This article reports, that at least in one person's experience, a mix of up to 90% ATF with diesel could be safe.
Quote:
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Most ATFs contain some combination of additives...anti-oxidation compounds to inhibit oxidation and "boil-off"...high-temperature thickeners
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ATF may be good for lubrication or cleaning, as some claim, but it appears to be not as great as diesel at burning. You'll note in the above-linked article that Mr Richard Snyder uses a cetane booster with his ATF mix. I would presume that would be to counteract some of the less desirable qualities (at least in the context of use as fuel) of ATF in the above quote.
Interestingly,
these folks claim that US Army testing showed no improved lubricity from adding ATF to low sulfur diesel. Given that the bulletin was allegedly issued in 1994, before ULSD was legislated, and that dieselfuelsystems.com a) does not cite their source, and b) has a financial interest in downplaying alternative fuel additives such as ATF, I would tend to go with wikipedia on its thrice-cited claim that most ATF includes additives to improve lubricating qualities.
However, if I was to try ATF in my fuel (and I haven't yet, due to only recently hearing about it), I wouldn't do it for the cost savings or the Unicorn-friendly hope of improving lubricity. I would do it for the detergents and the hope of clearing and preventing deposits in the fuel system, a claim for which there are many testimonials extant. For this reason, I will be trying new, and not used ATF in my 1997 Mercedes (which has indirect injection and no high-pressure common rail system).
So yeah, I'm new here. I just had to chime in with a mix of facts and speculation. I will be trying ATF, along with a standard dose of cetane booster with my next tank of diesel.