Anyone ever heard of this... Speaking to a Diesel engineer today and he was saying with the new "low sulfur" fuels that the older engines don't get the lubrication needed. He says he puts 1/2 a qt. of ATF in each tank every other fill up. What y'all think??

 

I'm sure it would work.

 

I've heard good and bad.

Too much ATF will gum up the Nozzles or something. Forgot how it works, something in the ATF screws up something in the fuel system eventually.

Go for 2cycle, its cheaper, and does a better job with no chemical additives.

 

Some of the guys that I used to work with would run only filtered USED ATF. No diesel fuel. They never had any problems & the stuff was free.

 

My friend, who is a great mechanic, buys cars & trucks at salvage auctions and gets them running suggested a couple of ounces of two cycle oil per tank. He said more then that is hard on the injectors. Just a little cleans the injectors and provides a little lub.

 

The ATF is an OLD trucker thing.

Back in the 70's and 80's, fuel system cleaners for diesels were not so common as they are now.
The few that were on the market were also rather expensive.

So the weather was cold, very little blended fuel available either, so pull up to the gas pump and run 10% gasoline with your diesel.

200 gallons of diesel, 20 gallons of regular.
If you were headed far north from down south, the percentage might even get as high as 20% if the temps were really down in the deep freeze in some place like International Falls, Minnesota with daytime highs still in the minus range.

When we wanted to clean the fuel injection system, a quart of Type F transmission fluid to every 50 gallons of fuel, 500 miles down the road your engine was running a lot better.
Also remember in those days the sulfur content was above 5000 PPM instead of the less that 15 PPM we have today.
We only ran type F tranny fluid as a cleaner though.


Today that red tranny fluid would cost you a lot of money if the off road fuel police happened to dip your tanks for several tanks of fuel after you added it to the fuel.

Diesel Kleen, Howe's, FPPF or any of the other cleaners on the market today do a much better job, probably about even on cost and no chance of getting busted for red in your tank.

PS in those days, off road looked just like on road fuel, no red dye.

What we used to do on those old mechanical diesels will still work on the IDI engines, but I don't think they would work so well on the modern electronic diesel.

Fuels and fuel blending for the local temps, fuel system cleaners, anti gel additives have all changed a lot in the last 40 years, but the so have the engines.

I am not going to say I think many of the changes were for the good, but some of them actually were and are.

In 1974 I was driving tractor trailer cross country, with a 220 HP Cummins diesel.
And the new 6.7 is putting out just shy of twice what I used to run with grossing 73,280 pounds.

Times have changed.

 

So, are you saying Dave that a pinch of ATF is OK or out of 'style'? Or, just stick with DK etc.?

 

For lubrication, I think ATF is worthless.

Also type F ATF worked the best, but it is red.

Here locally in WV, red fuel = 5000 fine, truck towed to have the off road fuel removed in an enviromentally safe manner and refilled with highway fuel.

Diesel Kleen is so much cheaper in view of the last sentence, works so much better, I would never consider ATF again.

Back in the 70's a quart of Power Service treated 50 gallons for 4 bucks and change.
ATF was .69 a quart, also treated 50 gallons.

Two 200 gallon tanks, so that was 8 quarts to treat the fuel.

35 dollars for Power Service
5.50 for ATF

The reason for using ATF was economics.

Today a quart of Diesel Kleen treats 300 gallons for around 8 dollars.
Here you can't buy 6 quarts of ATF for 8 dollars, so the economics are reversed.

In my opinion, a bit of two cycle will not hurt and may help.

ATF, well I don't think some of the addatives in ATF need to be in the injectors in our engines.
Pressures are to high, temperatures are to high.

I think any of the off the shelf cleaners are a better idea.

Mess up one injector in a Stroke and it costs more than an entire set for an IDI.

This is two old school tricks that I think should stay in old school engines.

I just can't see me pulling up to a gas pump with my Stroke because the temperature dropped, and I can't see me dumping ATF in the fuel tank either.

 

I have added 20 oz of ash less two (2) stroke oil in each tank at fill up since day one without a hitch.

Rog

 

Ash less two stroke is the way to go.

 

I been putting a whole quart of ATF to one of my tanks every oil change 295k on the truck no problems .I been using alot of motorkote in my cars trucks bikes and rear ends trannys I love it I can't really stand by it .it makes trannys shift like butter .From time to time when I order from them the gallon one they give you free 2 diesel treatments so I dump that in the truck . Check them out it's really worth it
https://www.motorkote.com/