Someone told me that when I do an oil change to drop the oil but not the filter and to put ATF in and let it idle for aprox. 30min then drop the ATF and filter and it will clean all the oil galleries and everything...I call bull.

 

Drop = drain the oil, and change the filter ??

Yes, you can do that if you know what your doing.

I would just use Auto RX and follow the instructions. That works as well.

Also a Motor Vac Service at the dealership cleans internals.

 

Galleries = galley's

 

Just put a litre/quart of atf in when you are gonna do an oil change. I do it once in a while.

It is not BS the detergents in atf work very well. I could tell you another method that works absolutely amazingly almost too good.

 

My grandfather used old Indian tricks. He was a heavy equipment mechanic and would do a quart of ATF.

I can see if you suspect sludge, but with modern oils it should look squeaky clean in there.

I've heard of someone using motor flush causing motor failure as pickup screen plugged.

I found an interesting account of someone using Shell diesel oil for oil change. They knew they were sludged and change this every 1000 for several changes.

The concept was high detergent loosening it slower avoiding a plugged screen/and filter. I don't know how you would determine *when* is enough, though.

 

Very true, - I've seen that happen oh, maybe 5 or 6 times. Someone purchases a new used vehicle. They want to go thru it and run the best fluids. The best synthetics have an abundance of cleaners compared to conventional. So switching to, in a high mileage vehicle that has run nothing but conventional, loosens up the sludge deposits and forces that crap into the pickup screen and pump.

The way to tell when that happens after the engine has blown, is by pulling the oil filter. There will hardly be oil in it, if any at all.

 

The only thing I would ever treat my engine with is auto RX. Thats it. Especially the modulare engine. They don't like weird stuff in them at all..

 

I wouldnt run only ATF, just throw a qt in it and run it a week or two and do another oil change

 

This is another "why won't this die" thing. Years back when most everybody thought they just had to have a heavy oil, like a 20w-50 or 15w-40 oil and the technology really wasn't there for the polymers in the oils to make the viscosity spread, we saw a lot of sludging from the polymers and you also had folks that "knew" better than the car maker and switched the thermostats out to a much cooler 160F. The engines would sludge pretty quick and sometimes sticking lifters and valves became an issue. It was a country fix to put ATF in the oil to free everything up. What was actually happening is that the ATF is a much thinner fluid and would break the sludge down to wash it out. But we don't have oils speced for a modern engine using that heavy of an oil. The correct viscosity oil is as thin if not thinner than any ATF. ATF does not have more cleaning agents in the formulation, it has less. Wanna destroy an engine, fill it with ATF and take it for a ride. Make sure to wear yer walking shoes.

 

hmm kind of all over the place on this one...i know for sure im not going to attempt it but i will try the auto RX if i can find any around here (edmonton).... the main reason im asking is because my 5.4 has a tick/squeek coming from the passenger side cam near the front, im thinking that an oil galley (thanx jbrew) is plugged and one of the cam lobes isnt getting enough oil, it only does this on start up for acouple min until its warm or it gets splashed im assuming

 

I used a flush one time years ago on a Rabbit VW Conv for a friend. This person didn't keep very good care of the thing (i'm sure didn't change the oil very often) and after I did the flush I took it for a ride a few miles down the freeway. It actually had a working oil pressure gauge on it and it kept dropping to near zero. I'd stop and wait a couple minutes and could drive a mile or so before it did it again. Finally made it back to the shop and pulled the pan and the screen was plugged almost solid with crap the flush had broken loose. I never did that again.

 

Lucky you, you had a gauge!


My mother had a beautiful 1970 Pontiac Le Mans convertible. Had a 350 with 4 barrel carb, 10.5 compression. I remember she bought it in '76.

Only problem was she never did an oil change. I remember the day I insisted that we do one, not knowing the consequences of doing this. I'll say it had 5 years on oil by now. Maybe 60,000 miles.

"Why did you change my oil" is what you'd hear. Thinking back on it, it cleaned everything to where it leaked like a sieve at the seals and gaskets.

It wasn't long before *clickety clack.* The radiator was found empty and I pulled the dipstick to find a 'white milkshake' clinging to it.

Of course then I was a teenager and I didnt know what happened, I remember a few relatives 'explained it.'

RIP.

 

This is correct. Any motor oil has more detergents in it than ATF. Not hard to figure why. An automatic is a closed environment. It doesn't generate soot, carbon, acids or water as an engine does and it doesn't inhale dirt from the air. It also generally runs cooler than an engine. All that adds up to less oxidation, fewer oxidation byproducts and not needing anywhere near as much detergents, dispersants and antioxidants.

If you feel a need to clean an engine internally, do a few short OCIs or use the AutoRX that Brew recommended above.

 

Auto RX is only available online.