ATF in Crankcase

[Per Lindgren]

I tried this trick on the '92 100 2.8q Avant I had some time ago. This 2.8 had
extremely noisy lifters, and the oil looked like brent or crude.

What I learned was that I should never have done it. I added about 1/2 liter to
the engine, drove it for three minutes before replacing oil and filter, but the
engine became too clean. The rings were obviously worn, and gunked up with
carbon. Same thing for valve guides nad seals. When I did the ATF cleaning trick,
all old oil aprticles obviously was cleaned out, and when I sold that car it used
about 2 or 3 liters of oil per 1000 kms. It had 195.000 kms on the meter when I
did the ATF trick.

PerL
92 AudiCab 2.3E


Al Powell wrote:

> On 11/20 Taka asked:
>
> Is it safe to pour some ATF into the crankcase, run it
> for about 100 miles and dump the oil and filter? I've
> heard here and elsewhere that ATF, due to its high
> detergent action, is good for cleaning out gunk in your
> engine.
>
> The answer - you're right that ATF is highly detergent and will clean things
> out.  However, remember that it also thins the engine oil because ATF is very
> low viscosity.  If you add ATF and drive it, go easy on the throttle and
> don't beat it hard, as your oil viscosity will be changed.  This used to be a
> pretty standard "old mechanics" trick to keep hydraulic lifters clean, and
> I've used it a number of times.
>
> This was mostly before 1977, when I switched to using only synthetic oil.
>   This eliminates the problem of having ANY gunk anywhere in the engine, as
> the synthetics are very high detergent, indeed.  This also does away with
> noisy lifters - if they are willing to be silenced at all.
>
> Given today's' technology, my suggestion if you want to do some engine
> cleaning would be to pick up a can of Gunk or Amsoil "Engine Cleaner" (the
> Gunk brand is available in most auto parts stores) and use it according to
> label directions just before an oil change.  If you think you still have
> deposits, repeat at the next oil change.  I've used these cleaners in a
> number of cars before converting them to synthetic and never had any problems
> afterwards.
>
> ************************************
> Al Powell
> Fort Collins, CO
> powellae at home.com
> cougfan1 at gocougs.wsu.edu
> ************************************