My buddy swore by ATF in the fuel tank, I called him nuts

Last month my 2003 F-550 with the 7.3 started stumbling bad on the highway outside Tulsa. Injector noise got loud too. My buddy Don, who's been turning wrenches since the 80s, tells me to dump a quart of ATF in the tank with a full fill-up. I thought he was messing with me, but he said it cleans injectors better than any additive. So I humored him. Truck ran like garbage for the first 20 miles, smoke everywhere. Then it cleared up and pulled harder than it has in two years. Noise settled down too. Changed the fuel filter after that tank and it was black with crap. Don't know the science, but it worked. Anyone else run this trick, or did I just get lucky?