ATF fluid in my engine

[Paul Scherer]

Surely I am a great candidate for bonehead of the year. While changing the oil in my Honda 2000, I accidentally used almost 1/2 qt of ATF fluid. Haven’t started the engine yet, so do I start over? change the filter also?

Topic

[Daniel Weith]

Back in the day before detergent motor oil they would put ATF in with the oil to clean out engines.

I would drain and fill with all motor oil; keep the filter if the engine has not been started unless prefilled with ATF then change..

I have never put ATF in my crankcase but my uncles swear by it to this day, and still put it in their cars. The rule of thumb is when they are close to changing the oil a top-off with ATF and run a 100 miles..

[Joseph C]

MMO is good for this as well

[Nicholas Clark]

I have a technician friend who absolutely swears that ATF cures lifter ticks and gets sludge out to a smaller degree. (He claims a quart of diesel is better for sludge.) But Dan is right. Don’t run it much if you do at all.

[Paul Scherer]

I decided to just do it over instead of risking an upcoming CA emissions test problem.

[Author]

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