Gee Whiz...

I think this discussion is very argumentative without resolving much. I am going to try to be brief... but please excuse me if I don't succeed.

A) What problem are we trying to solve?
1. Reduce the smoke that comes out of our beloved diesel engines.

B) What do we know??
1. Some techs say they love ATF and have used it on their vehicles. I have used it in my fuel filter (2 times thus far)... no problem. People on this thread and forum have used it in other ways, no problem as well... a MB dealer service manager, my neighbor (a certified MB Tech), and our diesel forum moderator have all used it (whether it be in the tank OR the filter [whether it be filling the filter completely with it or just part of the way]) with great success.

2. Some techs, owners, and commercial drivers say they fear what will happen to your engine, pumps, etc. if we do add these items. They SPECULATE that the cars performance will go down the drain and as result reccomend that folks stay away from using it.

The reason I say speculate is because no one on this forum yet, as Dan mentioned, really knows what is going on!!! But like in engineering... when you are unsure about the behavior of something... you test it to find the answer. You still don't know what is going on... but you know how the item will perform when in use. I believe people who have used ATF for a number of years without having to change their pumps and what not have provided us with this information.

Now, something that I have heard going back and forth is this rule of thumb that 'If adding something produces more smoke that is intended to reduce smoke... it can't be a good thing '

Well, it is kind of like blowing dust out of a dirty pipe... when you first blow all you see is dark smoke...after blowing for a while... the pipe is pretty much clean and their is significantly 'less smoke' coming out of the pipe... same idea may apply with the ATF... it cleans the system... getting all the crud out and then it seems to run much smoother and cleaner than it did before. This is the observation.


C) Why use ATF in addition to Redline?

If you notice almost everyone who uses ATF on this forum ALSO uses REDLINE as a means to help treat their fuel such that it burns in a cleaner fashion. I personally believe in Redline, but don't believe it gets my system as clean when I prime the system with ATF or a related mixture their of.


D) What does this mean?

1. As Longston points out... my engine will be in the shop while his is running fine.

2. My engine will be running cleanER and smoothER, while "non-believers" are not at the same performance level.


I seriously don't think ATF will be blowing up anyone's motor. Why?? Because as Longston pointed out... it is something that someone started up a while ago and was just past on from shop to shop. But one quality of wise tales are TIME. And ATF has seemed to have pass that test. Time is the measuring stick. We may not understand it... but as those believers will tell you... it seems to work. What makes a good tech?? EXPERIENCE!!! They SEE what works... sometimes may not know why... but see that it does. Someone took the chance a while back and it seems like they are right.

It is for these reasons why I feel conclusion #2 is the more likely scenario. Now this is just my feeling. My opinion... my hypothesis... educated guess.

SB

p.s. Looks like I really did not succeed in being brief so please forgive me. I hope you enjoyed the read anyway.