diesel washout for engine blocks
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diesel washout for engine blocks



For Patrick Moore and his Hemi rehab project:
Patrick said"Question:  One local motorhead has advised me to fill the drained 
block with
diesel fuel and hand-circulate it to clean out the crud.  I'm not entirely
sure I want to risk that, especially if I see an accumulation of baked-on goo
that may be best left "asleep" until a rebuild.*****

I come from a long line of old time mechanics, and adding a pint or 2 of diesel 
to engine oil has long been accepted practice to clean out an engine that's 
possible been doing without decent oil changing intervals. You were not to run 
the engine hard on this mix, just warm it up andlet it run enough to exercise 
it, then dump it out. I have personal knowledge of a man who ran his Pontiac 
over 100.000 miles without any work whatsoever; he would put a pint of diesel 
in it and let it idle for some time, just before dumping the oil for each oil 
change. The mechanic who bought the car took it down for a routine overhaul 
(his practice on all high mileage cars) and stated he had never seen an engine 
as clean or free from abnormal wear. I have also heard of people doing the same 
routine using transmission fluid.

one other point - I had the fuel pump cough up a chunk  of diaphragm rubber 
which lodged in the brand new carburetor on my  (REALLY USED) engine in a 
Datsun B-210. After the obligatory few tries at restart it was towed home, 
where I pulled apart the carb, cleaned out debris and resealed, and installed 
another filter in line! In putting the carb back on I saw a glimmer in the 
intake manifold - it was gasoline.......... doggone engine chuck full of oily 
gas....  and I had been cranking it trying to get it to fire! 
shudder........AFTER dumping over 2-1/2 gallons out of the crankcase, I 
refilled with appropriate oil and a new filter and started up without incident. 
The tired engine never ran better; compression improvement across the board, no 
doubt due to freed-up rings. Upon replacement of that engine a couple years 
later, I tore it down to take a look - that unintentional solvent bath sure 
made for clean innards! and there was no evidence of scored cylinders.

Just my two cents worth.....

Kate Justet Triplett
Kate's Custom Gunleather
Monroe, Washington
Proud mother of a soldier
and owner of  "Lucille" 1968 Crown 4 door HT 



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