ARX treatment on a 96 Dodge Ram

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KW

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My 5.2 Dodge Ram has started to show symptoms of a clogged oil pump pick up screen. My Dad had the oil changed every 3K with bulk oil at the quicky lube for the first 80K of it's life. For the last few years of that 80K the 3K OCI might be more than a year. He thought he was getting Quaker State oil and was paying extra for it, but the receipts and window stickers said different they indicated that the fills where Pennzoil bulk 10W30. He don't drive much anymore and was mad that the quicky lube place had been ripping him off. Remember he had been paying extra for his brand of oil, and it has served him well since the late 50's when he switched from Royal Triton or something like that. Anyway I started doing the OCI's on the truck that mostly just sits there anymore with Amsoil 5W30 annually. Now for the past few years I have drove the truck a lot. And recently I noticed the oil pressure jumping around at about 125K. So a few weeks ago I poured a bottle of ARX in on top of a freshish Amsoil that was in the motor for a couple of thousand miles. Normally the oil comes out nice and clean, but after 1500 more miles with the ARX it came out looking like black coffee. I refilled it with Rotella 15W40 and a bottle of MMO for the rinse and will change the oil filter at 500 and 1000 miles during the rinse. I was amazed how nasty the oil was that I drained out of it today. I'm going to do a 1500 mile rinse then another ARX treatment without the MMO then rinse like I am doing this time. The oil pressure has been getting better during the clean phase and hopefully will improve more as it all gets rinsed and cleaned out.

Bottom Line: So far so good...
 
Shoot, I forgot to mention that I poured about a quart of Rotella in the motor then poured the bottle of MMO in the Rotella jug and shook it up. The oil in the jug turned red like MMO and smelled like MMO. I thought that was kind of neat.
 
I hope this works for you... obviously the best thing you could do is pull the pan and clean the screen....

very disappointing that Dodge redesigned the pickup, its location, or the baffling. (not sure which is the true problem) because other than that, the 5.2 used to be a bulletproof motor that could take abuse.

I've always used M1 in mine, but I have no confidence that the pickup screen is clean -
 
I really hope this works too. I dread pulling the pan and changing the pump and pick up. I understand the Direct Connection parts are the ones to replace the OEM's with. The Direct Connection screen is said to be not as fine as the troublesome OEM.
 
I think you're on the right track. I've had a lot of contact via PM with guys that have used MMO in the A-Rx rinse phase and had some pretty good results. Once you get it squared away I would suggest adding a pint of MMO for the last 1000 miles of your OCI to keep things ship shape.
 
Originally Posted By: KW
I really hope this works too. I dread pulling the pan and changing the pump and pick up. I understand the Direct Connection parts are the ones to replace the OEM's with. The Direct Connection screen is said to be not as fine as the troublesome OEM.


I am doing the same thing you are doing , I am in the Rinse Phase and I will be changing the oil tommorow, so I will let everyone know how the oil looks when I drain it out.
 
You're not supposed to use a grp 4 or 5 (Amsoil) oil in the arx clean phase.
 
Originally Posted By: ctc
You're not supposed to use a grp 4 or 5 (Amsoil) oil in the arx clean phase.


There is an old post on here where arx says you can use 100% synthetic for the Clean Phase, I think you just need to extend the Clean Phase longer, its the Rinse Phase where YOU SHOULD NOT USE A 100% SYNTHETIC OIL.
 
Do NOT use syn unless Group III for clean or rinse if you want the best result. Doing a 6,200 mile clean, then 6,200 mile rinse on my BMW with Grp III syn. Save your money.
 
The main reason is to save money and un-complicate things. You can use Group IV but you might want to take it longer. For the rinse, there's no sense in spending large for 3000 miles.
 
I had the Amsoil in the truck already with only about 2K on it so I poured the ARX in with it. The ARX FAQ said it was ok to do that. Now for the rinse I have Rotella T 15W40 and MMO. After a 1500 mile rinse I'm going to do the ARX treatment one more time with an oil like Valvoline 5W30, then rinse it again with the 15W40 and MMO. If all this don't work I'll be back under the truck dropping the oil pan to change the pump and pick-up. The motor leaks no oil at all so I am very reluctant to pull the pan.
 
Originally Posted By: c3po
Originally Posted By: KW
I really hope this works too. I dread pulling the pan and changing the pump and pick up. I understand the Direct Connection parts are the ones to replace the OEM's with. The Direct Connection screen is said to be not as fine as the troublesome OEM.


I am doing the same thing you are doing , I am in the Rinse Phase and I will be changing the oil tommorow, so I will let everyone know how the oil looks when I drain it out.


I went ahead and changed my Rinse Phase oil that had about 12 ounces of MMO added too it about 1000 miles ago. The oil came out very dark, and what was surprising is that this car holds 6 quarts of oil and usually I get 5.5 quarts to drain out, and this number is with me dumping the oil from the oil filter to get my usual tally of 5.5 quarts, but today the total amount that came out was 6 quarts of used oil.
 
That additional pint coming out of the oil pan can be caused by a number of things. More oil drained out this time, the car was slightly over filled, the car was in a better position this time around which allowed more oil to drain out, fuel dilution increased the amount of oil in the sump. Those are a few reasons, I seriously doubt MMO turned a mass of sludge into liquid, totaling 16 ounces, especially if the car was cared for. JMO
 
Originally Posted By: ADFD1
That additional pint coming out of the oil pan can be caused by a number of things. More oil drained out this time, the car was slightly over filled, the car was in a better position this time around which allowed more oil to drain out, fuel dilution increased the amount of oil in the sump. Those are a few reasons, I seriously doubt MMO turned a mass of sludge into liquid, totaling 16 ounces, especially if the car was cared for. JMO


I think the oil may have been slightly overfilled, since I did change my oil filter half way through the Rinse Phase and of course I added some more oil and of course the MMO 1000 miles before the oil change.
 
Originally Posted By: ctc
From the application instructions:

"Auto-Rx® works best with conventional (non-synthetic) motor oil. If you feel you must use a synthetic motor oil, we recommend using a Group III oil to avoid competing chemistries."

http://www.auto-rx.com/pages/basic-application.html



I found on the site once following done one of the links that the cleaning phase could be done with either synthetic or dino oil, and dino should be used for the rinse. If I get a chance I'll try and find were I read that and post a link. So far so good.
 
Cool I found it. Here is the link and what it says.

"It does not matter what type of oil you use for the cleaning phase of the Auto-Rx® application. However, for maximum results, we recommend that you use plain, non-synthetic oil for the Rinse Phase. Please see Application Instructions for complete details."

http://www.auto-rx.com/pages/faqs.htm
 
I am 400 miles into the rinse phase now and the crazy oil pressure readings have stopped. Now the truck will hold a solid 50 PSI going down the road and drop to 30 at hot idle. These are guesstimates made with the stock gauge that has only a 40 in the center. Before when I pulled a hill or went up and on ramp the oil pressure would decrease as RPM increased. This weekend I'll change the oil filter just to be sure it don't start by-passing on me. So far it all seems to be working!
 
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