ATF Engine Flush

[2000sunfire]

hey, a good buddy of mine is planning to do an ATF engine flush. He's planning on one litre of ATF poured in his oil fill. His car is a 91 Z24 with a 3.1L V6 from a 94.

He wants to know, does he just let the car idle and then drain the oil or does he drive it? Either way, how long should he leave it in for? He's planning to put on a new filter for the flush, and plans to put in new Mobil 1 and a NAPA Gold filter afterwards.

Could someone who has done this flush before please offer advice?

 

[medic]

I don't think you'll find anybody here who has ever done this, or who will admit to it anyway

If he really feels the need to do a flush and doesn't want to do an auto rx treatment or anything like that, just get one of the solvent flushes that you can find in any parts store. Follow the directions on that. It shouldn't cost much more than a liter of transmission fluid.

 

[T-Keith]

He doesn't need to do it at all. There are about 100 posts on this here. Basically it's an old wives tail, and like all of them based on a little truth, but no longer relevant or even true.

Tell him to use a short oil change or a dedicated cleaner like autoRX or LC.

-T

 

[mechtech]

A guy we called Lemonhead used to come into the shop, and insisted we drain his old oil, fill with ATF, drive around the block, and change the oil and filter to regular car oil. This went on for many years.
At the end of the day everone was happy, though.
Did it do any good?
No.

 

[Jimbo]

Take a look at my ATF report in the UOA section. ATF is a high quality 5W-20 base oil with very few additives. There is almost no detergent/dispersant in there. Why do people think it cleans? There is hardly any ZDDP either, but for a short run there is no harm done.

I used a quart of MMO for my last top-off before changing the Ford's oil, about 200 miles. Did it do any good? Who knows. It was about $2 more than a quart of Chevron.

 

[pitzel]

The 3.1's aren't exactly known for sludge problems and aside from the GM/Buick 3800, are some of the most sludge-free engines available in the past 20 years. Coolant ingress issues are a whole 'nother story.

Why don't you just get him to run Esso XD-3 0w30 for an abbreviated OCI for the first interval?

 

[BlazerLT]

quote:

---

Originally posted by 2000sunfire:
hey, a good buddy of mine is planning to do an ATF engine flush. He's planning on one litre of ATF poured in his oil fill. His car is a 91 Z24 with a 3.1L V6 from a 94.

He wants to know, does he just let the car idle and then drain the oil or does he drive it? Either way, how long should he leave it in for? He's planning to put on a new filter for the flush, and plans to put in new Mobil 1 and a NAPA Gold filter afterwards.

Could someone who has done this flush before please offer advice?

---

Just use engine flush.

Idle it for 30 minutes only, then do the change.

Same price as a bottle of ATF.