shaocaholica

I saw this on the K-mart shelf one day. It says "Put into cold engine.... idle for 5 min.... drain oil.... replace oil filter and refill oil". It says it removes sludge. I have only had the car for the last 3 years of its life ('92 Z28) and I haven't been using the best of oil in it and Im sure there is some sludge in the engine.

Vader

Instead of using a solvent/cleaner that will provide marginal lubrication, change to synthetic oil and your engine will get very clean. The down-side is that if you have excessive sludge deposits the oil filter may plug quickly and go into bypass. If you run a regular change interval (3,000-4,000 miles) with synthetic to clean up a sludged engine, you might want to consider changing oil filters and adding the extra quart or so of oil at 1,500-2,000 mile intervals.

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Later,
Vader
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R.O.B.

Like Vader said, those products are solvents, and provide no lubercant while it cleans. My suggestion, try adding a quart of automatic transmission fluid to your oil (don't overfill though!) Drive around like normal for apx 500 miles. Do a regular oil change after that. You see, the ATF is a good lubercant, and also has a very high amount of detergents in it that will help clean your engine as it circulates.

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Rob
'86 TA 305 TPI
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WideOpenVTwin

I've only seen bad things come from using internal engine cleaners. On dirty engines, it loosens sludge deposits that would otherwise stay dormant. That sludge works it's way throught the engine, not a good thing. I don't know about Gunk's brand however, but if you use anything change your oil right afterwards and then a few hundred miles later.
As a suggestion, if your engine seems rather dirty, just change the oil more frequently. When I had a Bronco, it was rather neglected and new oil dirtied up quickly, so after changing the oil at 1000 mile intervals three times, the oil stays nice and clean

RB83L69

When it gets low, add a quart of ATF. Then change the oil after about 1000 miles. You won't believe how funky it will be. Then keep a quart of ATF in the mix until it starts looking normal, which might take a few oil changes depending on how bad it is in there.

ATF dissolves the crud and suspends it in the oil which is better than blasting it all loose to plug up drainback holes and pickup screens. Plus, ATF will eat the combustion gunk that accumulates around rings and places like that, it will actually make the engine run better which the fast flushes don't. It's extremely high detergent.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

shaocaholica

Seriously? Hmmm...how does this sound: At my next oil change I will put in 1 quart of ATF and change the oil after 1500 miles then repeat then switch to synthetic at 5000 mile intervals. ATF wont harm my engine? Never heard of that before.

Stuart Moss

I would do like Vader said. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do, except cleaning up the engine is not the main reason for doing it.

Regarding your suggestion of using ATF before switching to synthetic. Why not just start using synthetic oil right now? This way the cleaning as well as all the other benefits of this oil will be obtained now.

I'll probably be blasted for this, buy about 25 years ago I got this brillant idea (don't know where) on how to clean my engine from sludge. I would put in a quart of diesel fuel in the oil and let the engine run for ~15 minutes before draining it. This was in an in-line 6.

I only did it a couple of times. I suspected that it was useless like so much of the junk marketed to the masses today.

shaocaholica

I dont want to switch to synthetic yet becuase Im going to dump the ATF/Oil mix at 1500 miles so I dont waste synthetic oil.

82camaro

Even using conventional oil and changing it and the filter every 1000 miles(or when the oil turns black) will clean up that engine. ATF will just speed up the process. I don't know if I would run ATF for more than a few hundred miles though.

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350 with stealth intake, holley carb, 470 lift cam. 700r4 with .5 boost valve, vette servo, tci lock-up kit, B&M megashifter. Richmond 3.73 gears, powertrax locker, timkin bearings, synthetic lube. Custom 3 inch single into 2 2.5 pipes. 1 1/2 drop springs, 1 5/16 solid front sway bar, 1 inch rear bar, custom subframe connectors, custom LCA relocation brackets. Kobel ground FX, current red metallic paint. Lots of other stuff...
82camaro

RB83L69

ATF will not hurt the engine. It could be left in there permanently. And it's a whole lot cheaper than synthetic motor oil.

Try it, you'll be surprised (pleasantly) at the results. I was a bit skeptical when I heard about it, but then I tried a can of it (yes it came in cans at the time, I don't believe they had invented plastic yet) and was blown away. I've been using it ever since.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

West Coast GTA Man

I always heard that sometimes when you clean out your engine, you cause more harm. The car might start smoking, etc. Not sure if this is true or not.
Take care
Mike

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shaocaholica

What do you mean? How frequently do you put ATF into your oil mix? If so what ratio do you recommend.

82camaro

ATF doesn't lube as well as oil. If it did, the clutches in the tranny would burn up--they need friction.

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350 with stealth intake, holley carb, 470 lift cam. 700r4 with .5 boost valve, vette servo, tci lock-up kit, B&M megashifter. Richmond 3.73 gears, powertrax locker, timkin bearings, synthetic lube. Custom 3 inch single into 2 2.5 pipes. 1 1/2 drop springs, 1 5/16 solid front sway bar, 1 inch rear bar, custom subframe connectors, custom LCA relocation brackets. Kobel ground FX, current red metallic paint. Lots of other stuff...
82camaro

RB83L69

ATF is an excellent lube. Look at the gears in an automatic next time you tear one down. How many times have you ever heard of a planetary set failing? Or what about all the manual transmissions out there that the mfr specifies ATF as the fill fluid?

ATF will also function as hydraulic fluid, whereas motor oil will not. If you put motor oil in a hydraulic thing (like construction or farm eqpt for instance) it will fail. ATF on the other hand will work. This has applications to hydraulic lifters: I've seen motors where lifters were healed by adding ATF to the oil, and it almost always makes the lifters run noticeably quieter, and the engine to run smoother, probably from better consistency among the valve lifts and durations.

I usually only use it on motors that are old and that I know are likely to be sludged up or otherwise in need of added detergent in the oil. For instance, I always keep some in my old El Camino, a 78 model 305 which now has 342,000 miles on the original motor. I would be inclined to think that if there was something wrong with doing this, that the car would not have made it anywhere near that many miles. Usually I use one quart of it to 4 quarts of oil.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

Stuart Moss

You've got my curiosity up. I think I'll try a quart of ATF before switching to synthetic on the next oil change.

For any entrepreneurs - I wonder if it would be profitable to market this. Buy ATF in bulk and package it in your own plastic bottles. Change the color to something other than red so people wouldn't automatically (pun intended) think that it's just ATF. Maybe add a couple "secret" ingredients to invoke "mystery". You could do it from your garage.

Maybe you could get Vaders endorsement...

About four years ago I remember a news report on a guy in Florida that did something similar. He worked for a high end detailer and learned what they used for hand waxing their cars, charging well over $200. He easily obtained the wax they were using in bulk and marketed it under his name in a garage operation and made over a million dollars. That's probably chump change now though.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Good luck getting any lubricant manufacturer to recommend putting ATF into an engine.

When AMSOIL first started business, they recommended cleaning out the engine by putting one quart synthetic in with the rest petroleum for a standard change interval, then two quarts synthetic in the next change, etc. until you worked your way up to all synthetic. After 10 years or so, they came out with a crankcase flush that did the job in half an hour. It's not just solvent (like Gunk), containing a high concentration of detergent and dispersives as well. I've been using it for 18 years, and would highly recommend it.

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R4. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, ZZ3 intake, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/'87 LB9 block, ZZ3 cam, ported World 305 heads, Hooker headers & y-pipe, 3" Catco cat & 3" cat-back).
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alexrela

DO NOT use ATF in your engine!
ATF is NOT a good lub!!! It is made to cool,and to act as hydralic fluid!
Trannys have more clearence than an engine thats why they put it in with out damage.
Also ATF provides friction for the cluches.
If you put ATF in your engine, you WILL have (premuture engine wear)!!!

Like some one said, change the oil more often.

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'91 Camaro 3.1 t-tops 44k original.
'98 GMC Sonoma excab 4.3 auto 35k.

RB83L69

Yeah right....

see above about my El Camino, I've also got a 74 Caprice convertible 454 with 240,000 miles on its motor, and my wife drives our new car, a 91 Cadillac with 192,000 miles on it. All prematurely worn I'm like so sure.

The "friction" is an additive that affects clutch material. It is not like they open a box of "friction" and put 1/8 lb of friction in every quart of ATF.

So many myths and rumors, so much misinformation, so little time

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

junkyarddog

or you could use a full quart of marvel mystery oil for a couple of oil changes. half in the gas and half in the oil too,good for those old crusty engines! then just run regular oil.

shaocaholica

Where can I get this Amsoil engine flush? I have a hard enough time here finding M1 in 5 quart jugs.

82z

Marvel Mystery oil! I put that in my 79 Buick Century station wagon(the ******* wagon-r.i.p.) gas tank and crankcase, coincidentally the same day it stopped starting. eerie huh?

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82 z28 350cid, vortec heads, comp 262h cam, Holley 600cfm carb, 2in twice pipes, MSD ignition, turbo 350 trans, 3.73 posi, manly b&m megashifter