes on the Jeep are pretty rough, and just will take a little more.
Slop some more oil on there keep driving it so it gets good & hot, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:45 pm

insyncro wrote: pedrokrusher wrote:

Hum... Why don't you coat CATs or mufflers?

Most of the CATs I am dealing with are stainless steel so they don't need it, my opinion.
The mufflers don't get as hot as those bends..they didn't really dry well.
Plus the heat shields are a PITA to work around.

Maybe if I was to keep doing it, I would just coat the muffler the first time around and than just focus on the bends and flanges.

Again, the color of the bent pipe is exactly what I saw and it stuck around.

Maybe TK will comment on how many coats/heat cycles would be a good baseline and than more people willing to give this a shot can all do the same, so we have some consistency.

I vote for three coatings and than see how it goes for 30 days...sound like a good plan or just one coating and see???

I have a super busy week ahead, but will try to get my daily driver coated and some pictures uploaded.

Thanks for helping to get this technique shown and documented.
Thanks Dylan, its very helpfull.
Stainless steel cat, got it.
Ah, the bent is hotter than the muffler, got it. That explains why the bent is way rustier. I will apply more layers at the bent than the muffler.

Yes 3 layers sounds good. I'll try that.

Thanks to you too for getting on board and experiment it on your side. =D> =D> =D>

Sun Nov 15, 2015 9:00 pm

Terry Kay wrote: On rusted up exhaust tubing, it for sure will take allot more than pipe with average patina.
(I know, what's average?)
Anywaym drive it till it cooks off, or sucks into the rust well.
Slap some more on it, and let that cook.

What you'll find is that there will be a point that after it cooks after a drive it will pretty much maintain a darker color, like it isn't going to require anymore to darken up.
It's at this point, like a frying pan, it's seasoned, and won't take anymore to get to this point.

I'm going over to youtube and see if there is anything on seasoning frying pans to give you a reasonable comparison to let you judge from.

I would think 3 good coats should be enough, but I've gotta say them pipes on the Jeep are pretty rough, and just take more.
Slop sone morecoil on there keep driving it so it gets good & hot, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Thanks Terry, great info!
I will try 3 coats.
Yup, that jeep muffler is bad, its actually a very good guiny pig for testing.
Actually i should repeat the coatings untill it gets dark. Maybe 3 coats, maybe more...

Sun Nov 15, 2015 9:35 pm

OK, I originated the Peanut Oil Exhaust Pipe Treatment some time ago on the Vanagon.com mailing list.

I was using the handle "George Goff" at the time because I once created so much havoc and contention on the list that Tom the Bomb had to shut it down for a couple of days. Lacking a sense of humor, Tom banned me from the list for life. So, not wanting to miss out on any of the fun, I reinvented myself.

Now for a blast from the past from the Vanagon.com archives:

Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 07:12:57 EDT
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <[email protected]>
From: George Goff <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: exhaust / Rust Prevention
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

[email protected] wrote:

> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 01:19:37 +0000
> From: Mary Barbara <[email protected]>
> Subject: exhaust
>
> Has anyone used a ceramic coated or powder coated exhaust system? . . .
I've just rusted out
> mine (lasted 4 years) and am looking for options.
> Mary

Mary, dear lady, try peanut oil. When you stop laughing, you can read the
whys and wherefores of my odd recommendation.

In my burg, there is only one other brilliant soul who is astute enough to
drive a Vanagon. We'll call him The Tube Guru because that is his professional handle. In all things he is the most fastidious person I have ever met and he shames me by running a pristine '84 daily on our salt soaked highways of western PA. Preventative maintenance is an obsession for him and his van shows the result of his efforts. As a kid, he rust-proofed cars, so he is ever diligent with all aspects of keeping a car rust-free, no mean feat where we live.

Tube recently had an exhaust system installed (before it broke anywhere, of
course) and while coveting the stainless steel tailpipe I had fabricated, he
expressed his dismay with how quickly the exhaust system starts to rust. I
related my experience with various painted exhaust systems on bikes and explained the best thing I had found was to coat them with hydraulic oil.

That trick came from a sprint car owner I knew and probably the only reason he used hydraulic oil was because he had a bucket of it sitting around. The exhaust pipes have to be oiled as they cool, not when they are hot and it has to be applied several times.

This discussion eventually led to a thought I had about using peanut oil on
exhaust headers. I use peanut oil in a cast iron Dutch oven for deep frying
and long ago I had noticed the impervious coating which eventually formed on all surfaces of the pot that did not see the cooking flame directly. Since I am too undisciplined to endure such a regimen, the idea always resided in the future, but, Tube glommed on to it. I gave him a gallon of spent peanut oil which he has experimentally applied to his tailpipe and J-pipe. The preliminary results are promising enough for him to start coating the rest of the system.

A dark charcoal gray coating has formed on the treated parts and as wet as it has been, there is still no rusting. We'll really see what comes of this all
when spring arrives.

One precaution: Tube applies the oil with a brush and, knowing him, I'm
certain he is quite neat about it. The oil could wreak havoc with the OXS if it
finds it way into a leaky exhaust joint.
__________________________________

Richie

Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:03 pm

RicoS wrote: OK, I originated the Peanut Oil Exhaust Pipe Treatment some time ago on the Vanagon.com mailing list.
>
>
>
Richie

Wow! Travel back in time!
Vanagon.com in 2003, yup, i was there too! From 2000 to 2007... Then thesamba.
Directly from the originator.
Thanks Richie for this history lesson.

RicoS wrote: One precaution: Tube applies the oil with a brush and, knowing him, I'm
certain he is quite neat about it. The oil could wreak havoc with the OXS if it
finds it way into a leaky exhaust joint.
__________________________________

Richie
Thanks for the tip!

Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:17 am

Thanks you so much for your culinary expertise and the final definitive peanut oil pipe application process history Richie--

You must have dug all day to find that posting from The Land Of The Taxi man , and two ton Tillie--

I can't believe you found the original notation over at Vanagon.com--
I am impressed.

Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:18 am

Here are two pics after one drive...

A close up...

Yup, the bent is almost dry, you feel a residue on it.
The muffler is still wet, it did dry up a little do...

I'm applying a second coat now.

Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:32 am

RicoS wrote: OK, I originated the Peanut Oil Exhaust Pipe Treatment some time ago on the Vanagon.com mailing list......A dark charcoal gray coating has formed on the treated parts and as wet as it has been, there is still no rusting. We'll really see what comes of this all
when spring arrives...

13 years later, can you report on the effectiveness of the treatment? How often did Tube reapply the oil? Was it an effective long-term solution that prevented rust entirely? Was it low-maintenance or high-maintenance?