Engine Cleaning with ATF

[gingofthesouth]

Broke is right in a way.
I was gonna suggest Pro-Ma MBL-8 too. The difference is you are talking about cleaning an engine. Pro-ma is an oil substance that is basically micronised copper and lead. It wont clean your motor but it will reduce friction and fill micro abrasions in your motor and wear and tear. It does reduce tappet/lifter noise very well and is worth the money. However it will not fix the problem if its build up thats the problem as opposed to wear and tear.

I would do an engine flush, then run Pro-ma.

I have used Pro-ma in the past in an SR where the previous owner had refused to do regular oil changes. Had blocked up the galleries and caused wear. Cleaned out the motor then used pro-ma which dramatically reduced tappet noise and increased compression.

[broke]

Well if you want a totally internally clean engine then the only way to really get that is to pull it apart and reco it, but the way I see it this guy just wants his lifters to shut up. I ran that STP engine flush in my 5M-GE powered Celica XX years ago and it didn't do a thing to quiet my lifters down, and just seemed like a can of diesel to me. Apparently there is a genuine Mitsubishi part # for MBL8 too.

[unlimitedpower]

Cheers for your advice
I'll give it a few oil changes with some cheap oil till it comes up really clean then put some good shit in there. Was talking to Tony Whiter (Gaz Whiters old man who built his drift car) today about it he said thats best way to go just keep changing oil till it stays clean after a few ks of driving. See how it comes up after that, he also said running a bit of ATF before oil change at idle wouldn't do it any harm either. Its not really a biggy as the lifters arn't that loud id just rather them not be noisy at all.
I do find it a little odd how it seems to be a very common thing to run up to a liter or ATF at idle before an oil change over seas (on overseas car forums) yet its almost unheard of here.

[160jsss]

I've also read about ATF diesel oil flushs I don't think I would put ATF in my oil but I do know a hillbilly farmer that has used tractor oil in every thing he owns and he is hard on gear but all his motors start first time don't blow smoke and they are clean as inside. I asked him about putting diesel oil in petrol motors and he showed me the drum and it says for diesel and petrol motors. Look on the side of a pack. Of diesel oil next time you looking at oil would be worth a shot

[unlimitedpower]

Yea ive used diesel oil plenty of times in run about cars before especially when i do oil changes in them at 10,000k intervals. Most diesel oils ive looked at say ok for petrol engines to. I just would rather something a little better in performance style engines thats all so will mostly likely use a 10W40 magnatec or something like that after ive done a couple of cheap oil oil changes and flush etc.

[DJZ]

Almost all engine oils can be used for petrol or diesel engine use, they will usually have an API rating on the bottle which will be something like SF/CE. S being the rating for spark ignition engines, C for compression ignition.

There's heaps of info here if anybody is interested:
http://www.api.org/certifications/engin ... 120210.pdf

[Bartman]

I too have read (on US muscle car forums) about the cleaning properties of ATF. One poster Who (based on their other postings) is trustworthy claimed that he did it to a very high milage engine prior to teardown. He reckoned that the inside of it was so clean you might have thought that it was assembled last week.
The jepody when desludging and engine, (Regardless of how you do it) is that the dislodged shite can migrate to the sump,and block the oil pickup. Most engine flush products you can buy advise removing the sump and cleaning out if there are heavy deposits inside the motor.
I'd pluck the cam cover, and check to see how much build up there is on the cam followers etc. If they aren't crusty, give the AFT a shot. I wouldn't drive the car with it in there though. Assuming its a 4g93, they probably run fairly tight clearances. And you wouldn't want to compromise the lubrication to the essential parts.

[Rusty]

ATF is the go. I had a vr4 Legnum. I had a shit load of ATF that I had no use for so thought Id try it and worked better then the MBL 8 my mate used in his Libero.

[classicdat]

ATF is the go. I had a vr4 Legnum. I had a shit load of ATF that I had no use for so thought Id try it and worked better then the MBL 8 my mate used in his Libero.

Just out of interest, how did you use the ATF?

[Rusty]

ran a 50 50 mix with engine oil. let car idle up to operating temp. took for a drive round block. then came home and flushed it. Lifters never made noise after that.
still see it driving around.