PCA Forums

Back in the mid 70's and all they way till I sold the car in 95, I used to add 1 quart of ATF to each oil change. When I sold the car ('71 El Camino), I had over 400,000 miles on the original motor. The only time I had any trouble with the motor was a head gasket at 200,000.

Just wondering if this is still true today with modern motors and oils. I've even heard people using ATF when they fill up with gas so it cleans the injectors.

Read this comment:
http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/nis ... rough-idle

ATF is corrosive. It basically helps remove build up in fuel lines & filters, carberators, and fuel injectors, at a fraction of what STP or other similar additives cost. I also put 1 quart of ATF in my engine oil 1 week prior to an oil change for the same reason.

Several years ago, I removed my valve cover on one side because I too was skeptical. My engine is super clean. There is no build up anywhere to be found. I did this also to my 1995 Nissan Pathfinder with the same results.
Both vehicles have the original engines and transmissions, with no sign of wear, and no loss of compression. The Pathfinder has 115K miles on it, and still no troubles.
Jim Rojas

I agree with his comment on the valve covers. When I took my El Camino in to have the head gasket replaced, the mechanic called me on the phone to find out what I had done to the engine. He said it was the cleanest engine he has seen with that many miles on it.

I do that all the time. Run 4 quarts of 20 50 and a quart of ATF. works great.

I had 208k kms on my 91 mercury topaz when I scrapped it... though I did regular oil chagnes with regular oil, it's previous oil change schedule was not so rigorous. I found not a spot of sludge on the valve cover, and only a tiny bit where oil had settled in small pools on the top side of the cylinder head. Otherwise spotless. The car had not been run for 3-4 months prior to me taking off the valve cover as well.

It's not neccessary, but it will clean your engine. I'd be a lot more tempted to dump a bottle in and runing the car for just a bit before an oil change as opposed to driving aroudn for a long period of time with the ATF.

If you can get it into a mist, spraying it through your car or TB will clean out the intake passages.... but GM makes stuff (Top Engine Cleaner or "Cleens" IIRC) that should do the job just as good or better.

For fuel system cleaning, I used Seafoam, worked fine as far as I could tell.

Originally posted by Viperoni
For fuel system cleaning, I used Seafoam, worked fine as far as I could tell.

Do you have a link? Never heard of this stuff before. I've always used Gumout or Techroline additive.

I have to second what the viper said BTW you can get top engine clean at your local GM dealer if they sell GM car care products it works pretty good. Some thing else that works pretty good, don't know if you can find it In your part of the country, is a product by BG called fuel injector cleaner. When done properly Your cars fuel sys is disabled and your car only runs of of the cleaner. You dont want that BG product in your fuel tank