Question on Auto Rx...is it working?

[Dyoel182]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan



They do have the advanced design catch-can that self drains back to the crankcase. I try and point this feature out to those making their own home grown versions.


Thankfully my Contour has a gravity catch can built in doing most of the work but my cheap filter can still catches a little. Less now that the ARX is in though.

 

[Rick20]

Gary, That is one heck of a slick diagram.

 

[Craig in Canada]

Chris B:

I haven't been around BITOG in a while but a couple of comments:

On the filler cap area: as others have said there isn't a lot of circulation there and deposits are probably from vapour and condensation. I wouldn't expect ARX to make this area spotless. Honestly, you might as well mechanically clean this area (fancy way of saying "wipe") as you won't be able to use it as a benchmark.

On the oil filter housing varnish. ARX isn't geared towards varnish. Lots of BITOG ARX threads have discussed this in the past, but I can't say that I noticed it pointed out in your thread. LC20 is supposed to be better at varnish, so is brake cleaner It'll probably take a while to clear the varnish look from everywhere, and ARX may or may not be the best product to do it with.

On filter loading, ARX is geared towards sludge and carbon. Your pictures look like that is gooey sludge. IN theory ARX should dissolve this and it wouldn't load your filter if it was in solution. I believe someone commented on high insolubles in your UOA. As long as your air filter is working, this may tell you that something is going on. Grit and other gunk smaller than can be captured by your oil filter is in circulation.

I've seen a lot of discussion about doing short intervals on your oil filter. Since you have a cartridge type, it's easy to inspect and change. Make sure that you're getting filters from a quality OE source, but not the dealer. You'll save a ton of money going to someone like autohausaz.com and getting the same product for less. I would check your filter frequently for any buildup which seems to reduce flow. If you don't see any, leave it.

It's hard to determine what's effective and where you stand without a good measurement to guide you. The oil filter housing is only varnish, which is going to be slow, and the oil filler cap isn't going to see good flow. You may need to start pulling valve covers to see what's really going on. I don't know if you're comfortable with that, or how big a deal it really is on your engine.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: Rick20
Gary, That is one heck of a slick diagram.


I'd love to take credit ..but it's from the link the someone (above) provided. It is very detailed ..scaled well and all that.

 

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted By: Craig in Canada
Chris B:

I haven't been around BITOG in a while but a couple of comments:

On the filler cap area: as others have said there isn't a lot of circulation there and deposits are probably from vapour and condensation. I wouldn't expect ARX to make this area spotless. Honestly, you might as well mechanically clean this area (fancy way of saying "wipe") as you won't be able to use it as a benchmark.

On the oil filter housing varnish. ARX isn't geared towards varnish. Lots of BITOG ARX threads have discussed this in the past, but I can't say that I noticed it pointed out in your thread. LC20 is supposed to be better at varnish, so is brake cleaner It'll probably take a while to clear the varnish look from everywhere, and ARX may or may not be the best product to do it with.

On filter loading, ARX is geared towards sludge and carbon. Your pictures look like that is gooey sludge. IN theory ARX should dissolve this and it wouldn't load your filter if it was in solution. I believe someone commented on high insolubles in your UOA. As long as your air filter is working, this may tell you that something is going on. Grit and other gunk smaller than can be captured by your oil filter is in circulation.

I've seen a lot of discussion about doing short intervals on your oil filter. Since you have a cartridge type, it's easy to inspect and change. Make sure that you're getting filters from a quality OE source, but not the dealer. You'll save a ton of money going to someone like autohausaz.com and getting the same product for less. I would check your filter frequently for any buildup which seems to reduce flow. If you don't see any, leave it.

It's hard to determine what's effective and where you stand without a good measurement to guide you. The oil filter housing is only varnish, which is going to be slow, and the oil filler cap isn't going to see good flow. You may need to start pulling valve covers to see what's really going on. I don't know if you're comfortable with that, or how big a deal it really is on your engine.



Thanks for your input! I may see if I can borrow a scope and drop it in to see what is going on.

 

[Chris B.]

UPDATE!!!!
I just hit 60,000 miles and I'm on my 1st German Castrol OCI after a full year of short oil changes and 3 Auto RX cycles. The fill hole was never cleaned up at all and got worse in fact. I cleaned it about 5 months ago by hand and it is very clean now and the dip stick never came clean either. Here is my last oil change done at 58,000 miles:

Castrol GTX 5w30
3,000 miles
Final Auto Rx rince cycle

Aluminum 2

Chromium 0

Iron 4

Copper 2

Lead 1

Tin 3

Moly 3

Nickel 0

Titanium 0

Patassuim 2

Boron 1

Silicon 3

Sodium 174

Calcium 1901

Magnesium 6

Phosphorus 607

Zinc 716

SUS Viscosity @210 57.0

cSt Viscosity @100C 9.35

Flahspoint 375

Fuel, Antifreeze and water all 0

Insolubles 0.4

So all in all it was hard to tell if the engine was indeed sludged. So I'm thinking Auto Rx did not work or it had nothing to work on. The car runs extreemly well and the wear is FAR FAR below normal for this engine. It burns no oil and is now 2,000 miles in to it's 1st GC synthetic oil change. I'll post results soon. So what do you guys think?

 

[c3po]

Ok... It's been quite a few months since I have been around on here... I have been doing ARXing on both my cars... and finally have the results in from my suzuki swift....

Both the clean and rinse cycles were done with Castrol GTX 5w30, clean phase 1500 miles, rinse phase 2000...

Not sure if anyone remembers me... but this is a heavily sludged engine in a 2001 Suzuki swift that was aparantly heavily abused before I bought it, (but I got it for very cheap, so is all good)...

here's before
http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/mdocod/zooki before arx/

and here's after
http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/mdocod/after arx/?action=view&current=after7.jpg

cleaning was very minor... there are deposits in both filters.. (more than there was when I cut open previous filters)..

So... what do I do now? I have more ARX, should I use it? maybe with a different oil? maybe in higher dose?

At the rate this cleaning cycle went at- I'd estimate it'll take 10 ARX treatments to make a noticable difference..


well, it was worth a shot...


I found this post back in the oil additive section, you can see the before and after pics for yourself and make up your own mind on how well arx works in ALUMINUM ENGINES.

 

[Nitrox]

You should run the AutoRX longer than 1500 miles, and/or your concentration should be higher. His website has instructions on severely gunked engines. Try longer clean and rinse intervals.

 

[c3po]

Originally Posted By: Nitrox
You should run the AutoRX longer than 1500 miles, and/or your concentration should be higher. His website has instructions on severely gunked engines. Try longer clean and rinse intervals.


The problem here is that the instructions keep changing all of the time, I ran 3 Clean and Rinses followed by a few Maintenance Dose runs and this totalled 24,000 miles and arx did not clean anything out of my valvetrain. This gentleman could run 5000 mile Clean and Rinses for the next 50,000 miles and I believe the valvetrain would still look the same. We already know that arx has a hard time with ALUMINUM HEADS and SPLASH LUBRICATION.

 

[sprintman]

Most engines have aluminium gheads. Only in your feeble mind does RX have a problem with them.

 

[demarpaint]

Oh yea the name calling. LOL

 

[c3po]

Originally Posted By: sprintman
Most engines have aluminium gheads. Only in your feeble mind does RX have a problem with them.


Stephen, how about coming over to Noria and visiting that thread called MMO Is Better Than ARX.

 

[sprintman]

No thanks, it's your pesonal area and I'd hate to rain on your parade. Still narked you didn't get the jbo at RX eh Brent? Hope you get over it one day?

 

[c3po]

Originally Posted By: sprintman
No thanks, it's your pesonal area and I'd hate to rain on your parade. Still narked you didn't get the jbo at RX eh Brent? Hope you get over it one day?


Stephen, you have already posted there once, it is so much fun debating with you, we obviously only disagree about MMO & ARX, and you can try and rain on my parade.

 

[Drew99GT]

In some applications it can take as much as 20 doses of Auto-RX to see results. Maybe even 42. The cost of the product is negligible compared to the cost of a new engine. Just keep telling yourself that!

All your engines belong to us...

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
In some applications it can take as much as 20 doses of Auto-RX to see results. Maybe even 42. The cost of the product is negligible compared to the cost of a new engine. Just keep telling yourself that!

All your engines belong to us...


LOL

 

[rcy]

Shouldn't it be 'all your engines ARE belong to us' hehehe

(google 'all your bases are belong to us')

 

[Trajan]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
In some applications it can take as much as 20 doses of Auto-RX to see results. Maybe even 42. The cost of the product is negligible compared to the cost of a new engine. Just keep telling yourself that!

All your engines belong to us...


42.....

 

[sprintman]

Two doses on my BMW, I failed I guess?

 

[sprintman]

Oh and savvy posters would have noticed you didn't deny my post on the RX job. Puts your post in perspective when they unerstand that.