flushing motor

**Hoppin Hatchie** · 12-22-2004, 05:41 PM

ok, i hate to admit it, but my engine oil hasnt been changed since i got my car..... and i dont know how long before i got it.....i have had it for about 7 months......i finally remembered about it and have some free time, and i have a question for you guys.....what is the best way to flush the engine? i want to get every last drop of this crap out of my engine,

i have heard of people putting atf in the engine and letting it run idleing for like 5 min. is this safe at all? and does it actually work?

any input you guys could give you would be great

and i know, i know......i am a bastard for treating my poor lxi hatch like this....

**ehulst** · 12-22-2004, 06:04 PM

ATF.....what? maybe a tranny flush but not in the engine that i kno of.....try draining most of the oil till it stops dripping...then put like 2 1/2 qrts in and run the engine(10W40)..then re-drain that out.....i dunno if id work but id do it to mine...i would think it would mix with the old stuff that way when u drain it you'll get that old stuff out..then just do a clean oil change and remeber to change your filter too....like i said i would think it would work...correct me if i'm wrong..

**Slavic** · 12-22-2004, 06:48 PM

Get "motor flush" from an auto store for about $2.50. Gunk makes it and some other brands. The instructions say to drain one quart and pour it into the old motor oil or just straight pour it into the old motor oil and let run for 5 min than drain and replace with new oil (one of the two, I don't remember).

What I have done, and DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK is drain the old oil and put half a quart of cheapest oil I could find and half the motor flush and run that for 5 min then drain and repeat the process with the rest of the quart and motor flush. Then I did that again with another quart of cheap oil and another can of motor flush for a total of 20+ min. Then I flushed it again, changed the oil filter and ran just a quart of the cheapest oil to flush the system of the motor flush chemical flushed it and poured new oil in.

Yes the 5 min runs were done with only 1 quart of liquid in the engine. If you decide to do this DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK and I stress DO NOT REV THE ENGINE. DO IT ONLY AT YOUR NORMAL IDLE SPEED OF 750 +-50 RPM AFTER THE ENGINE HAS BEEN WARMED UP TO ITS OPERATING TEMPERATURE.

The motor flush runs were yellow in red out while the last oil flush was as pure yellow as it came in. Prior to that I applied seafoam (1/3 in motor oil, 1/3 PCV valve hose, 1/3 gas tank).

Prior to doing this new oil would change color right after i put it in, now it's still the original color. Rough idle significantly improved and I suspect any remainder of the problem to be due to a bad alternator soon to be replaced.

BTW I was told that 2-3oz of ATF on a full tank of gas will act as lead and give an engine the protective coating it is lacking since the introduction of unleaded gasoline and hence extending the life of an engine.

**Hoppin Hatchie** · 12-23-2004, 07:52 AM

ok, thanks guys

the atf in the engine was something that old timers used to do back in the day, but honda's are a bit weird with there "special power steering fluid" and reccomended "HONDA atf"

so i wasnt going to do this unless someone here said they have done it, honda engine parts are way weaker than that of a 55 chevy

thanks again guys

**TEXANHATCH** · 12-23-2004, 10:23 AM

I do not recommend any flush in engines. I did it once in my 86 nissan 200sx and after that the engine start using more oil like one quarter every month. I was told that in our engines that are so old with more than 100k miles if you flush it you are getting rid of deposits that are already part of the engine therefore it start burning more oil. It makes sense to me so just change your oil and keep it doing at least every 3700 miles like Honda recommended.

**HondaBoy** · 12-23-2004, 11:12 AM

i've heard of putting ATF into the oil or something thicker to quiet it and make it run smoother, that's done by the shitty used car lots sometimes. then you get problems, so dont ever do that to your car. if you buy a specific motor flush solution, it has pretty strait foward instructions. the reason you'll hear people say not to do motor flushes is because they've heard of them gone bad. but its easy to overcome that if you follow all instructions on the bottle. for one, you DO NOT drive your car when that shit is in. also, after the few minutes you have it in there letting the engine run at a low idle, you will drain that out, probley want to put a bottle or two of clean oil in letting it drain out. then you want to change your oil filter after you've done the flush. then you'll fill your oil up as you'd do with an oil change. i dont know why you'd really want to do a flush though, unless you get sludge comming out when you do an oil change.

**danronian** · 12-24-2004, 07:14 AM

I highly recommend not using engine flush. If you think about it, and engine with as old as our Honda engines could have alot of deposits of gunk inside it's oil passages and inside of the oil pump. Flushing the motor could possibly loosen some of these deposits which could then proceed to plugging up the little oil passages or the oil pump itself.
My one friend's dad encouraged him to use engine flush in his 95 Accord with only 120k mi on it and now it burns multiple quarts of oil per oil change. There is no telling if this is related or not but it still turns me further against ever using engine flush.
Instead, in your case, I would just use some cheap oil and change it in a few hundred miles. Do this twice and that should help get rid of some built up gunk, don't forget to change the oil filter when you do this also.

**smufguy** · 12-24-2004, 10:40 AM

i have used and still use engine flush every other time ( a 7000 mile interval) i change my oil. I dont know what u guys crack up about its harmful effects of using it. Most (the only two i have used, Motorflush is good and there is another one from pepboys). Either way, they are kerosene based highly abrasive solvents that dissolve cacked up carbons. it is good cause it will free up deposits and dramatically improve oil pan deposits, oil passege buildups and oil pump strain.

With motor flush they recommend u use it with cold engine and the other one from pepboys u can use it on an already warmed up engine.

But do note that running a good engine oil is recommended too. Most here including myself run Mobil 1, synthetic blend. They are the best motor oil i have tried even more than castrol and valvoline. Also, get a good filter like a Mobil 1 filter, Bosch, or just the Genuine honda one.

NOTE: I also use Engine restore every time other oil change. This has helped my motor spin real smooth and also helped me STOP burning oil like i used to when i first got this car three years back. Also the Engine restore was used on my dad's toyota that burnt 3 quarts oil every 3000 miles, now everytime i change the oil, i get about 3.5 or more quarts outta the toyota.

you can also get a can of full fuel system cleaner to clean out the internal parts of the engine too.

**shepherd79** · 12-27-2004, 05:57 AM

DO NOT USE MOTOR FLUSH.
Since your engine is old and worn out, it has a higher chance of leaking oil or something else. I used it on my first accord when i bought it. it didn't smoke when i bought. I used motor flush and boom it started to smoke. since than i never used one on my engines.
I use mobil 1 regular 10w-40 motor oil. Honda manual didn't say to use syntetic crap so i wouldn't use it unless you have brand spanking new rebuild motor. even than you have to use cheap oil to let the engine brake in and after that you can switch to syntetic crap.
Just stick with draining the oil, changing the filter and using MOBIL 1 motor oil.

*if you look at honda motor oil can froma dealer, it says mobil 1 on it.