Sea Foam V ATF

[67hat34c]

I just purchased some Sea Foam and will use directed an pour directly into the carbs. however what about adding 1 gallon of ATF to each 115 gallon gas tank to clean fuel system and valves.

[Passages]

I've not heard of using ATF fluid in Gas applications - diesel yes.

Might be safer to use Marvel Mystery Oil for fuel system cleaning. Careful though, it'll pick up a lot of crud and deposit it in your filter.

[MikeP]

One thing to remember re dumping stuff into carbs is that
it does not clean any of the critical parts or passages in a carburetor since it never enters any internal part (passages/jets) of the carb.

However, various products for this purpose might, when you pour them into the intake tract, help remove deposits from valves, etc which may prove helpful.

You may be interested to know that the old standby chemical for this purpose - pouring into the carb to remove deposits on valves/cleaning combusion chamber is.........................water. Cheap and effective but doesn't have much cachet!

I wouldn't put ATF in gasoline - it will potentially gum up the carb passages and it will reduce the octane of the gas. If you want a good detergent in there, Marvel Mystery Oil is a lighter, naptha based oil that is very high in detergents and will not lower the octane to any noticeable degree. It also has a long history of industry-wide recommended use for this specific purpose. And it has a nice wintergreen smell!

[67hat34c]

how much marvel per gallon?

[Genesis]

My trick with Sea Foam is to get a small (2 gallon) pony tank and put a bottle of Sea Foam in there + 1 gallon of gas.

Hook that to your engine and run it through at fast idle. Run 1/4 of it, shut down and wait 15 minutes or so, start up, do it again, etc.

The engine will smoke HORRIBLY if there is carbon in there being burned off and cleaned out. If it runs CLEAN then it doesn't have crap in it.

After the last batch is used up hook your normal fuel supply back up, wait 20-30 minutes, then go run the hell out of the engines for 10-15 minutes to blow anything left out of there.

This will clean the entire fuel and induction system, including the carbs or fuel injection system.

[MikeP]

MMO to gas - about 4 oz to 10 gal of gas

BUT...

I'd recommend Karl's treatment which gets a heavy-duty dose into the actual fuel system/carb. To me this is much better than adding an additve to all the gas in the tanks. Cheaper too.

But don't expect miracles if the carbs are badly gunked up (doesn't sound like yours are, though). I have worked on carbs that required inserting wire into the passages to clean them - solvent alone didn't unclog the passages, including the old "dipping" solvent which will take the skin right off your hands!

[Mike53C]

This is a detour from the "how to check exhaust leaks..." thread. I was going to ask if there was some "cleaning" agent I could use on a DD to try to loose a sticking piston ring, just in case this is my problem with the excess crankcase pressure.

Now, in this thread I read about using ATF to clean all the gunk, and Passages suggesting it is ok for diesel, not that good for gas.
If this is so, has anyone experienced using ATF on a 12 71N?...or any other N Detroit?...if so, how did you did it?...and in what proportion?...or are you suggesting to just pour a continuous thin feed of oil directly into the blowers intake?

Is there any other "solvent" I may use. I don't find Mystery Oil down here in Venezuela so Marvel is out of the equation.

We are still talking about gunk cleaning, so I don't feel like I have hijacked your thread 67hat34c, only gone from gas to diesel....sorry for that.

Miguel

[Avenger]

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pour anything flammable into the intake of a diesel!!!!!!!! The engine will see it as fuel with potentially catastrophic and/or deadly results.

Sorry for the screaming. I just wanted to make sure that nobody tries to "fog" their Detroit. I would recommend that you do the diagnostic homework before you start trying to patch a problem. Remove the airbox covers and visually inspect the rings. Do a compression test. Find where the problem is, then take appropriate steps.

There are a few methods for freeing up seized rings, but their use depends on what is causing the rings to stick. Unfortunately most of them are also poor patch jobs that are not a long term solution.

[yachtsmanbill]

I'm glad you said it SCROD !! A couple of drops will cause a runaway in a heartbeat. To me, stuck rings are like a jumped timing gear. Only happens in fantasy land. Maybe if it sat outside for 10 years. I agree with the airbox inspection for a possible broken ring, but on a well seasoned DD I find that unlikely too. I believe mine are vented to atmosphere to the blower silencer. I think crankcase pressure should be negligible.
Made it home after 800 miles and split a gallon of Rotella between 2 engines, not too darn bad. 10 hours a day at 1500 netted between 13 and 23 gallons an hour including lock times etc.The worst being against a 7mph current on the Mississippi. This would still leave a slight fuel sheen on the water at idle; bad injector maybe? Notice the sooting problem on the transom? Gotta love those 12-71Ns !! ws

[Avenger]

This would still leave a slight fuel sheen on the water at idle; bad injector maybe?

Mmmmm, It might rabbit. It might. (Sorry. Bad rephrase of a Bugs Bunny line.)

Gotta love those 12-71Ns !! ws

I'd hang on to them.

I agree on the stuck rings. Why would this happen suddenly? What Mike is describing (if I'm following this correctly) sounds almost like airbox pressure making its way into the crankcase. The big mystery is; how can this happen?

The other big mystery is how we ended up having this discussion on 67Hat34c's thread about SeaFoam and ATF in gas engines. Anybody have any solutions to that??? Miguel???