our 1994 ford ranger 4.0 is almost complete with the first rinse arx phase. currently about 207,000 miles on the odometer. the hydrocarbon emissions dropped from 46 ppm (last october) to 4 ppm (last week). actually the lowest hc reading ever for the vehicle that has been tested since 1995 (previous low was 6 ppm in 1995 & 1996). can't say for sure it was the arx, buy it sured didn't hurt.
arx & emissions, my experience
- Thread starter tdimaniac
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What about your gas mileage ??
Have you seen *any* gains in gas mileage ??
Thanks
William
Have you seen *any* gains in gas mileage ??
Thanks
William
Meant to add that the engine is about 300 miles to go before the 1st rinse is drained and the second clean cycle begins, doing this to try and stop a small rear main seal leak.
Sounds to me that the rings must be sealing better in order to lower the hydrocarbons. Also will likely see a drop in CO.
my son drives it to and from school/football practice now, about 3 miles each way. i may have to run it a few days for my commute, so i will be able to compare it to what i used to get when i was commuting with it a few years ago. will report back when i get the results.quote:
Originally posted by LT4 Vette:
What about your gas mileage ??
Have you seen *any* gains in gas mileage ??
Thanks
William
and yes CO was down to 0.01 from 0.03 ppm, not as dramatic as the HC reduction.
Any improvement in the weeping rear main seal?
Stick with dino oil for sure until it does stop.
Stick with dino oil for sure until it does stop.
still a small rear seal leak, about the size of a quarter after it gets parked. just finishing up the first rinse though. i have a second cleaning cycle coming up. going to use delo 30 weight ($0.99/gallon) for the next 1k clean (sept-oct) and then havoline 5w30 for the final rinse over the late fall/winter.
Sounds like a good plan. Have you checked out the crankcase ventilation in this unit, to be sure any excessive crankcase pressure is being released?
Ford 4.0L OHV's are notorious for rear seal leaks, design engineering problem with rear seal and crank seal surface....only solution, put in a FoMoCo seal and crank shim kit...
Is the quarter size deposit in the driveway an improvement from the before ARX treatment?
Steelhead, what is the problem with the crank surface? Too smooth not carrying enough lube to the seal? Or too grainy carrying too much lube to the seal? Or 3, too grainy the crank eating up the seal?
Steelhead, what is the problem with the crank surface? Too smooth not carrying enough lube to the seal? Or too grainy carrying too much lube to the seal? Or 3, too grainy the crank eating up the seal?
rick: the leak was small to begin with, then seemed to get bigger during the first part of the arx clean cycle, now it is getting smaller again the best i can tell. also thanks for the tip on the crankcase ventilation, i will check that out.
steelhead: i saw the ford tsb on this issue, but i am not sure it is worth the expense on this 12 year old engine... that is why i wanted to try the arx to see if it would condition the seal to stop the leak. you may be right that the leak will remain. at least i am getting some side benefit from the arx cleaning even if my original goal is not met.
steelhead: i saw the ford tsb on this issue, but i am not sure it is worth the expense on this 12 year old engine... that is why i wanted to try the arx to see if it would condition the seal to stop the leak. you may be right that the leak will remain. at least i am getting some side benefit from the arx cleaning even if my original goal is not met.
tdimaniac, running the mineral oil(dino) flush should continue to reform the seal to its original memory. Getting it clean from crusted debris is the first step. Also getting it clean may result in greater leakage, until it is cleaned up 360 degrees around. A partially cleaned up seal leaks more than when one starts. This may be the reason why some people that switch over to full synthetics compain about seal leaks. It wasn't the synthetic oil that directly caused a crank leak. Its minimal cleaning caused incomplete cleaning of the seal and mating shaft.
kbg007stb,Anything you can do to keep the ring packs operating at max efficiency has got to help. How many miles on your unit after the cleaning application, as you approach emission inspection?
Yeah that's the pathfinder, mainly a utility vehicle around the house, maybe 3k since the clean + rinse phase, 110K miles with unknown prior maintenance history. Does not see lots of freeway miles as we bought it for a price that could not be refused. 0 leaks, so I am hoping its just dirty inside.
Just reminded me, Saturn SL2 went for emissions right after I bought it about 40K or so, then I cleaned + rinsed so probably 45k on, now the car is at 70K and before January it will probably have 75k miles before this one is due for emissions. This car is a "share it all" as the family uses it on any types of long trips, climbing mountains and so on. This one will have 30k since the last clean + rinse phase.
Just reminded me, Saturn SL2 went for emissions right after I bought it about 40K or so, then I cleaned + rinsed so probably 45k on, now the car is at 70K and before January it will probably have 75k miles before this one is due for emissions. This car is a "share it all" as the family uses it on any types of long trips, climbing mountains and so on. This one will have 30k since the last clean + rinse phase.
Yeah, those short jounts around the home are tough on ring deposits. The problem being the computor is requireing a rich fuel mixture until full operating temperatures are achieved. Any time you stuff a rich fuel/ air mixture down the throat continuously motors suffer. Likely to carbonize the ring packs, put excessive demand on the pollution control devices, and the list goes on. If this the barely pass vehicle, in regards to emissions might want to at least run a few highway miles and try to burn off some blowby gasses collected out of the crankcase before the inspection. Run enough to get the cat realy hot.
The Saturn, although sees more highway, long trip mileage, is likely due for a next ARX application, unless you have been running a maintenance dose. Climbing mountains sounds like severe driving as well.
My best advice is to try and time your cleaning rinse phases just prior to scheduled state emission testing.
The Saturn, although sees more highway, long trip mileage, is likely due for a next ARX application, unless you have been running a maintenance dose. Climbing mountains sounds like severe driving as well.
My best advice is to try and time your cleaning rinse phases just prior to scheduled state emission testing.
Rick, I can always do a full cleaning cycle, I just wan to see how good the 3oz program works especially on the little engine where oil will be cooking at the rings. Man when I go to the mountains I rev it all the way up to its red line, once again a cheap car so I want to do a little experimenting see how the UOA and emissions will hold up.
As for the barely passing vehicle, I wan to do a couple of long trips so that all the garbage can burn off. I am sure California probably dropped the ceiling on emissions for this vehicle as has happened with my previous vehicles so it’s a wait and see game. If you see a post here in the near future about a Pathfinder not passing Cali emissions, that will most likely be me.
Quote:
What about your gas mileage ??
Have you seen *any* gains in gas mileage ??
Thanks
William
william, i finally took a long trip. got 22 mpg during a 400 mile trip with the ranger. best i ever got before was 20 mpg. so maybe 10 percent gain in fuel economy.
dave
The emissions issue is one I wondered about also.
I have a twenty year old V8 Cadillac with a carburetor that passed emissions way below the "norms". It had 132k at the time of testing, and just happened to be completing the second rinse cycle when the emissions test was performed. HC was way,way down and the CO was average but below the target values. I felt A-Rx had a lot to do with it, higher compression, cleaner parts, less blow by, but had no way of proving it. Two year later followup test was bad because of a cat converter that needed replacement (original). Second testing was a pass on both HC and CO. A-Rx has to have some effect. I think anyway.
I have a twenty year old V8 Cadillac with a carburetor that passed emissions way below the "norms". It had 132k at the time of testing, and just happened to be completing the second rinse cycle when the emissions test was performed. HC was way,way down and the CO was average but below the target values. I felt A-Rx had a lot to do with it, higher compression, cleaner parts, less blow by, but had no way of proving it. Two year later followup test was bad because of a cat converter that needed replacement (original). Second testing was a pass on both HC and CO. A-Rx has to have some effect. I think anyway.
Thought I would post an update, the HC/CO/CO2 results from my 8/31/07 test versus 7/12/2006 test were 2/0.00/14.88 vs 4/0.03/14.55. So the maintenance dose does not hurt emissions for my 14 year old 4.0L V6 IMHO (continues to improve but getting close to practically no emissions).
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