Too emotive.
Why not look at it this way?
First, ATF belongs in an AT. The issue is that there is only a 25% oil changeover at the dealership. When I wanted to buy enough for a full fill they could not believe it - in readiness for TC install and valve body update.
For engines: A less simple environment. The GDE tune appears to clean up the combustion process enormously. Please don't compare your GDE tuned engine to stock. Would you change it back to stock?
As for the stock tune - Well, I shall say little more except that regrettably I don't yet have the GDE tune yet BUT I WILL. I just had an opportunity to purchase an additional machine for my shop that I have wanted all my life. So GDE is on hold for a bit longer but I have other work to do on her to improve her longevity.
Please don't compare the clean environment caused through the use of the GDE tuned engine to that of that horridly clumsy stock tune, that has, in fact, in most cases been further de-tuned. "They" do it to make the whole unit physically less stressed by the things we all seek: torque and power (for some) as well as a long serving engine. Just look at the mickey mouse way "they" solved the TC issues - F37 sheesh!
The purpose of flushing is not to remove sludge far from it. It is far more insidious and subtle than that.
It is to remove agglomerated EGR carbon, which is highly abrasive and dump it into the full-flow filter which will be immediately changed out with the old oil. A slight and very temporary lessening on the VI (viscosity index) of the lubricating oil at idle will not have a detrimental effect on the engine. FACT: Carbon attracts carbon. So it is prudent to remove this gradually accrued contaminant in a manner commensurate / proportionate with its accrual / deposition in order to prevent its build-up.
Another gradual accrual in an IC engines combustion chambers is varnish which cannot be seen with the naked eye until it is a dead engine. The strategy is, that by flushing the engine regularly, the operator removes these detrimental by-products of combustion - admittedly worse with gassers yes but not cleaned out by burning diesel fuel despite how good a solvent you think it is.
This can't be seen with the naked eye. How many actually examine parts microscopically? It is surprising how rapidly these amass and it is equally surprising just how much they increase the friction coefficient between piston and cylinder wall and crankshaft bearings and the crankshaft. In fact, the agglomeration of carbon particulates resulting from the inclusion of EGR in the combustion process is highly abrasive on the engine. It is further evidenced by the fact that these agglomerated particulates are large in relation to the clearances used in modern manufacturing processes, compared to when sludge was indeed a bigger issue and the sludge has more to do with the propensity of poorly burned hydrocarbons to mix with water vapour and form an emulsion. This is not what we are concerned with in engine flushing. In this case, the whole thing needs dismantling and rebuilding in order to achieve cleaner, more efficient combustion. In fact, the entire fuel delivery system would probably be found to be faulty if this level of sludging were so.
This is yet another reason to exclude comments about clean oil if you run the GDE tune.
Another question: why have they (manufacturers) gradually shortened the skirt length on pistons? Answer is to reduce weight and friction by minimising contact (and I am aware that area is not a major contributor to the coefficient of friction) but the state of the actually contacting surfaces is. Lets face it, by design, friction is what causes the seal between the rings and the bore - not the extraneous products of combustion as an example varnish and carbon. It is well known that piston rings that will not move freely in the grooves are very detrimental to the efficiency of the seal they form in the combustion chamber.
Something to think about: Perhaps this is a major contributing factor to the amount of blow-by you are getting in your engine and you should've been flushing to remove these aggregations as they form. Maybe this is a contributing factor to the top end and bottom end failures we have read so much about with the little diesel engines. The poor little donkeys that never ever run under anything but hostile conditions rather than at optimum load where the propensity for poor combustion is rife.
We run nowhere near the set of conditions like a farm tractor or a prime-mover under fairly constant loads and revolutions with a hot and optimised internal environment. How many threads are there on this forum about the engine running too cool?
Thus, the carbon and varnish coatings that accrue within the engine due to this antagonistic presentation of running conditions create a huge amount of friction for a thang that only runs at about 28% efficiency at best anyway.
Do oils deglaze? I would suggest that the real answer to this is NO. The fact that some claim they do is more difficult to believe than the role that a flushing agent performs. If they are allowing high friction contact between components they aren't doing their job. Very simply, primary functions are to prevent surface to surface contact by resisting shear and maintaining film integrity, carry away heat, as well as free dirt and other unattached contaminants from all contact or bearing surfaces and help keep seals conditioned.
By the way, you all flush to an extent every time you fuel up. Detergents are in fuel - you know the injector cleaners.
As for washing bearings. Well, established practice - with wheel bearings (if not replacing with new) that aren't bolt out bolt in is to wash to perfectly clean and then repack with the prescribed lubrication - the old days with wheel bearings (rather than bolting in a whole front hub) is an example. The Toyota rear wheel - fully lubricated for life bearings was the start of this. The days where repacking a bearing is going - and soon because we have become Japaneseed (I made that term up) - we are now forced to be part of the throw-away society rather than the fix the little bit that broke society - reason - "they" make more $$$$ from us by selling larger pre-assembled parts than a teeny weeny bearing - in the long term of course.
Examples:
So far I've used the same flushing product (one available locally) for every oil change on two vehicles - one got 560 000 km before I considered removing the rocker cover to do the valves etc and that was a tiny motor that huffed and puffed hard - we traded it on the Jeep instead and the other we are still running that has 285 000 km on the odometer but does stop start driving and on most days where it is run up to 8 hours of that running is stop start slogging. The interiors etc fall apart first.
I also note the comments re Xylene - not any more it isn't - lets keep the discussion up to date please. Xylene is recognised rightly or wrongly as a carcinogen (non in the product racer used) so who could poor Xylene down the spout of their engine even if they wanted to? BOOM baby BOOM. There is, chemically a huge difference between a detergent for hydrocarbons (varnish deposits and carbon) etc and a detergent that is soluble in water so where did the bucket of water come from? I know its an exaggerated example? Not the point in any of these discussions. Interesting terminology is now being bandied about with flashpoint proffered as an indicator of volatility and harshness. There are no flammable (in air) products in this Bardahl product so where did Xylene come from? The hydrocarbon based WD-40 evaporates due to its relatively low P vap (vapour pressure).
I'm happy to walk through the meanings of the MSDS but some rather quantum leaps have been made from the MSDS to some statements made in the thread.
Keep it real guys, please.
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I was so disgusted and distrustful of them that I would not take it back and argue as I'm convinced they would've told me they'd done it and not. They have rules forbidding work shop entry due to OCC Health and Safety that they use if being BA*&^$DS. I did not go back there again after that. There is more to this but it is to do with wiring done at the same time that I've had to redo given it was inadequately protected by fuses close enough to the battery. These fellows fit to 4wd's and so had to do that work under our warranty rules.
Nah... I have a conscience. 
