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Vehicle is a 2007 Toyota 4Runner at 274K miles, bought at 164K miles with negligent maintenance by the original owner. I had initially flushed the black PS with Castrol DEX-MERC High Mileage ATF, temporarily plumbed in a Magnefine filter on the return hose for a few hundred local miles while the...

Just got this via email, looks like they're putting a new ATF on the market: https://www.valvoline.com/en/extended-protection-atf

Lab results from my experiment with High Performance Lubricants Engine Cleaner 30W, ran it for 568 miles of this short 1,732 mile OCI before the oil became extremely black (as expected given the engine's poor maintenance history w/ the original owner for 162K miles). This despite > 80K miles of...

Vehicle is our 2005 Mercury Mariner 3.0L V6 at 201K miles. It was bought new, I ran Motorcraft syn blend 5W-20 for the first ~120K miles at 5K OCIs, it developed a valvetrain tick on cylinder 6 (transverse mounted engine, front right cylinder left exhaust valve lash adjuster) at operating temps...

I changed this oil early due to annoying valvetrain ticking noise at hot idle. The engine was neglected by the original owner, long 22K-25K mile OCIs with unknown quick-change place oil according to CarFax. I switched back to Pennzoil High Mileage 5W-30 conventional oil, and the hot ticking...

This '05 Mercury Mariner (Ford Escape) had no cabin air filter from the factory which is SOP according to my research. This became an issue in Spring 2016 when the AC smelled like rotten fish. I flushed out the AC tract with cleaner foam followed by mold-inhibiting spray, and installed a...

Engine is the 1GR-FE 4.0L V6, 209K miles, ~30K miles since I replaced the timing chains, sprockets, guides, and tensioners last year (see wear metals increase at the subsequent 184K lab test) due to original owner poor oil change habits and a chronic P0016 error code caused by the elongated main...

Vehicle is an '07 Toyota 4Runner with 1GR-FE V6 engine, 205K miles, first 164K miles were poor oil change discipline by original owner at ~20K intervals. Timing chains, guides, tensioners, and sprockets replaced with Toyota components at 175K due to chain elongation and recurring P0016 error...

At Wal-Mart today and Everstart MAXX 35 batteries...it's Feb 24th, and the batteries have 3/19 date stickers. I had previously believed these were the month/year the batteries were manufactured, but evidently not.

Vehicle is our 2005 Mercury Mariner with 187K miles on the factory 3.0L V6. Bought new right off the car hauler still with plastic covers on the seats. Oil was D1G2 labeled Valvoline Synthetic High Mileage 5W-30, and Fram XG2 oil filter. During this OCI, it overheated once due to a stuck...

Anybody had luck with fuel additives to free up a sticking in-tank fuel pump anti-drainback check valve? Vehicle info: I've been troubleshooting a long cranking time issue on our '05 Mercury Mariner (Ford Escape) 3.0L V6, and have it narrowed down to the fuel pump drainback check valve. The ECM...

Have any TC-W3 users noticed any variation in engine idle behavior with different brands of TC-W3 oil? I'm new to this gas spiking, apart from MMO on & off over the years. My '07 4Runner got MMO at the recommended 4oz/10gal dose on & off since I bought it last year at 163K miles with a worn-out...

Mileage #s are wrong due to my error. All new timing chains, cam sprockets, idler sprocket and bushing, crank sprocket and bushing, guiderails, and tensioners went in at 181,854 miles along with this fill of conventional Pennzoil High Mileage 5W-30 and Toyota oil filter. Therefore, miles on this...

2nd sample from my '07 4Runner 1GR-FE 4.0L V6 with 179K miles, getting ready to replace the stretched timing chain and related components this Summer. It had a horrible oil change history under the original owner, with OCIs in the 20-25K mile average range and some past 30K miles. One tough...

It's my project vehicle bought last year with 164K miles and a spotty OCI history averaging around 25K miles...chronic P0016 bank 1 intake cam position correlation error code and visibly elongated main timing chain. I've put nearly 10K miles on it thus far with short OCIs of QSUD 5W-30, most...

I finally bought a proper oil filter cutter for another project, and opened up the Motorcraft FL-820S that came off our Mercury Mariner 3.0L V6 last weekend. Visible tear as shown in the pic. ~5700 mile OCI running Motorcraft 5W-30 synthetic blend, the usual Summer oil for this vehicle since it...

I picked up an '07 4Runner with 163K miles, 4.0L V6 as a project...chronic P0016 variable valve timing error, bank A. Pulled the passenger side valve cover to verify timing and found a minor sludge-fest as shown in the pics below. Maintenance records are very sparse on CarFax and Toyota, the...

I've been rebuilding small engine carbs since the '90s, but I finally came across one that beat me and thought I'd share. It's a Honda EG2500 generator that I picked up cheap non-running and with a crankcase full of gasoline. I pulled the carb and it didn't look bad inside, some sludge in the...

I bought a poorly-running Subaru 3200 inverter generator last week as my next project: Subaru 3200 Inverter The little Mikuni carb was stuffed up with gunk. Built-in hour meter showed 0.1hr of runtime, so it must have been assembled, fueled, tested, and stored with gas in it. It would start...

I picked up a non-running EU2000i today for fairly cheap. I dumped out the gas, it was gross. Green, brown chunks of crust came with it. I then dumped out the sludge that was in the crankcase. Nasty. Split the plastic shell so I could get to the innards without drama. Pulled the carb, bowl was...