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Bought used Civic EK: feedback wanted on service needs

A brief background: I bought a Honda Civic EK1 (1997) with an automatic transmission and D16Y4 engine, for $4500 from a dealer 3 weeks ago. The ride was quite good which made me choose the EK over the other 95 Accord, Civic EG and a very smooth Camry MCV20R. The Civic had done 169,700+km when I bought it. From all the paperwork in the car, it had been regularly serviced by a Courtney & Patterson Honda in Heidelberg. ii. When I got the car, I saw the engine oil was dark brown and it felt like it had a lot of suspended particles in it. So I asked the dealer to change the oil and oil filter before I picked it up. I'm not sure if he changed the filter, but he did replace the oil. It is now a dark brown colour still, but pretty fluid without any grub felt in it from the dipstick. v. Transmission fluid: Now this is what I really want to change very soon. I know how sensitive Honda transmissions are, and I will be buying the OEM tranny fluid from a Honda dealer. I'm just wondering how much 3-4L of the stuff costs generally. What tranny fluid will it likely be, the ATF-Z1? Since its an EK1 from 1997 the manual just says use Dexron III compliant tranny fluid, but I'm ignoring this. Secondly, on my Corolla in my previous country of residence, we used to drain out the transmission fluid, then unscrew the nuts and take out the whole transmission fluid pan and filter. We'd then wash those with petrol, clean the magnets out and get rid of the iron filings. Once done we'd reseal the pan back on with RTV Silicone Gasket maker. Then we'd refill the tranny fluid with OEM Toyota Type T-IV fluid. However, reading about the Civics here, everybody just says "replace the fluid" but nothing about the filter. I was wondering after draining out the tranny fluid, would it be wise to take out the pan and cleaning it out with kerosene or methylated spirits? Is there a filter that can be roughly washed with said fluid as well. And if so, can I reseal the pan with RTV silicone gasket maker? Also, is the transmission pan nut the same size as the engine oil sump plug? Then I could replace that too. In general, when reversing the gear sound is quite audible but doesnt seem to sound ugly or out of the ordinary. When driving on the streets with a smooth, light acceleration, the first gear shifts up smoothly, but then the car seems to drive for a bit longer in 2nd gear. It needs to rev to about 2900rpm before it shifts up to 3rd, and when it does there is a slight thump that I feel.

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