Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Kathie,

 

We put transmission fluid in our diesel pickup ('97 Ford 7.3L Powerstroke, 3/4T) to help clean the fuel injectors. I don't know if it improves fuel economy or not -- I haven't checked yet. I had started doing that because I thought I had trash in my fuel but it turned out to be my crank postion sensor going bad and after replacing that, I keep forgetting to put the transmission fluid in the tank.  I put in up to one quart per tank (two tanks on the truck).  In discussing this with many mechanics (including one I'm married to now and one I was married to before and HE is now married to a mechanic, too...) the consensus was that the transmission fluid also burns hotter than plain diesel.  For that reason, I don't know that I'd run a higher ratio of transmission fluid : diesel. 

 

On a side note, in my car and in several other vehicles I've had, we put a bit of diesel in the tank and then filled it with gasoline (since STP is basically diesel, or a "close relative" and diesel is cheaper than STP and always on hand here).  It has really helped with the car (a 4-cyl with 217K miles on the original engine).

 

DO NOT PUT GASOLINE IN A DIESEL ENGINE THOUGH!!!  I know someone used to driving a gasoline pickup.  He pulled up to the pumps out of habit while driving his diesel pickup.  Luckily, he didn't crank the truck before realizing what he'd done.  That was an expensive lesson (brand new truck, tow-truck ride to the dealership, pull and drain the fuel tank, etc. etc) to learn but not as bad as if he'd actually cranked the truck!!!

 

I also know that people used to (and still do, I suppose) steal "drip gas" and run it in their vehicles because they couldn't afford gasoline.  Then they'd wonder why they had burnt valves...  They'd wind up walking anyway because usually if they couldn't afford a tank of gas, they couldn't afford a replacement engine or a re-build job, either!

 

If I were you, I'd be real careful running a whole lot of transmission fluid through your engine!

 

Milinda Ellis

Beargrass Cleveland Bays

Jewett, Texas

Kathie Ford <MsPoOh17@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Okay, here's a real interesting question for many of you smart guys out there. I just heard this and understand it is being chatted about on the internet by technicians; specifically diesel techs of which my husband is one of them.

 

Apparently, there are people out there using used tranny fluid in their diesels and they are running really well on this stuff.  If I understood it correctly, or even somewhat correctly, it has to be run thru a filter, at least a 5 micron first? 

 

Anyway, there are guys raving about how wonderful it is working, and even some truckers have apparently chimmed in mentioning that they've done this for years.

 

There are some guys at his work that are going to try on their older diesels first just to make sure.  Half and half first; swearing that it works wonderfully as an alternative, with no problems and no downturn in mileage.

 

Any of you guys out their on RC know of this?

 

just curious and thought would be a good new topic for RC.

 

kathie

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