Anyone ever flushed an engine with deisel fuel in an attempt to remove some sludge? I'm thinking of trying it as a last ditch effort to avoid replacing an engine in a 4.9 liter F-150. I plan to drain the oil, replace it with diesel and let the engine idle for 20 min. or so a couple of times. Then replace the filter and put the oil in. Whatcha think?

i HAD A BROTHER-IN -LAW who always drained out a quart of oil and replace with 1- quart automatic transmission oil. - ran the car for 50-100 miles - then drained ,replaced the filter and filled with reqular oil . He never had any problems. The are also "engine" flushes - on the market apasbigal2008-04-05 08:40:47

My father, and old farmer, has always drained about a quart of oil out an added a quart of diesel and let the engine idle about ten or fifteen or until warm' then change oil. I have done the same for a long time. I have bought a couple of the flush products and if you open them and look at it I swear it's diesel. I have several friends who are mechanics that do this also.


*Adams' Apple2008-04-08 19:33:19

just a word of caution from a past experience. i had a car that was well maintained and it was bought brand new. decided to try one of those engine flushes and it worked great. the only problem i had was that it loosened so much crap that i wound up having to drop the oil pan and remove the oil pump to clean it and the suction screen out.

if the engine flush was done from the start it probably wouldn't have had that happen but who would have thought as the oil and things were maintained properly.

i know of one place near me that won't do a tranny fluid change on cars that have high mileage and never had it done before. as they are not a tranny shop they had too many experiences with doing them and the new fluid (which has very good cleaning properties) would loosen all the contaminants and then the tranny would start slipping. when a customer with that high mileage and no service would want it done they would refer them to a tranny place and explain why.

may want to try a little bit at a time if you never had this done before.

 I have never used diesel fuel, I have used kerosene without any problems on old cars, the kerosene breaks down the sludge so it wont gum up the oil pick up screen, good luck,rd

[QUOTE=rick d] I have never used diesel fuel, I have used kerosene without any problems on old cars, the kerosene breaks down the sludge so it wont gum up the oil pick up screen, good luck,rd[/QUOTE] I agree, this was used in the past without any bad consequences, you just let the engine idle for 20 minutes.