Yesterday, I had a customer in my office and he was asking me questions about maintaining his 04 3500 diesel. We got to the subject of fuel filters and he told me a buddy of his who is a "diesel expert" told him when he changes the filter he should fill the filter housing full of transmission fluid before installing the new filter! What in the heck is wrong with people that would tempt them to pour transmission fluid into a fuel system that has pressure over 20,000psi, and wasn't designed to run on such things? With as sensitive as the HPCR fuel systems are you'd think people would not be so worry free about what they dump in to them, especially with the high price of parts for these things. It is called "TRANSMISSION FLUID", not "HPCR FUEL SYSTEM FLUID".

 

it's because in the heavy truck shops this common practice, we prime all our diesel filters with ATF and are told to do so. but I don't know about the CRD it's a lot more picky then a old 12V or a Deutz diesel(sp?)

 

But why, Atf is really not a good lubricant at all. Has very poor lubricating qualities. As I said before, it is called transmission fluid! There are so many good fuel aditives out there why would someone deliberatly pour in something that doesn't belong. I think this started sometime about fifty years ago cause some jo blow thought it'd work and it has been accepted over the years? Wonder what the engine manufacturers would say about it? I know what Chrysler would tell us if we had a customers truck in the shop with fuel system problems and they knew it'd had atf ran through the hpcr fuel system!

 

I believe the ATF is supposed to act like a strong injector cleaner.

I've heard that rumor for years, also. It's more than a rumor. Lots of people did it on the older trucks.

I'd be scared to death to do it to one of these newer trucks. They seem to be much more sensitive.

I have heard that "Sea Foam" is a very good injector cleaner. Good at cleaning the carbon off injector tips that causes a lot of injector knocking on the new third gens.

Joe F.(Buffalo)

 

I wouldn't even pour it in my first gen's. If I wanted to clean the injectors and fuel system, I'd get some injector and fuel system cleaner, and leave the ATF for the transmission! I just don't understand the mentality? I sell some of these guys new $35000 to $50000 trucks, they finance them for 6 or even 7 years in some cases, and then pour some ATF in the fuel system? You got to be kidding me? Why not just use what is recomended by who made the thing? Not what some old Joe Blow "diesel mechanic" that did it on trucks 30 years ago says works good.

 

I was at a local shop getting my truck serviced last week. I over heard the service guys chatting about a smoking Nissan Pathfinder. I looked out and lo and behold a huge amount of white smoke was coming out of the exhaust. The first thing i thought was "see ya later valves"..... Come to find out, cause i wanted to find out what the dumba$$ had done, he had done something so dumb that i started to turn red. This guy had drained his tranny fluid thinking it was his oil and put the plug back in. He then proceeded to dump 4 quarts of oil back into the engine. Hopefully he didn't blow his head gasket and valves. I didn't stick around to find out if they could drain the oil and fill the tranny back up with the 1/3 fluid it was missing, but I hope it turned out well for the poor guy.

Anyway the things we hear!!!!

 

I'm often amazed at what some people will put into their fuel systems.

The thing that amazes me the most is the guys that dump their old used engine oil into their tank. If it's too dirty to run as an engine lubricant, what must it be doing to your fuel delivery system? Even if the fuel filter gets most of the dirt, the filter is sure to clog-up much faster.

Joe F.(Buffalo)

 

I wouldn't do it in my old trucks, more less a new HPCR Cummins. I just now went back to our parts department and picked up a bottle of the new "premium diesel fuel treatment" that is bottled for Mopar through Cummins. I read the back and this is what it says.................

"PREMIUM DIESEL FUEL TREATMENT Increases cetane rating 2-5 numbers. Improves fuel economy and corrosion protection. Removes fuel injector/system deposits and may reduce emissions. Provides exceptional fuel lubricityfor reducing fuel pump and injector wear. Improves cold temperature flow for low temperature starting, smoother idling and shortened warm-up time. Stabilizes fuel while in storage."

Boy, that all sounds like real good stuff. But you know, why would I wanna use that when I could pour ATF in my $40,000 truck. Who cares that the manufacturer recomends this other stuff. My uncle's cousin's brother's niece's friend's sister-in-law's husband who's dad knew a diesel mechanic said to put ATF in it!

If I seem mad, I am really not. Just tired of seeing people come in and say this kind of stuff.

 

I know a guy that his Dodge gasser has had two engines due to sludge.He said poor design and can't understand it cause he's ALWAYS shorts the engine a quart of oil and adds a QUART of atf every oil change.ATF is NOT designed for use in a motor.Dosen't do well with the combustion process etc.In fact the AVERAGE motor oil today has MORE cleaners then ATF etc.

 

I pour a quart of SAE 30 in my gas tank before each fill up. Been doing so for the last ten years on every one of my deisels and i still have 1 of the first ones around, if my memory serves me right it just rolled 600k and running strong on a quart of SAE 30 before each fill up................ We do the same on all of our heavy equipment as well and i will do it next year to my 07 when i retire my current one which has 90k miles of trouble free oily-deiseled miles on it.

 

This is what I am talking about? Why would somebody put ATF in there engine instead of regular motor oil? Had another guy tell us the other day, a buddy of his told him on his next oil change he should drain all the oil and fill the crankcase to the full mark with diesel fuel, run it till the engine reaches operating temp, drain, and pour in new oil! He said the engine needed to be cleaned out from time to time! This guy was going to try this. We told him not to, but I think he was gonna do it anyhow, as he said this guy he knows is a real diesel expert.

 

But why? What would cause one to want to do this? Even if it hasn't damaged your engine's why not just use fuel additive if you feel you really need to do something? As many problems as I see come through our shop on the HPCR Cummins fuel systems due to contamination, I wouldn't put anything in the tank other than good old diesel fuel, and a Mopar or Cummins/Fleetgaurd fuel additive. Why don't you call up Cummins and ask them want they think of your idea of running motor oil through a HPCR fuel system, I'm sure they'd be interested to hear about it!

 

I thought that was my uncle's cousin's brother's niece's friend's sinster-in-law's husband whose dad knew the pool cleaner's brother who overherd this from the barber of a diesel mechanic...........

Can't leave out the pool cleaner or the barber. They might get upset!

 

They are the ones who advised it long ago. And in speaking with a cummins service manager (not at dodge at cummins) he told me it was a great idea with the amount of methanol and other chemicals being upped in deisel fuel. Havent you noticed that lately some deisel has been extremely clear?????? What do you think causes that?????? Lack of lubricants, . You do what you want to do but i guarantee you if we both bought same truck same day with same driving habit, maint, etc. mine would out last yours by a longshot because of the additional lubricants. Do the breakdown on the dilution ratio, wow 1 quart aint that darn much now is it? I guess i could really get your goat and tell you that every 200hrs on all of our CAT equip we run a quarter to a half gallon of reg unleaded with a full tank to clean out the fuel systems. OMG. Yup you read it right. That was a recommendation by a "CAT" tech who has been doing his job for over 35 yrs. So right wrong or indifferent ima keep on with the oil and the gasoline. With just over 3mill in equip. and considering its a small family owned business with no big corp. capital id say its a pretty darn good PM tip. Oh, and not one major breakdown in at least last ten years, if it aint broke dont fix it.

 

Im not poking at you im just telling you that alot of people know a lot of tricks other than what is recommended by the manf. Just like my thread on coolant. GM, for example recommends Dex-Cool coolant for their duramax while knowing it causes major damages to the engine components. The "DEALER' told me any "RED" antifreeze will be just fine including a direct question on Dex-Cool!!!! Now thats not as major as a direct injection of ATF, but you see my point. Most of the testing done by auto manf's is done in a way more perfect world than what we all deal with each and everyday. T


I will back you on the ATF thing, How idiotic could you be as to wanna have ATF or even my 30wt or any straight additive for that matter without any type of dillution pumped straight to your injection system. I do agree there. And yes i have been advised some pretty far out things but what we do has not failed us yet so we will keep on keepin on till..................well till.