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Urban myth?

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Old Sep 1, 2005
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Question Urban myth?

has anyone else heard about adding tranny fluid to your engine and letting it run for a bit to clean it out?

this old guy (old enough to own or have made a model-T) told me about it...i wouldn't think it is a good thing to do with today's engines..I just want to know if there is any proof to this...if so thats friggin weird...
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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uhh..i dont think so. go try it, then take off the head and look inside and let us know the results. I honestly dont think tranny fluid has any cleansing properties, but thats just me. then again, maybe it works for carburated 2 stroke 1 cylinder engines.
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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The other night, my dad was trying to tell me it was perfectly fine to add kerosene to the engine to try and clean it and dry it out if it was in a flood. Same thing with getting water in the engine.

I tried to tell him that kerosene doesn't have any explosive properties, so it wouldn't ignite. And I also tried to tell him, that maybe pouring just a little bit of water into a carburated engine might work fine, and clean out carbon deposits, but there's no way you can get water into a fuel injected system and water doesn't compress in the cylinders.

Mind you the last car that my dad actually owned and built was a 1968 Dodge Charger 440 Magnum ...
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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shoot I'm not phooking my daily driver...I'm just relaying stone age stuff heh
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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hummm........ yeah, this is a bad idea on todays motors. lol

The idea is add tranny fluid or kerosene to the oil of the engine. It will disolve the carbon build up, of course you let the car idle for about 10 minutes then drain the stuff out. Here's the things though, ever since the advent of detergents in engine oil, this is not a problem. Before, oil could not suspend that much of the carbon deposite, so carbon would build up and devlope a sludge like subsatnce that would eventually clog and prevent oil from getting to vital parts of the engine. Today's oil does not have this problem, so there is no need for this type of treatment.
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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Originally Posted by Jrfish007
hummm........ yeah, this is a bad idea on todays motors. lol

The idea is add tranny fluid or kerosene to the oil of the engine. It will disolve the carbon build up, of course you let the car idle for about 10 minutes then drain the stuff out. Here's the things though, ever since the advent of detergents in engine oil, this is not a problem. Before, oil could not suspend that much of the carbon deposite, so carbon would build up and devlope a sludge like subsatnce that would eventually clog and prevent oil from getting to vital parts of the engine. Today's oil does not have this problem, so there is no need for this type of treatment.
Agreed. The old timers used to do this because transmission fluid was traditionally very high in detergents and would indeed flush an engine out. For older motors its not such a bad idea, but for new engines with much higher performance and tighter tolerances, I wouldn't recommend it. As mentioned above, today's oils are much much better and have great detergent properties, in addition, you don't see the same levels of carbon buildup in a modern engine because the combustion process is controlled much better. A good fuel system/injector cleaner will take care of the areas the oil doesn't.
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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people do it to older cars i believe...
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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Originally Posted by JP375
Agreed. The old timers used to do this because transmission fluid was traditionally very high in detergents and would indeed flush an engine out. For older motors its not such a bad idea, but for new engines with much higher performance and tighter tolerances, I wouldn't recommend it. As mentioned above, today's oils are much much better and have great detergent properties, in addition, you don't see the same levels of carbon buildup in a modern engine because the combustion process is controlled much better. A good fuel system/injector cleaner will take care of the areas the oil doesn't.
Thats the answer!
At the time this was done,we usta save waste oil in glass jugs. In about 3 to 4 months you could pour clear clean oil off the top!
No detergents=each time you shut off the motor it dropped the deposits and created sludge!!
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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My old standby was "B-12 ChemTool"...I wonder if they still make that stuff?
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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if anybody has ever tried to clean up sludge out of an engine they will know putting something like that in there for 10 mins will do nothing. if you have change the oil like you are suppose to you should not have much build up. the only place sludge really builds up that i have seen in on top of the head because its probably hotest part of the engine.
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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Originally Posted by rumptis
if anybody has ever tried to clean up sludge out of an engine they will know putting something like that in there for 10 mins will do nothing. if you have change the oil like you are suppose to you should not have much build up. the only place sludge really builds up that i have seen in on top of the head because its probably hotest part of the engine.
What you find on top is not really sludge, just deposits!
"Sludge" is when you pull the drain plug out and the oil goes "glug-glug" as it comes out!
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Old Sep 1, 2005
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Its not to remove sludge, but just remove more old oil easier.. the tranny fluid mixes with the oil and makes the oil drain better and removes more deposits.. i did it to my 99 dx and it worked great.. just add like a half of a quart and let it run for alittle bit and drain it.. it will help the oil drain better and remove a lil bit of extra dirt. Its the same technique as those "engine flush" treatments.. same thing. So yea it wont hurt.. it will help.
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Old Sep 2, 2005
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if you want to clean out deposits just use Seafoam
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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Straight off Quaker State website.
Myth #12

Adding a quart of ATF the day before an oil change will clean your engine. ATF added to the motor oil will clean the engine due to the high levels of detergent in ATF.

Fact
ATF does not contain detergent chemistry. ATF does contain dispersants, which have properties similar to detergents. But ATF is not formulated to withstand the combustion environment inside the engine. Quaker State® recommends that you keep the fluids where they belong: motor oil in the crankcase, and automatic transmission fluid in the transmission.
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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i used to do it

when i worked ofr jiffy lube years ago we would do it to cars but if you do it too much it will eat away at the seals that goes for detergents that are on the shevles today. so in the long run dont do it best thing to do in my opinion is to just drain the engine then put the plug back in and add a quart or 2 let it sit for a minute then drain whats left. i always drain mine for like 15 minutes.
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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Originally Posted by micks7thgen
when i worked ofr jiffy lube years ago we would do it to cars but if you do it too much it will eat away at the seals that goes for detergents that are on the shevles today. so in the long run dont do it best thing to do in my opinion is to just drain the engine then put the plug back in and add a quart or 2 let it sit for a minute then drain whats left. i always drain mine for like 15 minutes.

I like your key word WORKED as in not anymore....jiffy lube is the trailer trash of quix lubes....IMO...

no offense to you glad to hear ya got out hehe
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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amen brother

it was white trash crack head central mostly mechanics who had drug problems. i worked with my best friend and our manager was cool as hell we had way to much fun. we blew so many things up(not cars) and mobil 1 oil changes every month and everything you can get there for free. it was just one of those jobs. that had more cons(convicts) then pros but to have that much fun at work was illegal.
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