ATF motor flush in my '82

[Rooster's82]

Recently, i have been having problems with my engine pinging. After having my timing set i was told that it could be from carbon build up, which heats up and glows causing pre-ignition and pinging.

I have recently read that you can use ATF to flush carbon and sludge out of a motor. I am very leery about doing any motor flush, seeing that I'm working with an engine built in '82 and don't know how much of it is being held together by sludge and carbon. I should add that the motor smokes a little at start up, especially if it has been sitting for any extended period of time, obviously something is leaking internally and i don't want to make this worse. Basically is the risk worth the reward?

I have read a ton of stuff on the internet speaking both of the virtues and pitfalls of running ATF fluid as an engine flush...what do you think?

[Malo83]

I would use water instead of ATF, just trickle the water down the carb with the engine at high RPM running the carb by hand, the water turns to steam in the combustion chamber which flushes the carbon and buildup out, something else I use is a big can of carb cleaner sprayed down the carb as you would the water, cleans out the intake passages and valves

[blu87]

Smoke on startup is typical of worn valve guides and/or blocked cyl head drain holes (usually by pieces of old cracked valve seals). Remove valve cover check at the rear for plugged drain holes.
Safety tip on the advice given above......keep the carb cleaner away from your exhaust manifolds it will blow up in your face with a fast running engine.

[swb85]

Instead of using water or ATF, pick up a can of Seafoam from your local parts shack. It's basically the same stuff as GM's top-end cleaner. I've used it on several vehicles and it does a great job cleaning built up carbon.....plus there's no risk of harm to your motor.

[BLE 'BURBAN]

I personally don't understand how running tranny fluid in your engine will help get rid of carbon build up in the combustion chamber unless you pour it into the fuel tank. I do know that putting a quart of it inthe oil pan will in deed clean out the sludge build up in the oiling system.
I have in the past used a spray bottle full of water set to mist spray and sprayed it into the card/throttle body while running at a high idle to "steam clean" the combustion chambers. Just keep spraying until the engine stumbles, recover the high idle again and continue. I usually run through at least bottles of water at a time doing this.

[84 400]

Seafoam. I have never heard of misting water kinda makes sense but water in the colanders scares the crap out of me. We use ATf, Marvel mystery oil,l Kerosineen to unstick motors and a squart of Atf in any equipment stored outside to prevent the rings from rusting. Valve seals are very easy to do and very comon thing to wear out causing the smoke at start up. Rotate piston to TDC compress spring remove keepers valve drops replaces spring repeat. They are not to pricey eather. My buddy just did them using felpro positive seal seals but is not happy with the seals. Now he is going to use LT1 seals ( motor is a TBI 305 in a 94 GMC.