ATF Fluid in the engine.
 

OK Folks, here is the deal. I was doing a Tranny Fluid Change and an Oil Change on Sunday. Long
story short I put about 1 Qt. Honda ATF Fluid in the engine. I noticed before I started it so I drained it. I have to go pick up more fluid today.

I know some say to put ATF in the Engine before an oil change, but I haven't done it. I know Honda uses it own ATF but how different is it? Is it going to be a problem?

I do plan on flushing more oil in to make sure it is cleaned out a little more.

Any advice?

put soap in the engine, shake it real good, and wash it out. ;)

i would remove the filter and plug, place a pan under the car and pour one quart of engine oil into the ENGINE to flush it, put filter and plug back on, 4qts of ENGINE OIL into the ENGINE and call it a day.

Thanks for the reply.

I figured it would be ok since I caught it before I started it.

You're fine. Just drain it and refill it. Yes it's an old school "motor flush" to use some ATF with some fresh oil, drive for a bit, and change it again. People have been doing that for a long time. I have done it myself on older motors that had a noisy valvetrain and it cleared it up. Why is debatable but whatever, i'm not going to get into that.

I use ATF to clean old motors once in a while. reolacing one quart and running it at idle for a while then performing an oil change and new filter.

I dont think any fit has the age to require it though ha ha

EDIT my point is that it will not hurt the motor at all unless you were to drive for extended periods like that.

Off topic. I thought it was old wives tale that ATF would clean out accumulated gunk in the old carburetor based engines.

No it worked ok but it wasn't just being ATF it was because it was thinner than normal oil and very thin oil was not used back then normal weight was like straight 30-40 not the thin 0W-20 we use now.

Carburetor and FI engines have the same gunk that needs to be change in the crankcase in older style engines that used old school oil.

Modern engines with modern oil and emission controls do not accumulate gunk like the old timers did.

I have used ATF in many engines on a 1 to 4 or 1 to 5 quart basis. The most recent one I had was around 100 K on it with a sticking hydraulic lifter. The sticking lifter cleared up in about 600 miles of driving. Later when I changed the filter and opened it up, it had a lot of unusual gunk in it. On the next oil change when inspecting the filter everything was normal again. I usually open up most of the filters I remove and insect the paper element to see what if anything has been trapped in the filter. It is a old airplane practice that I just routinely do on all of my gasoline and diesel engines. It only take a few additional minutes.

My point is if you drain the oil and refill it again you will be OK. Any residual ATF in the system will not hurt anything.

I actually think the old wives tale is that there's "more cleaning agents in ATF, which is why it cleans the motor".

In reality, as loudbang said, it's because ATF is thinner and the flow helps with cleaning gunk out. The last time I used it was in a 25 year old carb motor and it worked great but I was running 10-40 regularly because of a seal leak I didn't want to fix and I beat the hell out of the motor, which would always leak when it got hot :o

I don't think it'd do much to help on a Fit which already has thin oil, but it won't hurt anything.