Auto-rx and Rislone Compression Repair

[kevinkevin]

Hi Gang,
I'm a newbie and not an engineer, so go easy on me, OK?

I'm looking at maybe a ring issue and considering using "Rislone Compression Repair with Ring Seal". An evening of lurking on these forums has me drinking the Auto-RX koolaid, can't wait to get some, but my car's starting hard and I have the idea the Rislone might do something the Auto-RX won't, ie restore cylinder walls, so I want to put Rislone right away.
2 questions:
1) Does anyone KNOWLEDGEABLE have anything to say about the "Rislone Compression Repair with Ring Seal" (NOT the Rislone "Engine Treatment"), and

2) Are there compatibility issues with the Rislone and ARX? ie will I need to drain the Rislone before I start the ARX, can I use it at the same time, etc

Thanks!
k

 

[Quest]

what kind of car you talking about? what's the condition, mileage, compression reading?

Q.

 

[kevinkevin]

ah, oh yes...
'95 Honda Oddyssey, 149K, no compression data: a difficult year in my business has me driving this dear old van into the ground, I'm afraid, and it's possible I may have run her dry of oil at some point. Still have to baby her along until she dies or my personal economy recovers...

 

[Quest]

So, not knowing the mechanical history and condition of your car, yet you opt for some over-the-counter snake oil additives?

RE: your car hard starting, what have you done to your car so far? tune ups? fuel filter change?etc.

If your cannot provide any details on these questions, I'm afraid that nothing's gonna live up to your expectation no matter what you put into your car.


Q.

 

[OVERKILL]

There is no "new engine in a can". If the cylinder walls are scored and the rings are screwed, then no amount of snake oil is going to fix it.

If the rings are just STUCK, then Auto-RX apparently works (I have ZERO experience with the product) but from the sounds of things, this may not be your situation......

 

[kc8adu]

that stuff sounds like solvents and stp type thickener mixed together.might be useful in a bug fogger mobile.
i would check compression and compare to specs.
those engines commonly go 300k even with poor care.
auto rx cant harm it but without a compression test and pulling a cover you have no baseline to tell if it helped.

 

[demarpaint]

From reading on this board there are some users of "Restore", which claims to fill imperfections in the cylinders and increase compression. Not knowing what's wrong with your engine makes it difficult to make a suggestion. A-Rx will clean it up and free the rings, but it won't fill in cylinder scratches etc.

Frank D

 

[Rick20]

It is never a good idea to mix more than one product into the host oil in the crankcase as a very good general rule.

That said I would first run a cleaning and rinse with ARX. If you have stuck rings this will cure it. If the cylinder walls are scratched or scoared there is no good lasting remedy other than honing the walls. However I would think that after cleaning and rinsing the maintenance dose of ARX and its polarity might help maintain an oil film on the walls between starts.

 

[Donald]

You are guessing at the problem until you do a compression test. Do that then do Auto-Rx clean and rinse and see where you stand.

Then a second compression test.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well, the only thing you've got to consider, Donald, is the cost of labor or time in the validation whether he has a compression problem or not. I mean it's interesting and does great things for our enlightenment, but if he's costing himself 1-2hours of work (self employed) as opposed to something less in $$ to try a remedy ...what's the loss?

 

[kevinkevin]

Thank You, Gary.
Now that a few people have made the usual educated-guess comments about snake-oil and mechanic-in-a-can, is there anyone who has actual direct knowledge about "Rislone Compression Repair with Ring Seal"? FYI Rislone has been in this game for around 90 years.

thanks y'all,
k

 

[Quest]

kevinkevin,

You haven't provide us the full technical details RE: your odyssey and also as to why/what makes you wanna give those 5-min gratification in-a-can a try instead of tending to the mechanical problems the "correct" way?

Q.

Just remember one thing: we are here to help you get to the bottom of your mechanical problem and not to prescribe you any over-the-counter 5-min gratification in-a-can.

 

[greenaccord02]

I've used Rislone Compression repair with no result. Regular Rislone is good for some things, but I don't have any use at all for their compression repair. Much better performance with Restore. I'd suggest that first. Restore has given almost everybody who has used it good results on here. Do a restore search and see what you get. You can really feel the difference with that stuff. If you run a UOA after using restore your lead and copper will be astronomical - the CSL they mention on the bottle stands for Copper, Silver, Lead.

I've never used AutoRx, so I can't speak to that.


Temper what I've just said with this disclaimer:
Originally Posted By: Quest
kevinkevin,
Just remember one thing: we are here to help you get to the bottom of your mechanical problem and not to prescribe you any over-the-counter 5-min gratification in-a-can.

 

[kevinkevin]

Dear Quest et al,
Thanks for your generosity in helping with your knowledge in these forums; please understand I mean no disrespect with these comments. If I told my mechanic about A-RX he might well jump to the conclusion that it is a "gratification-in-a-can" thing. You all know better because you have actual info about A-RX that is based on observation and experience rather than merely assumption. Since A-RX seems to show that it is possible for an additive to "live up to its claims", it stands to reason there may be other additives which do as well, no?

It is nice that you want to "help me get to the bottom of my mechanical problem", but I'm not asking for that, nor am I asking for a snake-oil prescription, nor for guesses and assumptions (I can do that myself ;-))... I'm asking if anyone in these forums has actual information about "Rislone Compression Repair".

Thanks again,
-k

 

[kevinkevin]

Thanks, GreenAccord! I'll look into restore.
Anyone else with data on the Rislone compression repair, and/or knowledge of how it works, what it does?

cheers,
k

 

[kingrob]

Kevin,

Here's my post from another thread that went into Rislone, Restore, and Auto RX.

Quote:
As for Restore, I was having compression issues in an 87 Olds Cutlass and figured I'd give it a shot. The compression evened out awesomely, immediately followed by a completely blown rear main seal. After replacing the seal the compression went back to being too low, but nowhere near as low as before. I don't know what it did if anything, but that's the extent of my use with it. That rear main was too much of a PITA to change out for me to want to try it again.


The thread:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1076592&fpart=1

Just ignore the in-fighting and board politics discussion...

 

[Rick20]

ARX is the only product to have shown time and again to restore compression. This was due to its unique ability to dissolve ring deposits and thus allow the freed up rings to adequately seal to the cyclinder walls. Plenty of info(statisitical) both here and at the ARX site to show worthiness. Do your homework.

 

[BrianWC]

kevin,

I have NO first hand experience with this product. So if you wish to skip over the rest of this post, now's your chance. But a LOT of info can be gleaned about this product from Rislone's available MSDS and tech spect sheets. If you would humor me and follow along, I can try and give you my not very expert analysis of this based on my experience with similar products as well as those of other bitogers who have posted about products like this for 6 years now.

First, if your rings are truly messed up, there's nothing that is going to repair them in a can. What your best case scenario is is that they are gunked up with carbon deposits. A cleaner like auto-rx is effective at de-gunking rings.

Taking a look at Rislone's tech sheet for the product, it is possible to see how this stuff may work.

http://www.barsproducts.com/tech/4444_tech.pdf


It is a VERY thick goopy oil, basically, combined with an overbased detergent (calcium, maybe?), and zddp. In theory, the overbased detergent will provide some cleaning ability and acid neutralization. The zddp is a multifunction additive that they are probably using as an anti-wear additive. Perhaps to counteract the detrimental effects of the main ingredient mentioned below.

However, more than likely, the most benefit is going to be gained from the SUPER high viscosity of the oil this stuff is dissolved in. The (kinematic viscosity) cSt @ 40 degrees c is 3320. The cSt at 100 degrees c is 336. In contrast, a 30 weight oil's cSt@ 100 c is around oh...10 or 11 or so....

They are being a bit misleading (whether on purpose or not I don't know) by making you believe that this stuff "seals" scratched cylinder walls in some special way. It's sealing ability comes from the fact that it is simply very thick.

Notice they also tell you to repeat every oil change or 6k miles. If this stuff was working the way it's claimed to work, it wouldn't need to be continually dumped in. It looks like every other one of these goopy additives in that it it makes a feeble attempt at cleaning while relying mainly on it's incredible thickness. While yes, this stuff is no doubt cheaper than some other additives you can buy, if you keep using it as directed, you're going to be investing a lot of money in it over the life of your car.

 

[greenaccord02]

I used to use the product (restore) once every third OCI with good results in a '99 stratus that had been beat to [you know what]. I doubt at that rate you're spending more money than any other additive.

And I've never read a review of it - when it was actually used by the poster - that said it didn't have some very noticable effect. Some additives are expensive and some are cheap, some have a huge following and some are less popular, but you'd do well to look past these things to performance. After all, that's what this site is all about.

 

[BrianWC]

greenaccord, no one is saying don't buy this stuff because it's cheap. I am not, at least. I am making a very basic analysis of this stuff based on information provided BY Rislone. It's there in black and white.

Please don't turn this into a "you drink the auto-rx kool-aid" thread. I've used many, many, MANY products over the years, including Restore and Rislone. I am TRYING to discuss this analytically. Facts don't lie. Take a look at the link to the product data sheet.