Question - ATF instead of Motor oil in engine?

[jdavis]

your engine that calls for 0w-20?

http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=51&pcid=9

Will it blow up? Run OK? Clean like [censored]?

What would really happen?

 

[Eddie]

Wear the engine out quickly I would think due to incorrect additives. Ed

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Who would be stupid enough to put ATF in an engine?

 

[spasm3]

No detergents, it will sludge up from carbon and combustion temps its not designed for. No zinc or antiwear.
I think it would run but be smoking before long.

 

[Charlie1935]

I really don't believe it would be good for your motor, but to satisfy our inquisitiveness try it for a 10,000 mile OCI and post the results.

 

[901Memphis]

Redline is pretty stout, and has some amount of additives in it, so i would venture to say it would act normal at first but would eventually sludge faster as previously noted.

A quality ATF may have approximately 10% the detergent of a good motor oil. So it would make your 10,000 mile OCI maybe 1,000 miles before you had issues?

 

[DoubleWasp]

That's like asking what will happen if you drink ATF when your body calls for water.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
That's like asking what will happen if you drink ATF when your body calls for water.


I'd probably give you some crazy el chorro!! Haha

 

[Bud_One]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
That's like asking what will happen if you drink ATF when your body calls for water.


I'd probably give you some crazy el chorro!! Haha


Bwahaha !!

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Who would be stupid enough to put ATF in an engine?



I would. . . . .when I was a 23 year old kid. I had 1970 Cougar with a collapsed lifter. Some old timer told me I could clean out the inlet hole to the lifter by adding transmission fluid to the oil. All it did was make the already low oil pressure lower. Subsequently, the bearings were wiped a short time after. That was 27 years ago.

 

[daves87rs]

Yikes.....

 

[BHopkins]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Who would be stupid enough to put ATF in an engine?



I would..........when I was a 23 year old kid. I had 1970 Cougar with a collapsed lifter. Some old timer told me I could clean out the inlet hole to the lifter by adding transmission fluid to the oil. All it did was make the already low oil pressure lower. Subsequently, the bearings were wiped a short time after. That was 27 years ago.


Although I have no experience with this, I have read that using an ATF in place of motor oil is extremely hard on bearings, and one should expect to damage an engine within a single oci. ATF simply is not designed to be a motor oil.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: BHopkins
Although I have no experience with this, I have read that using an ATF in place of motor oil is extremely hard on bearings, and one should expect to damage an engine within a single oci. ATF simply is not designed to be a motor oil.


Gee thanks. Where were you 27 years ago?

 

[teddyboy]

Realize that a more cynical group would have recommended that you try it and report back on the results.

 

[meborder]

funny to me, is that i don't hear many people asking what would happen if they use motor oil in their transmission as a miracle cure for some transmission ailment.

 

[Garak]

That's a good point. People want to add all kinds of stuff to their motor oil in an effort to address problems, real and imagined. However, transmission problems are a much bigger enemy of the automobile, and there seem to be fewer transmission snake oils out there. I'm not saying there's a shortage of them, but it's not the same as oil additives or fuel magic.

 

[Shannow]

No question goes unanswered on BITOG...

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=513610

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: meborder
funny to me, is that i don't hear many people asking what would happen if they use motor oil in their transmission as a miracle cure for some transmission ailment.


There's a guy out there who's been running 10W30 in a GM 4L60E for a while with no bad results. I wouldn't be caught dead doing it.

 

[Snoman002]

Old wives tale.

Replace one quart of oil with one quart of ATF in an engine for one OCI
Replace one quart of oil with one quart of ATF for 1000 miles before you change
Run straight ATF for 10 miles
Run straight ATF for 20 minutes of idling

I have heard all of the above (and probably more). The theory was that ATF was stock full of cleaners and would clean out a dirty engine. It had to be full of cleaners right, you never saw a transmission full of sludge, right?

 

[racin4ds]

I would never run it 100% in the sump but a quart in place of motor oil works, and is not wives tale at all. My father, my grandfather and myself included have done this with engines that had noisy lifters and gummed up internals. I owned several 2.8 and 2.9L fords with the dreaded lifter ticks, guess what? a QT of ATF fixed 95% of it! ATF is OIL! its just dyed red and sure it doesn't possess the qualities of motor oils but it may surprise you how well it works.