In 1976 I installed a Mazda factory rebuilt Wankel engine in my RX-2, and it
burned oil after very few miles. Mazda insisted that I run a quart of ATF
in place of a quart of oil, and if that didn't do it, up to 2 quarts of ATF
replacing a like amount of oil, before they'd do anything under warrantee.
It did indeed free up the side seals and stop the oil usage the first time.
The problem recurred and eventually I just dumped the car rather than spend
any more $$ or frustration chasing the factory to make them honor their
warrantee, but the point is that it didn't destroy my engine and it did
indeed perform some clean-up.
Lots of people use Marvel Mystery Oil in their gas and oil for the same
thing. I often throw some in the gas, but seldom in the oil - I tend to
drive high-pmileage cars and usually don't want to lower the viscosity too
much ;-)
Even though it's not FAA approved, I bet there are more antique and vintage
airplanes running Marvel Mystery Oil in their fuel than not, and lots of
them in the oil too. I just got back from a fly-in of over 120 Stearman
biplanes (WWII trainers) and saw lots of cans of Marvel among the various
supplies stacked under fusealges all over the field. Many many guys swear
it keeps the lead deposits off their valves Lead fouling of valve stems
(sticks the valves) is a problem with older airplane engines, especially
since we usually can't get the old 80 octane fuel any more, and 100 low-lead
still has more lead than 80 did.
Rislone is another oil additive designed to perform the same function, and
so is Lenckite. Lenckite is also sold as an aircraft product, same stuff in
a different can for about double the price, but it does have FAA approval.
May glowing reports about it keeping deposits off engine internals. I have
used it occasionally, but not enough to know what difference it made.
OTOH, to just do a clean-up before an oil change, you could add a quart of
kerosene to the oil and idle for 10-15 minutes (to be safe, I don't drive
the car, just idle it), drain, and refill. You could also spend a couple of
bucks for a quart of motor flush and do the same thing, but it's usually
mostly kerosene.
Karl Vacek
'46 Piper J3-C65 Cub
'16 Ford Model T Touring
'64 Amphicar
'67 Triumph TR-4A
'68 Triumph TR-250
Ray Bahr wrote...
> Does anyone have any first hand experience with running a quart of ATF
with
> engine oil to help clean some crud out of the engine - or is that an urban
> legend? Is there something else that might be better?
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