I have been adding ATF to my fuel as advised by many mechanics for a couple months now and an interesting point was brought to my attention by my girlfriend. If the ATF is red and it mixes with the diesel won't the diesel be red and possibly cost me pretty big if I get checked by a trooper? Just a thought, any opinions?

 

dont add atf to fuel. it does not have the lubrication properties that your injectors and vp44 need. use ANY fuel additive at the autopart stores for diesel. anything but atf

if they dip the tank, it will look red. they also do a chemical analysis for the traces of the red dye. you'll come out alright when the test results dont show the dye.

 

You would have to add a lot of ATF to dye all of that fuel.

But the real concern is adding ATF to your fuel. Dont do it. This is old school thinking and it was acceptable in older diesel engines. But, now a days, diesel engines are different, and ATF is different. The injector pump tolerances are very tight and the additives in modern day ATF will damage your injector pump in short order and maybe injectors as well. ATF is NOT designed to burn.

You are much better off adding a proper fuel additive (Howes Lubricator, Power Service etc.) and if you feel you still need more lube, use a TCW3 2 cycle oil (which is meant to burn).

Do a search on ATF and you will have a good deal of reading to do.

 

thanks for the information I was just thinking about it. I will do some checking on fuel additives

 

I burn about 20 gallons of waste motor oil to 60 gallons of fuel. The oil turns it black. I also run 1 gallon of 2 stroke per 30 gallons of diesel. If I think I am going to go show out, I put 3 gallons of 2 stroke in to 28/29 gallons of diesel. It does make a nice difference. I also burn ATF, Hydraulic oil. I don't like using used atf fluid because of all the copper &metal particles in it. The used motor oil is the way to go. I have some friends running it 50/50, & we all have been using it for several years now, with ZERO problems. It actually quietens the engines down ever so slightly.

 

Do not run todays ATF in todays diesel. It is bad for it. Dr. Evil is correct.

 

Yes, there's much purer fuel requirements for the HPCR!

 

Bighead, are you saying you have friends that run 17 gal used oil and 17 gal of diesel (34gal tank)? Wouldn't that greatly reduce the btu's in the diesel? ie water it down quite a bit.

 

Find a new mechanic!

 

Ask him if he recommends putting diesel fuel in your tranny as well.

 

You use to be able to use AFT to clean up injectors and it did so very well until around the mid 1980's. But now that they add in a lot of other things into ATF it is a big no no and will screw up HPRC injectors.

 

thanks for the information I was just thinking about it. I will do some checking on fuel additives.

So which is it? You've been adding for a couple months, or you were just thinking about it?

 

You run it 50/50!?!?
That seems like quite a bit of oil. You truck must POUR smoke when you lay on the throttle...

 

Waste oil in diesels is a VERY common thing. It burns just fine and may have more energy than fuel. No, it does not smoke heavily. I ran a lot in my 1st gen, my Isuzu NPR and my Perkins. I've even run my '93 on straight oil with no fuel. Ran just fine. And the best mileage I ever got with my '81 Mercedes was on waste oil.

I don't run it in my 3rd gen, but it is commonly done with many engines. Mercedes used to even give guidelines on how much oil you could safely run. Many fishing boat owners just drain their engine oil into the fuel tank. I was almost out of fuel one night and could not find a station, so I went to a store and bought a bunch of cheap motor oil. Dumped it in and drove on home. No harm done.

It cracks me up that so many people think the sky is falling when they hear about burning waste oil in diesel engines.


John