Called BS on a buddy's 'ATF in the diesel fuel' story until I tried it on my old 7.3

My buddy Rick swore up and down that adding a quart of automatic transmission fluid to a full tank would clean out the injectors on my 7.3 Powerstroke. I laughed at him for like ten minutes, figured it was some old wives tale. But last month I was chasing a rough idle that wouldn't go away with normal injector cleaner. Threw in some ATF at a Pilot in Knoxville, ran it hard on the highway for an hour, and the idle smoothed right out by the next morning. Has anyone else actually had this work or was it just a coincidence?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jordan17d ago

Guess Rick earned his beer money after all...

adam_hernandez17d ago

Man, I did the same thing to my old 6.0. My buddy Mike told me about it and I gave him so much crap, called him a snake oil salesman to his face. Then I had a stuck injector on a trip to Myrtle Beach, was desperate, and dumped a quart of Dextron in the tank. Drove 200 miles and the next morning it was like a different truck. I still don't fully understand the science behind it, but I've done it twice more over the years when things got clattery and both times it helped. Rick definitely earned that beer.