Engine Cleaning with ATF

[unlimitedpower]

Heres a question more directed to the older mechanics on here. As apparently this is an old school trick.
We have just brought a Mitsi lancer GSR and it suffers from noisy lifters like all of them do.

Now ive been doing lots of reading on the net about adding .5-1L of ATF to the engine oil and running the engine at idle for 30mins before an oil change. The theory is that the detergent properties in the ATF loosen and clean the gunk and build up from inside your engine.
(cleaning out lifters at the same time).
Ive read what seems like heaps and heaps of success stories and haven't come across a failure yet but all these are from people i don't know and there for can't really trust to offer an opinion i really believe.

So if anyone has any experiences in this area or knows anything i don't let me know. Sounds like it could be a good thing to try in our old Datsun engines as im sure over the years they will have some pretty good build up in there.


If anyone can recommend any other products like MMO "marvel mystery oil" (thats a cool name sounds like super hero juice) (that we/I can buy in NZ) l would also be interested to try that,

My only concern is that maybe Auto Trans Fluid has change over the last few years and may not offer the same results as it did some years ago,

Thanks
Brett

[dirtyleppa]

hmmmm, sounds a bit random to be, but it may work. personally i wouldnt risk and engine. best to get yourself a decent engine flush, then get some oil made for noisy lifters. go to a bnt and get som fuchs oil. its about $80 for 5 litres, but apparently works real well. combine that with a new filter, that should fix your problem. if not then you will probably have to add shims to the lifters

[unlimitedpower]

The lifters are hydrolic so its just a matter of them being clogged up that makes them noisy, To do a proper fix i can buy a set of new lifters and fit them, or remove old lifters and spend some time cleaning them by soaking and priming with nice clean engine oil. I ran it by one mechanic and he said just do lots of oil changes one after another till oil stays clean and lifters should free them selves up, I mentioned the ATF trick the guys in the states seem to use and he said sounds like it would work but he hadn't tried it himself.

[broke]

Forget ATF, diesel, and all that crap at Repco etc.

The MMO you want is called Pro-Ma MBL-8, it's the only thing on the market that actually works on noisy lifters. This flat-peaker I used to work with poured some in his tired old Libero GT and I watched it go from machine-gun type lifter noise to velvety smooth. Go buy some.

The only problem is that not many places sell it, in Wellington you can get it from Armstrong Motors, maybe try them or do a bit of interweb searching.

[LUFDAT]

Brock sells this stuff at BNT - he says its real good at fixing the noisy lifters etc is around $50 but is o for awesome if you just want the tool box in a can.

[classicdat]

I'll start off by saying I have never heard of it being done, But how much is .5 L of ATF? Kitch ran heaps of it through his Bluebird on the Methven run, and it still runs sweet, although it was going straight down it's throat, not getting mixed in the engine oil. You're not going to put load on it, and it might sort your problem. It's not by the book but if you give it a go let us all know how you get on. Do Morris Mini automatics run ATF as engine oil?

[DAT620]

I'll start off by saying I have never heard of it being done, But how much is .5 L of ATF? Kitch ran heaps of it through his Bluebird on the Methven run, and it still runs sweet, although it was going straight down it's throat, not getting mixed in the engine oil. You're not going to put load on it, and it might sort your problem. It's not by the book but if you give it a go let us all know how you get on. Do Morris Mini automatics run ATF as engine oil?

nope, their famed for being the only autos to run on std engine oil, not to say that some people havnt run auto oil in them.

[unlimitedpower]

Sorry by .5L i ment half a liter.
It seems to be rather well discussed in US forums but no one in NZ has seemed to have heard about it.
Might go buy 3 filters and give it 3 oil and filter changes over the next 500ks in the in middle some where i'll prob try add some ATF and let it idle for a while and dump it see if i can see any extra come out.
Mite run some diesel oil the first change or to.
But i'll do some more research first before i give it ago. See if i can find anyone out there on the world wide web where it has had a negative impact. I'll also do some research into the above products to.

By all means im not trying to take the lazy way out here (all though i do now work 63.5hr/wk every week and have a 3 year old boy so time is something i don't have a lot of). As i have talked to a couple of mechanics and they both said best to do try lots oil changes first to get them clean like that before forking out for new lifters. Just trying to find the most cost effective and best way of doing it.

[classicdat]

Three filters, lots of oil and some grans remedies, verses BNT sell this stuff for $50 that is good and designed for the job, and...

Forget ATF, diesel, and all that crap at Repco etc.

The MMO you want is called Pro-Ma MBL-8, it's the only thing on the market that actually works on noisy lifters. This flat-peaker I used to work with poured some in his tired old Libero GT and I watched it go from machine-gun type lifter noise to velvety smooth. Go buy some.

The only problem is that not many places sell it, in Wellington you can get it from Armstrong Motors, maybe try them or do a bit of interweb searching.

Looks to me like you have your answer, time and cash efficient with a reputable reference, "Broke".

[DJZ]

It shouldn't be a problem to put some ATF in there, as long as you don't add too much and are only idling it. The normal engine flush that you buy is pretty much just kerosene from what I can remember and is really really thin, I've put quite a bit in several motors and also flushed a gearbox out with it once, it didn't seem to make much difference.

I've read about the mystical cleaning properties of ATF and used it to clean the cylinder bores on my L series before putting it together, after cleaning them with degreaser etc the rags would come out clean but then after cleaning them again with ATF the rag would come out grey.

Proma is supposed to be very good, we used to sell it at Repco when we were allowed, there was some sort of turf war going on between the North and South Island reps for the stuff, 99% of people that bought it were putting it in Mitsi's.