Howdy folks - I read from a post a while back that it's good to flush the engine with ATF when changing from regular to synthetic engine oil.

How much ATF should I put in there during the flush? The guy at the auto parts store thought replacing all the oil with ATF was way too much - He said it's too thin to run on just ATF. He suggested replacing 1qt of oil with ATF.

Also, I'm thinking of switching to 10-40 Mobil One.

Thoughts?

 

If you don't drive the truck while there is ATF in it you will be fine. Did mine a few months back. Also, word on the street is to stick to rotella t 15w-40 or rotella t6 synthetic 5w-40. Made my worn engine stop knock after switching from Mobil1.

 

I use 10w40 Mobile 1, fully synthetic with Mobile 1 oil filter.

 

Any other opinions on the ATF? I'm planning on doing the flush tonight & want to make sure I'm doing it right

 

A couple qts would be ok. I would personally rather do a bottle of sea foam or marvel instead though. Those are designed as cleaners. As far as oil, I like the M1 10 40 high mileage syn. But, just like any car or car forum, you will get a million different answers. Over the winter I did 0w40 m1 euro formula, which is my go to for my other rides.

 

Why in the world would you fill your engine with ATF, do you want to buy a new engine?
Seriously, ATF is NOT meant to lubricate a internal combustion engine for any amount of time, it is meant for transmissions, that is why it is call AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FLUID and not MOTOR OIL.

Full synthetic and diesel ENGINE oils are highly detergent and will clean your engine as you drive, slowly and safely over time.

I wouldn't waste my money on Mobil 1, diesel oil is just as good and half the cost.

 

Hey Spike, relax man - I was clarifying a post where Mike said to flush the engine with ATF....I didn't come up with this on my own.

It sounded strange to me as well..hence the post asking for clarification.

Regardless, I just used a quart of ATF witht the old oil, ran it for a 10-15 minutes & replaced it with the synthetic.

Runs real nice after a Seafoam treatment, Bosch plugs, Synthetic oil, & a throttle body clean. New wires, a tranny oil & filter replace and radiator flush are next. Should be purring like a kitty!

Thanks everyone for your input!

 

Using ATF to clean an engine is old school. They used to do that because there really weren't to many products around and motor oil didn't contain the additives and detergents found today. It is OK to use ATF but I would just use a high detergent motor oil like Rotella and let it do its work, especially if you don't have any engine problems caused by sludge. I personally wouldn't change to synthetic Mobil 1. While I do believe that it is a great oil, it is not the ideal oil for our flat tappet engines with a design dating back to the 50's. Mobil 1 is more for modern engines with higher tolerances and roller tappets.

 

Sure, it is old school and it still works, unless you want to pay $150 and have a shop do the new school process of an engine flush which is also very good.
As for Spikes comments, he wasn't even around when shops were doing this and apparently does not under stand that it does work.
Drain your engine, add 6 quarts of cheap ATF and let it idle, with the hood down and the a.c off. After 30 minutes drain the ARF, remove the old filter and then do your normal oil change.
For what it is work, the last time I opened up my engine, while running on Mobil-1 I was surprised to see how much build up there was after the last 30,000 mile and doing 3000 miles oil changes.
I would encourage everyone to use the Shell Rotella oil to prevent this.
The other thing you can do is add 1 quart of Gunk engine flush to your oil just before doing an oil change, just follow their direction, this will help clean out the engine in a slower fashion, I still do this at every other change.

 

There is a reason shops stopped doing the ATF engine "flush", it does not work, all you are doing in rinsing away the oil that is stuck to the sides of the engine parts, no sludge is coming loose and the ATF is so black because thats what happens when you add clean light colored ATF to dirty motor oil, it turns black.
There is no way to determine the condition of a fluid by looks nor what that fluid has done by looks.
I get the oil changed in my Duramax, pour in 10qts of brand new oil, pull the dipstick and the brand new oil is black as night.
Old school mechanics think that ATF has cleaning properties in it, it does not have any more cleaning properties than motor oil, plain and simple.
When I was training at Safety-Kleen (you know who they are Mike) I had to learn all about cleaning crap and what people use and what people THINK works.
ATF does NOT work to clean, plain and simple, it does NOT work.
As part of my training, because there are tons of old school shops around we had 2 identical parts, our trainer "watch me clean with ATF"
Didnt work.
"Now watch me clean with solvent", worked like a charm, the part came clean.
If you are having a sludge problem then use the PROPER solvent to do a engine flush, if you are not having problems then you are wasting your money because everytime you change the oil you are flushing the engine.
If your oil is not doing its job then you need a different oil, simple as that.
I have never done a engine flush on my Rover, 213,000 miles and it runs great, no unusual noises, no excessive oil consumption.
I use Rotella and change the oil every 5,000 miles, before I bought the truck it was serviced at the dealer, they used Valvoline 10w-40 and it was changed every 6-7000 miles.
This is not my opinion, this is my experience.
You guys can do whatever you want to your truck and I will keep doing whatever I want and we will see who's lasts longer.