Yesterday morning I added the ATF into the leading plug holes for the first time ever. Today I crank her up and she instantly fires up and comes to life. Suddenly I am surrounded by sooo much white smoke. I knew about the smoke and expected it some but HOLY ****!!!! Then the wind picked up and blew all the smoke into a neighbors yard. I'm like uh-oh. My 7 is idling nicely right now but I have a feeling I'm gonna geta visit from the fire department asking if my car was in flames. Oh well, Gonna run her a bit, then change the oil and plugs.

 

this is some funny stuff, man thats the way it goes down with the ATF treatment, thankx for the neighbor info.

 

Yeah. I live in a cul-de-sac, and I was in such a hurry to get out of the neighborhood, and get my car on the highway so I wouldn't smoke out the block, I forgot to put in my hood pins!! At 90 mph, WHAM....hood flew up. That is why I hate the ATF trick!!

 

I hate the ATF trick because it ruins engines and is totally pointless.

 

I didn't have much choice. My engine was flooded BADLY. Nothing else worked but this got her going so for now I like the ATF trick.
Now I'm off to Radio Shack to pick up a switch to make my fuel cut switch.

 

The ATF trick is good for unflooding (though oil works just as well), but nothing else.

 

I agree, I used atf a couple of times and now I have excessive fuel dilution in oil. It hapenned right after I did the atf trick. I am hoping mmo is a little better for the engine. Not to mention the fact that the atf foobars the o2 sensor also.

 

When my car is flooded (used to be everyday, now almost never) I would just pull the EGI fuse, hold the pedal to the floor and crank for 10sec, replace fuse, then it would start right up. I never thought of using oil or atf for that..

 

ATF or oil is for situations where the car is flooded SOOOO bad that 'the fuse trick' won't work.

 

If you have a 1990+ car, put the pedal to the floor and hold it there while cranking.

This shuts off the fuel becase the ECU was programmed to do this.


on pre-1990 cars, a pair of vice grips on the inlet fuel hose works just the same.

Only you have to get out to take them off.

You should never have to ATF the car, or pull the fuse.

 

keep in mind, your only suppose to use a capfull each rotor housing. Dont just dump a bunch in there.

 

The ATF trick was a last resort. I had tried EVERYTHING to get her started. Nothing you guys mentioned was not tried. She starts right up now. Its not like I'll be squirting ATF in there on a daily, monthly or even yearly basis. It was just done out of desperation seeing as its pretty much guarranteed to get the car started. The fuel cut switch is now installed as a temporary fix till I get the injectors taken care of.

 

I used ATF in my engine a year ago when she was sitting all spring. The car she was in had been smoked in a collision and she was waiting to be transplanted to my parts car. I would dump ATF into the plug holes and the plenum and then start her up a few weeks later...

I live in a 3-storey walk up, and the cars were parked together out back. The first time I fired up the engine after it had been sitting with the ATF in it, I made the building disappear. I **** thee not. She was putting out a fair bit of smoke at idle, and my friend who had boosted the car was cracking up and then asked what would happen if I gave her some throttle.

I revved her up to 3k and held her there. The engine felt and sounded normal and I thought nothing of it. *Then* I looked out the passenger window. Nothing but grey smoke! Couldn't see the building (the cars were about 50 feet away from it) and the tree that was halfway between the cars and the building was very obscured. Holy ****!

It took about 5 minutes for the wind to carry the smoke away. The unbelievable part was that none of my neighbours complained and the fire department didn't show up... And this was at about 3pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

 

Aaron, I'm curious, how does atf "ruin engines". I don't think I've heard of any negative side effects from it so far. Please elaborate.