ATF in an engine

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Why would ATF with a thin detergent pack be much better at cleaning an engine than regular 20 grade motor oil with a strong add pack? Even MMO added to your regular motor oil would be a better cleaner as MMO has real solvents and is even thinner than ATF which is around a 10 grade oil in most cases. Both are thin oils being mixed with your engine oil. MMO is under a 5 grade if I recall. Safest thing to do is to run a motor oil with a strong add pack known for cleaning up things....such as some of the major brand synthetics.
 
I'd think ATF would start to burn in the cylinders and leave residue behind, plus thin ATF does not
help to support main bearings, etc and would likely increase wear!

If you want to 'clean out' an engine, use a cup of kerosene, let the engine idle for 20 minutes
and do an oil filter change!
 
There is nothing in ATF that cleans better than proper motor oil. It does not have friction modifiers or significant zinc so its not going to help your triblo layer. It lowers the viscosity and dilutes the add pack of the oil. No real detergent level vs motor oil.

This has been covered before, for one stubborn poster.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4660239/1
 
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But in the good old days, when ATF contained a lot of sperm whale oil, I think this myth was born and refuses to die nearly 50 years later.
 
Why would the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms be cleaning engines in the first place? Do they not have enough to do?
 
Naphtenic base oils and aromatics are great to clean, because of high solvency characteristics. Parafinic oils being group I, II, III or even Group IV PAO bases are weak in solvency, so they need detergents or esters to help. High solvency bases like naphtenic based oils doesn´t need detergents, that´s why it´s naive to look for detergent content in its VOAs or UOAs of low performance mineral atfs.
Low performance ATF (not synthetic) still have about 20% of naphtenic base on its composition, according to Ninas a base oil producer of Stockholm, Sweden. So a Type A atf or event a Type F, can clean an engine better than a Dexron VI (group III mostly) or better fluid made from group III or higher bases.
You can clean an engine with a Johnsons baby oil also, because of its pale naphtenic oil composition, plus a little alcohol and essence, right?
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item 3.3 ATF Bases at:

https://www.engnetglobal.com/documents/pdfcatalog/NYN001_200412073535_Base oil handbookENG.pdf
 
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OP:

1. What's your opinion or are you just trolling?

2. Why list all of the cars you've sold in your sig? You've got to be out of signature space by now, right?
 
Sincere question: I've heard for some time that ATF's have very low detergents, which I assume to be true. With that in mind, why the nasty sulfur-ish odor they all seem to have? Obviously there's a bunch of something in there that regular motor oils don't seem to have.
 
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But in the good old days, when ATF contained a lot of sperm whale oil, I think this myth was born and refuses to die nearly 50 years later.


The old wives tale, at least in part, was because ATF was red
as was MMO and some low effort thinkers thought that they both
would work well at cleaning.
ATF isn't designed to burn like motor oil or motor oil additives.

My 2¢
 
Old guy here - I'm in my 60s, FWIW - had a 1967 Mercury Cougar I bought in 1970. Around 40,000 miles on it. It had a loud ticking sound coming from the valve train. A Ford mechanic advised that I should do an oil change and substitute a quart OF ATF in place of engine oil. I did that. Sound went away instantly and never came back.

I was an 18 year old kid.

What did i know then? What do I know now? I know I saw it and believe it worked.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
OP:

1. What's your opinion or are you just trolling?

2. Why list all of the cars you've sold in your sig? You've got to be out of signature space by now, right?


1) Do I look like trolling? I just wanted to share something oil related and informative. I've seen worse (not even car related) topics here in BITOG and nobody complains about it.

If you are really curious about my opinion (which I doubt), no need to reinvent the wheel. Engine oil belongs to the engine, transmission fluid belongs to the transmission. I'd probably use Seafoam, both in oil pan and fuel tank at the same time, prior to the oil change to clean out the engine.

2) Because my backspace key won't work
wink.gif
. Those are the most recent ones, and still missing (except the Pontiac). Two Hondas on the list were my project cars. I am thinking of updating the list in the near future though.
 
Posting links to debunked myths is akin to trolling. Nail in the coffin: you only posted a link, with no input.

Maintain a questioning attitude, dude.
 
Guy in the video should have done the oil filtering test on the regular oil runs too. Those metal particles after running the ATF didn't look good. Plastic (probably high temp nylon) camshaft ... cool.
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Originally Posted By: LEADED
Wow Trans fluid is nothing more than Hydraulic fluid with red dye, not for use in Combustion Engine period .



I have seen a Mercedes-Benz and an F350 7.3L run on 50% ATF 50% diesel in the fuel tank. They smoke...lol
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Posting links to debunked myths is akin to trolling. Nail in the coffin: you only posted a link, with no input.

Maintain a questioning attitude, dude.


You may have missed it, but the man in the video has done TONS of other videos testing various fluids against each other, against myths, etc.. and most of them have been posted on here in some fashion or another. I hardly consider the OP posting this video trolling or even trying to bolster the myth of ATF being good at cleaning. IMHO, he was simply posting the vid. Could he have posted a comment like "saw this video and though I'd share"? .. sure.. but would that have been necessary? I don't think so.


FWIW - In the case of this video at least, the 'cleaning' he commented about was it helping to remove some of the gunk left behind by veggie oil he had left in the crankcase after one of his previous videos.. which IMHO I'm sure it did, but would probably have been cleaned just as well, if not better, by a good SN oil.
 
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