ive heard that i can put ATF into the motor and it will clean out alot of the bad stuff, is their truth to that? if i do that, should i just run the car for a little while then switch all the fluid out??? any isnight would be appreciated.

 

That's the general idea.

I have this aversion, some may call it phobia, about putting something into a component for which it was not designed, but a lot of people do it with no ill effect.

 

On a 350 with a TH400 the vacuum modular valve ruptured and sucked quarts of atf into the motor. I only drove it about 5 miles. changed the oil/filter added several quarts of atf to tranny and bought a new valve. no harm no foul. Drove the truck for years after that. But was that engine clean inside.

The big If ... the engine is full of dirt or sludge and it comes all loose at once, you get pluged oil lines and spun bearings. On a fairly clean engine it will get all the dirt loose and in the oil, so drain quickly. Good filters to catch all the dirt.

A better plan is to look inside the valve cover if a lot a gunk. Change the oil. when it gets black change it. keep doing this maybe every 500 to 1000 miles it will clean up. Put a 195 thermostat in.

Even better plan pull motor and hot tank. Start over and use better/change the oil.

 

Works GREAT as a cleaner... automatic transmissions CANNOT TOLERATE even a speck of dirt or varnish, so ATF is a VERY STRONG detergent, to prevent that. Also, since it's a hydraulic fluid and oil ISN'T (put motor oil into a hydraulic system, you'll find it won't work, put ATF in one, it does) it even helps hydraulic lifters work better. The down side is, it's not as good of a lubricant of the specific type that an engine requires; so you wouldn't want to run 100% ATF or anything like that.

Replace one quart of your oil with one quart of ATF. Either wait until you need to add a quart, or just change the filter, and pre-fill it with ATF before you put it on, and pour the rest of th equart of ATF into the crankcase.

It WILL dislodge massive amounts of gunk, if there's that inside the motor. This will cause the oil to become thick and black IN A HURRY. But that's a good thing: all that thick black stuff, if IN THERE ANYWAY; now, it's just dissolved, so you can get it out. But of course you don't want to run the engine that way for a lnog time, so if that happens, change the oil ASAP; use some kind of cheap oil, like your local parts store brand or something; except keep using one quart of ATF in it. Keep doing that until the oil quits turning balck and thick. At that point, you know you've gotten all of that crud out of there, and it's clean. At that point, put good oil back in it.

Once you've got it clean in there, I'd STRONGLY suggest switching to synthetic oil, if the motor is leak-free. Use one of the "real" synthetic products: Amsoil, Mobil1, Royal Purple, or Red Line; NOT Valvoline, Castrol, etc. And of course, NOT a Fram oil filter. The Mobil1 brand (actually a Champion Labs product) is a good dependable one. AC used to be but they've changed lately, I'm not so sure about them any more.

 

I've worked a quick lube for a while now and we sell a product for 40 bucks that does the same thing as adding a quart of ATF. What I have had good luck with is just draining a quart out of the motor and adding a quart of ATF running the vehicle for about 5 minutes and then draining the crank case and changing the oil and filter like you normally would. Then use a good quality filter and oil. Sofa I wasn't aware of any issue with valvoline oil, synthetic or non. I work at one of their quick lubes so its been available to me free of charge so thats what i've been using for the past 2 years with no ill effect that I can determine. I'm sure that they contract the production out but if their synthetic is of notably less quality then mobil or a competitor please let us all know.

 

Right; I wouldn't describe it as an "issue", as such, or of "notably less quality", however "quality" might happen to be defined. Only, that the "real" synthetics are actually synthetic, produced entirely from a test tube, as it were, such that all the molecules are identical; whereas the "me too" ones from the major oil mfrs are dinosaur juice that's been processed, altered, and so on, but still contains the mix of various size and shape molecules that the natural "mineral oil" contains. The legal use of the word "synthetic" allows for all sorts of interpretations or shades of meaning that are not apparent to the casual user.

BTW my wife used to work for a division of Ashland, too; so we used to get alot of their various products either free or at greatly reduced prices. Their stuff is as good as anybody's, as long as the comparison is kept on an equal basis (for example, their "synthetic" oil vs Castrol, QS/Pennzoil, etc.). It's not fair to compare 2 things that aren't the same at their foundation: you could fairly compare, let's say, Folger's coffee to Maxwell House coffee, and talk about that one is or isn't as good "quality" (an often abused word in and of itself) as the other; but it would be meaningless to compare its "quality" to, let's say, Kona coffee straight off the tree in Kona. In fact, by some measures, I'd bet the Folger's would be of HIGHER "quality": might have fewer insect parts, might be more consistent from one package to another and from one season to another, might be packaged more securely, and so on; but I think I know which one I'd rather drink, just the same.

 

sofakingdom

you have such a way with words. I love it.

HoJo

 

Yes sofa is thankfully one of the members that is both very knowledgable and can write eloquently. Now if only we could get everybody on the forum to atleast clean up the language in their post.

 

ok, so the problem is have is i am gettign white smoke from my engine. I took the valve cover off and it dosnt look like there is any gunk in it. I know im going to have to rebuild the motor but i need it to last as long as it can, and maby lessen the smoke. The car passed emissions recently and dosnt seem to have any lack of power. I want to clean up the motor the best i can, so i am going to drain a quart of the oil in it and replace it with ATF, i am going to run it for a little while, *maybe half hour or so* and then drain it and see how it looks. I really appreciate all of your help, i dont know where i would be without this board lol.

 

You can leave it in longer than that, if you want... in fact you probably should, because it's not fast-acting like a solvent, it's more like a gentle soak.... it won't hurt anything.

I have one car with 345,000 miles on the motor (305), another with 265,000 (454), and another with just over 300,000 (4.x Caddy), that have been run for sometimes as much as years and a hundred thousand miles at a stretch with it in there.

 

I won't use one of these yet, but I am a tad skeptical of this statement. AFAIK, most oils are non-compressible including motor oils. Obviously heat is the major issue with brake systems, but IMO a bottle jack should work fine with motor oil or even water as the hydraulic fluid.

 

Some old timer mechanics I knew added about a cup to the engine oil in engines with noisy hydraulic lifters. It seemed to help most cars. I`ve used some on a few old beaters and never had any problems with it.

 

I run Mobil 1 and wait until my Camaro gets about a qt. low for the second time, that takes 8000+ miles, than add 1 qt. ATF to it and drive another week and then change it, no problems in 16 years doing that, no leaks either.

 

92 white- if you have white smoke check your coolant level often

if it is getting low and you have no visable leaks then you have to start thinking head or intake gaskets

hopefully its not a crack in the cast iron

 

Two other things that I can think of that make vast amounts of white smoke are transmission fluid and brake fluid being burned in the cylinders. But from what I've seen when reading about third gens maybe neither of these are likely, or even possible in the case of the transmission fluid since there is no vacuum operated modulator anymore. Has anyone ever seen brake fluid in the vacuum hose from the booster? Does this ever happen on these cars?
sofakingdom?

 

ok well i put the ATF in, im gunna drive the car around for the day and then flush the system, add 4 qts oil+1 qt ATF, then run it for another couple of days and put a synthetic in, hopefully this lessens the smoke alot, if not ill see after that. i havnt found any cracks in the block or any of that stuff, im thinking that most like my piston rings are toast.

 

still working on cleaning the motor out, visible leaks? well, if i drive the car and take it past say 3500 RPM then the motor has too much blow by pressure build up and it pops the dip stick up and motor oil spits out of it. which creates massive amounts of smoke (because oil gets all over the mantifold) thats the only *leak* that i can identify. however i dunno if i would classify that as a leak. anywho, thats the problem im having, which is why i think it is engine build up creating too much pressure and not a gasket problem. i have a feeling im going to have to tear the block apart and replace the rings, but i really dont want too. any other suggestions on things i could do to fix this?

 

If the rings are sticking ATF will free them up.

Watch the color of your oil as a guide as to when to change it.

When the rings go south from wear, your compression should be down (the top two).

Smoke on high Vac (idle) or decell (oil rings 3rd).

If you drive around a lot of sand (out west) rings don't last as well.

 

I deleted a bunch of posts in this thread that did not relate to the topic. If you said something on-topic along with the off-topic stuff, then it all was deleted - I'm too lazy to pick through your trash for usable stuff.

Now,

And keep it on-topic only!

 

Right....

To go back to the "hydraulic system" comment, before it all took a left turn, I'm referring to systems like you might find in a backhoe, or an industrial machine, or something like that. "Seems like" motor oil "ought to" work, being a fluid, and incompressible, and all that; but generally, it won't. However ATF generally will. Try it in your power steering system some time if you don't mind risking having to take it apart and clean the motor oil out... ATF DEFINITELY will work in those, but I believe you'll find, motor oil won't, and you'll be flushing it before it will work properly again. To what degree that actually equates to hyd lifter performance, I couldn't say; but more than once, I've noticed valve train noise to quiet down dramatically from adding ATF. Whether that's from better oil flow somewhere, or better sealing of the little check valve in the lifters, or better performance as a hydraulic power-transmission fluid, or what, I have no data on one way or another.

 

I would guess that is probably from the removal of small deposits.