I can't believe this has popped up once again. If I want to clean the internals of my engine, I'll use Shell Helix Ultra or Pennzoil Ultra - nothing else. If I want to address a leak issue, I'll use ester-based Liqui Moly Motor Oil Saver.
Auto-RX has not just been a waste of my time in the engine, but I also decided I would take over distributor rights for the Middle East. Guess what, my distributor rights were revoked because I used a "solvent", AKA MMO, to clean my engine. Then I was stuck with cartons of this $h1t that I paid for and couldn't do jack with.
My treatment consisted of:
- 4 x 2,500 miles for the cleaning phase
- 4 x 3,000 miles for the rinse phase
It was a different oil each time. Before I took over the maintenance of this vehicle with a Mitsubishi 6G72, it ran on cheap, Middle East sourced Group I 20W-50 - notorious for varnish and sludge. This is what my cylinder heads looked like after 22,000 miles of ARX treatments - after freaking 22,000 miles of treatments:
I don't have any before pictures, because my aim wasn't to clean up the engine, I was looking to rejuvenate the valve stem seals. Removing the valve covers on this engine is a time consuming task, and I'm not going to go into the hassle of doing so just to post some before and after picture.
Because the host oil was blamed for the results, I also used a different brand each time - namely Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 10W-30, Mobil Drive Clean 10W-30, Fuchs Titan 15W-40 HDEO, Pennzoil Long Life Gold 15W-40. I was friggin all over the place.
In the end, the heads were manually cleaned up and this what they looked like:
Cams were purposely not cleaned. Here's a picture after 3,810 miles on Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30:
'nuff said.
