ATF in oil

[shockracer]

ok now that i have your atentsion, has any 1 tried or done this? i have heard that putting about 1/4 or 1/2 a quart of ATF in your oil right before changing it will clean out the gunk and sludge? from what i was told you are only to put 30 miles or so on the little bit of ATF before it's changed?

If any of you have tried this pleaze let me know if it works, risky or don't do it
thanks!

 

[nuclearr]

I have never heard of this. But I have heard of diesel in the oil just a little bit to clean it out. Why not just go buy some oil cleaner from the auto parts store? I would think atf would be bad.

I would think it would act like break fluid in in the oil which temporally swells seals to hide leaks but is very bad b/c they will fail soon after this treatment.

 

[shockracer]

well thats what i was thinking but, the people that have told me about this over the past 12 or so year's have done this to there diesel's V8's and V6's but i haven't heard and thing about doing it to I4's or 4G63's in that part. Or should i just get some SeaFoem. im just trying to find the best way to clean her out with out pulling her apart?

 

[doubleclutch99]

This used to be an old remedy to free up sticky lifters. but there's really no reason to do it anymore with all the new oil treatments . a lot of the oils out now have detergents in them. and that's what the old remedy was really about was the detergents used to clean

 

[NeMiZiS]

I've heard of this before, but I probably wouldn't try it.

 

[MrBoxx]

I did it with my truck a few weeks ago before an oil change. It didn't really fix the ticking noise I was hearing, but I have seen it work in person. At the shop I work at, we had a regular customer with a V6 Mustang that had some nasty lifter tick. A quart of oil was poured in the crankcase and the engine was started. After about a minute, the ticking noise got quieter and quieter, until it disappeared. So it DOES work to free up sticky lifters.

Also, one of the auto techs there does put in a quart of ATF in the crankcase of his Cummins diesel regularly. It's high in detergents, and diesel oil gets pretty dirty pretty quickly.

 

[talon20g]

The cavalier I'm currently driving was picked up for $150 and I drove the hell out of it. The first oil change was 15,000 miles later and the next, another 15,000 miles. After then I figured I might as well keep it I can't destroy it. What I'm getting to is the next few oil changes I used a quart of kerosine before each oil change to break up the build up. After that I used a quart of atf in every oil change for a while. I still do on occasion. Atf is a high detergent and cleans the engine very well but doesn't break down the sludge / build up like kerosine does. I've heard of people using atf on old motors with lots of sludge and it stopped up the oil pick up. I have personally used atf and kerosine on several cars and had good results. The cavalier is coming up on 220,000 miles and I bought it with 125,000 miles if anyone is wondering about reliablity issues after doing this.

 

[shockracer]

ok great, thanks for all the info i will go ahead and throw some in.
thx again

 

[DSM1G90]

On a '87 Subaru with 225k miles on it: did a quart of ATF, quart of Kerosene and a quart of oil after I have already drained the old out, but left the filter in. Shoved the three in and let idle for 10 min, then immediately did the drain. Amazing how much more black came out of that motor.

What all this does is help break down the varnish that has coated most of the exposed surfaces, like oil screen, et.al. - even in the oil galleys.

A lot of home shop mechanics always recommended a good engine flush, esp if the block has some real age on it and the oil changes were poor.

But don't do it on a regular basis for it's not needed - let the regular oil help with keeping the motor and innards clean since you're doing the regular oil changes anyways-it has cleaners mixed in with the oil to help scrub the surfaces.

-DSM

 

[shockracer]

awsome, i will try that on an old accord of mine. thanks for the advice guy's