Re: Motor has been sitting for 3 years.
I've heard the atf idea before, but was afraid to try it.
hehe
Its is oil and its detergent qualities are out of this world.
People are so lazy and cheap these days they often leave their oil changes on their cards for much longer than they should. Some engine just start to sludge up bigtime. I have used atf in place of engine oil to run through engines (not driven on road or with load on the engine really) to free gummed up lifters, clean oil galleries etc.... this is a fairly common practice in place of your high dollar "internal engine cleaners" available on the market.
There are fluids, additives, ding dong tools and all sorts of utter BS on the market for all types of jobs the industry has you thinking you need to use.
Some are very good products with inflated prices that have alternative, basic normally used products that will do the same or similar job. This fluid is better than that, my oil is better than yours, this grease is only for this application and never for that. It all needs to be looked at with reason.
My dad had a old 1971 Buick Riviera he installed an engine in years ago. The customer parked the car not long after the engine was installed and it sat for 10 plus years. Engine wouldn't turn over at all when he got it. Pulled plugs dumped diesel fuel down the cylinders and for a week or so when we had time we would rock the crank back and forth till the rings unseated themselves. Once that was acheived we slowly a step at a time we had a chance rotated the crankshaft pouring atf into the cylinders. Once it was spinning freely we drained all the oil out and put a little atf in the cylinders cranked it over and put plugs back in and it ran for a good number of years with all us kids running the heck out of that poor car when we had the chance.
Moral of the story is no fancy tools, no special lubricants just basic stuff and some time. We could have easily pulled the engine (well a 455 engine pull is most often not easy.......) and rebuilt it but there was no need if we got the rings unseized.
