Thread: ATF in your Oil

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Hey guys.

I heard of a great trick to aid in cleaning out your motor's oiling system when you change your oil. I heard you can add 1 quart ATF for every 4 quarts of oil, let her run 5mins then change your oil. The ATF suspends the various deposits that accumulate in our motor's various oiling systems.

SO... can this trick be used on modern, computer controlled engines with all their sensor gizmos and doodads?

I know of racers that swear by this practice and actually keep the 1:4 ratio in their "old school" engine at all times. I have seen the inside of said engines and they are IMMACULATE.

Thanks,
-CJP

It will be interesting to see if anyone has had good success with this method. I wiped out a perfectly good 389 Pontiac engine years ago when I used that 5 minute flush stuff you can buy. It cleaned up the insides ok, but all that dirt and grime went straight to the bottom of the pan and got sucked up into the oil pump pickup screen. Guess what I never did ever again?


Don

Why not just run high detergent oil, like diesel lube?

I once put some engine clean in a stright six 64 C10 right before I changed the oil.

Apparently the sludge was the only thing sealing the rings and valves, cause when I dumped it out and added fresh oil.. the only thing that engine was good for after that was fogging bugs.

why not sea foam

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

why not sea foam

Then you can get on youtube! lots of seafoam videos

I remember an old mechanic that I worked for that swore by adding ATF to a dirty engine and running it for a long time...I did see it fix a lot of stuck lifters...It is ,after all still an oil...I'm sure it reduces the viscosity overall..

Originally Posted by JeffB2

Then you can get on youtube! lots of seafoam videos

???????????????????

ooo, I saw the seafoam videos. didn't look too good... I don't know if I want to make my baby smoke that much. I bet it kills the CATS. How about that mystery oil stuff I have been hearing about? Or Lucas products?

-CJP

Automatic transmission fluid has about the same viscosity as 5W-20 motor oil. The transmission fluid does not have the detergents that a first tier engine oil has. As such, transmission fluid has less cleaning power than a good 5W-20 oil.

dhemi1;
We used to do that some years ago with some of the old school stuff.
Like some of the other guys said It washes out alot of engine sludge.
Now if thats whats keeping the rear engine seal from leaking you could
have a problem. I also used to add a quart of trany fluid to a gallon of
water and trickel it in to the carb and this would steam clean the
piston tops and valves. If you do it to fast you'll be replacing spark
plugs though. Another thing we did was take a old lead penny and
glue it down to the top of the battery this would attract the acid to
the penny away from the battery cables and post. Kurt

Originally Posted by dhemi1

ooo, I saw the seafoam videos. didn't look too good... I don't know if I want to make my baby smoke that much. I bet it kills the CATS. How about that mystery oil stuff I have been hearing about? Or Lucas products?

-CJP

you can add it to your oil .any thing you add strait in the intake that as a oil base or water will make you engine smoke i used sea foam at every 3000 miles in the gas tank of my truck it never did the smoke job that you see in videos .if you want to see smoke i can make any thing disappear in smoke it called fogging oil for boat winter storage i can not tell you if its going to kill you cats or your dogs i know if you add to the gas tank or add to oil no smoke

Originally Posted by DennyW

correct Glenn... When I worked at a GM dealer. the carbon removing liquid they used...boy, talk about smoke...half can through carb...then flood the engine with the other half to stall it, let sit, then start and clear it out. The directions were right on the can.

Also, SeaFoam is very good if used right...

I have used the old style ATF (type "A") to clean engines back in the 60's when a high milage engine was +60,000 and learned to be cautious on the high mileaged engines. If you run it too long, you ruin it. I have also (old school) used diesel in the oil to clean it out and had sucess with that. I have also used the water to clean the carbon from the pistons and clinders with great luck. I have never run one more than 2 minutes though.
Wish I had known about the cleaner the dealers used. I would have tried it.
A great tip from the past though.

We did all the time back in the 70's and 80's for older engines, never ever had a problem. The old timers that did it swore by it, they also did the kerosene trick but I never tried it, the auto trans fluid seemed to work for me. I have been told that auto trans fluid is very high in detergent, that's why it works so well.

I have heard that 1 qrt transmission fluid does work well to clean an engine gently. I have a 1989 Buick full size estate wagon that I use Marvel Mystery oil in the oil (1qrt with 4 qrts regular 10w30 motor oil) and I also use it in the gas with every fillup (8 oz for 16 gallons) What a difference it made in acceleration and smoothness of the engine (the car has only 35K original miles with the olds 307 engine) When I bought the car it was very sluggish. After 1 oil change and 2 tanks of gas it was a totally different car. It will actually get out of its own way now Don Jr.