add atf fluid to fuel hunter 29.5

[james295]

I was thinking of polishing the diesel fuel in my hunter 29.5 I have the yanmar 2gm20f engine I talked to the local boat yard about it and he suggested i put a quart of atf transmission oil in the fuel tank he said it would clean up the fuel and would be good for the engine Any one else ever do this Good or Bad ????

 

[Dan Hill]

ATF is for automatic transmissions not diesel fuel systems, thats whats called a snake oil repair. Use power service IMHO. Works great in my yanny.

 

[Steve Dion]

If you have doubts about your fuel, just pump it all out and clean your tank. If you need an inspection port, you can install that.

Why take any chance of messing up a perfectly good motor.

 

[Slow Mo^cean]

If your going to add anything to your fuel system, it should be a quality additive. People that say ATF is good for your engine need to move their bumpkin ass out of the 60s

 

[navigator97]

Polishing the fuel would be pumping it out of the tank, cleaning the tank, and putting the fuel thru filtration as you put it back into the tank. For additives, the Yanmar distributor has recommended adding Injector Cleaner, Cetane Boost, and Power up. I have used that for years with no problems. Also add a microbicide to kill critters that want to live in ang water/diesel boundery in the tank.

 

[james295]

atf trans oil

I was thinking of polishing the diesel fuel in my hunter 29.5 I have the yanmar 2gm20f engine I talked to the local boat yard about it and he suggested i put a quart of atf transmission oil in the fuel tank he said it would clean up the fuel and would be good for the engine Any one else ever do this Good or Bad ????

Since I joined this in May It's a great learning tool for me Thanks for the info

 

[anchorclanker]

Some of the comments. Wow, pretty funny. Mercedes pretty much pioneered diesels. Mercedes owners, around the world, supported 100% by the company, have been adding ATF for decades. That is, until the USA started dying off road diesel with red dye. That is the only thing that has stopped its use, again, only in the US, and only because of dyed diesel. If you put ATF in your trucks diesel tank and get checked, the ATF will color your fuel red and your busted for running off road (non taxed) diesel. In a boat engine you can run whatever, and a little ATF wont hurt anything.

All Mercedes engines carry the classification OM. It stands for Oil Motor. They run on oil folks. If you dont think ATF is oil, well, you probably shouldnt put bio diesel, corn oil, veggie oil, or any other kind of oil in a diesel either.

In extreme cold weather they also can run with mixtures of diesel mixed with gasoline and/of Kerosene. In the US military all diesels run on JP4. In fact, everything in the military burns JP4. One fuel makes it easy on logistics.

Why ATF? Its very high detergent, and it burns hotter than diesel. It can clean injectors and combustions chambers better than almost anything, and can often quiet down and smooth out a rough running diesel. It works. I wouldnt hestitate using ATF in any diesel over some can of BS sold on a store shelf.

All that said, it wont do a darn thing in a good running engine.

<edit> Plain Dexron ATF only, not type F or anything with friction modifiers. 1 quart to 10 gallons is usually enough. Some also add MMO to their fuel, but I have no experience to add, I have only added it to fuel

 

[Slow Mo^cean]

ATF= designed for automatic transmissions
Quality Fuel Additives= designed for fuel.
I don't think the guys down at the R&D depart of Castrol, Pennzoil, Shell, etc. stand around and say, "Gee I wonder how we can make our ATF products run better through a diesel engine?"
Fuel additives are designed for a specific purpose, which is why you should drop the extra $1 on a can of it instead of ATF.
Am I saying ATF doesn't work well in diesel fuel? No? But it doesn't contain the detergents, cetane boosters, cold flow improvers, and oxidizers that special additives have.
Are some of the additives BS? Sure. Anything you pay less than a dollar for or that is sold at WalFart will generally be crap.
But its your call.. Your engine... Your wallet....

 

[Dan Hill]

^5 slow, I can't ever remember any container of atf stating it's uses in a diesel engine. Like the 66 diesel engines im charged with maintaining by my employer, mostly mercedes MBE906s btw, I use power service religiously with ZERO fuel system issues. You said it best though......your engine, your wallet.