Oil & Fuel Power steering fluid leaking into engine - long term damage?

[Jordanbear]

My MF 451 has had a slow leak in the power steering system for years. tractor is a 2003 and it's done this since it was about 3 years old. Tractor only has 800 hours on it.

No one could find the leak but it dawned on someone recently that it could be leaking into the engine. I have to add ps fluid about every 8-12 months. Usually a quart.

Had it in for some work on a brake rod seal and they called to say that when they drove it into the shop they thought it was making a bad knock and they were VERY CONCERNED that it hadn't had an oil change since 2008 - it has, I go by hours and in the fall of 2011 I changed it myself but since it looked so clean I didn't change the filter - changing the filter is a bit PITA on this tractor.

Tractor has done at most 150 hours since then.

If the power steering fluid was leaking into the engine that would indeed explain why it never is low on oil, but how much damage could it be causing?

Oil capacity is 6 litres (1.59 gal). If over the past 3 years it's added a total of 4 quarts of ps fluid - that's a lot of extra pressure.

Anyone with any experience on the outcome here?

 

[NVBigBlue]

My son mistook ATF for engine oil one time. Put two quarts into a 4 quart engine (car). It developed a knock and a whine. When I went to drain it, nothing came out. I had to use a screw driver to poke a hole in the film that covered the bottom of the oil pan. I dropped the pan to clean it all out. The film was all the sludge washed down from the engine. Made kind of a gooey rubber layer in the pan. The goo also had covered most of the intake screen for the oil pump....that was the cause of the whine....

I have never seen the inside of a used engine (about 125K miles on it) so clean before. Seriously....it looked like it had just been rebuilt and never run.

Put the pan back on and filled it with 2 quarts of oil and 2 quarts of Lucas Oil. Knock went away. When we finally got rid of the car, it had about 230K on it.

Since ATF and PS fluid are so close, and since you have a much larger capacity, I'll bet it's been thinning the oil....but has also probably been scrubbing the internals for you.....

Fix the leak, change the oil and filter and see how it sounds... hopefully any knock was due to thin oil and didn't do any damage.

Good luck!!

 

[pmsmechanic]

ATF has high detergent content so that would explain why the engine looked so clean inside.

A lot of mechanics use ATF instead of additives to clean the inside of engines. It's cheaper and works just as well.

Some mid 70's japanese cars recommended ATF as engine oil.

I don't think you would have done any permanent damage. Fix the leak and see what happens.