Engine Flush Methods

[nilson]

I've heard of lots of old gearheads draining a quart of oil and replacing with a quart of ATF or diesel. I didn't have any diesel handy so I added a quart of 50/50 ATF and gasoline. I've been letting the engine run for about 30 minutes at a time, gonna drain it tomorrow.

Also got a tip from my friend who is a diesel mechanic to put a cup of dishwasher soap in the radiator to clean the cooling system. I've flushed it three times already and the water keeps coming out muddy-brown looking.

Questions/comments?

 

[Merle]

Nuts?

Water and oil don't mix and when they do the results come out looking like a milkshake, just like when you have a BHG. A light weight petroleum product like Seafoam can do the job without causing any type of worry for $9.

Dish soap? Only if I was pulling apart the engine and could guarantee I could get it all out using a universal solvent (aka H2O), and then let it dry.

Why in the world would you want to try things on a working engine? If you have sludge, drop and rebuild it. If not, have baked ideas are liable to create problems.

 

[Acidmeld]

The ATF trick works but ive never heard of deisel use. I bought my solara with 88k and a mostly sludged motor, leaking everywear but the rear main. I changed the oil and filter every 1000 miles with regular conventional and a half quart of T-IV ATF. It took 12k miles but the engine was spotless. Fixed all the leaks and now its dry as a bone and runs like a champ. When i change the oil at 3k miles its still as clean as the day i put it in. It might help that i use the D3 oil filter from our 4runners instead of the D1 filter the 3.0L V6 is supposed to use. It fits the same but the filter element is a good bit bigger.

 

[TheeMikeB]

I remember my HS auto shop teacher telling us the 1qt of ATF thing, he also taught us you could use it down your carb to burn off excess carbon off the cylinders. (vehichles mostly had carburetors when i was in HS). It smokes like a beeeotch!! Like a smoke screen!

We used to love taking the air filters off our rides, dumping some ATF down and then ripping up and down the streets. Ohh the good old days.