Quote:
Originally Posted by look 171
How much ATF or MM oil would you put in the crankcase, Dennis?
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That’s a great question. It’s not something that I do as a matter of course but if I had an old car that might have had some really dirty oil in it in the past, I’d probably throw a quart of ATF in a couple hundred miles before an oil change. It harms absolutely nothing and it’s super detergent.
Extreme situations call for extreme measures, though. Here is a true story to illustrate: a guy I know once bought an old mini truck, (maybe Mazda or Ranger but doesn’t matter), with a “bad motor.” It smoked like a crop duster and used something like a quart of oil every 100 miles. The truck was in NorCal, 4-500 miles away and he had to get it home so he bought some huge jugs of oil and a bunch of ATF, just to experiment. He had nothing to lose since he was planning on having to completely rebuild the engine anyway. I think that he told me that he threw about a half a gallon of ATF in it and set off on the highway. This would be half the oil capacity of the engine, more or less. It was a 4-banger.
Within 100 miles, it stopped smoking completely. With 200 miles, it stopped consuming oil. When he got it home to L.A., he changed the oil and filter and has been driving it for years now with no issues. The oil control rings were obviously totally stuck and gummed up and the ATF cleaned and freed them. I usually don’t buy the whole “tune up in a can” deal but this is an exception.
Also, if you look online, Marvel’s is the same price or cheaper than ATF in the present time. It’s better than ATF because it’s mineral oil.