ARX 1st rinse cycle complete, observations

[SteveU]

Just drained the oil from the first rinse about a week ago. Ran castrol 5w-30 GTX clean 1520 mi, & castrol 5w-30 GTX 1900 mi on the rinse. Got flat, black hard deposits about 1/3 the size of a pencil eraser in the bottom of the drain pan which I had cleaned just prior to draining the oil. Also had what appeared to be sand which suprised me as the car had 134,000 mi & has ran paper air filters since new & had the oil changed 1900 mi ago. There did appear to be some liquified sludge both in the filter pleats and in the bottom of the drain pan. Filter pleats had small hard black (Carbon)? particles about the size of black pepper along with the sludgy looking stuff but no sand. Where did the sand come from? During the 1st clean there was a bit of the rough idling but it was on & off and not all the time. This became less noticible during the rinse. About 1600 mi into the rinse the mileage improved from 30-33 up to 36 which I got on a highway trip but has been at least 34+ since doing my usual driving. I have been running a heavy dose of fp-60 every tank since when I got the car at 131,000 mi it had the original fuel filter

I am now 180 mi into the 2d clean phase which I plan on going the full 1500 mi & then the rinse both with the GTX then go to synthetic for the winter. Oil consumption is down from a qt/500mi to 1.25qts during the 1900mi rinse, hopefully will drop even more.

 

[jamesn]

your results are very similar to my results on my 95 integra. i have yet to drop the drain pan, but i have a clutch change coming up and will do so then. should be interesting. fp60 is some wonderful stuff.

 

[Rich21]

That a huge drop in oil consumption, down to 25 to 30% of what it was. Perhaps the sand had been sitting in the pan for along time, mixed in with some crud that previously wouldn't drain. I would hope you wouldn't find any sand the second go around. Do you have any cracks in the air intake duct work?

 

[Rodbuckler]

I call that stuff "varnish sand." I think it forms along the gasket edges. M1 tends to cut this stuff loose in large quantities in older engines. My worst fear is that the varnish sand is being cut loose upstream of the oil filter in the oil galleries.

Try soaking some of it in hot ARX, and tell us what happens. Thanks.

 

[SteveU]

Rich21, no cracks in the intake plumbing & no sand just a few bugs in the airbox on the unfiltered side of the filter. This car is not driven on dirt or gravel roads. I got it from my inlaws who live in a city & took it to a quicklube place every 3000-3500mi since new. Don't know where the sand came from, doesn't seem possible that it is from the original casting but who knows? What will be interesting is when I drain the rinse oil on my wife's car in 1500mi, it has been running synthetic for at least 20,000 mi curious what kind of junk will come out of it.

 

[Rodbuckler]

quote:

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Originally posted by SteveU:
Don't know where the sand came from, doesn't seem possible that it is from the original casting but who knows?

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It's not real sand. You can crush it between your fingers like hard candy.

 

[SteveU]

Rodbuckler, there appears to be 3 different type solids in the pan: 1. soft, black & can be smeared between finger & thumb 2. hard, black abrasive gritty feeling particles which can be broke with a thumbnail 3. hard white (sand)? which cannot be broken with a fingernail and makes an audible crunch when broken with a pair of pliers. Thankfully the majority of the stuff is the first 2 types & very few of the 3d. I had cleaned & wiped everything out of the drain pan before changing the oil, did the change inside my barn out of the wind so it is not from something blowing into it. I'm happy because there is a LOT of crud that is no longer in my motor

 

[Rodbuckler]

That sounds a little different than the light tan particles that I usually see in the drain pan during an engine cleanup. I can crush them between my fingers if I work at it hard enough.

 

[Rich21]

Steve, I strongly beleave the sediments that drained from the car pan to the catch pan were in the car pan to begin with. I religiously drain my lawn tractors engine oil every 25 hours. I use the same drain bottle every time, its a 2 quart PETE clear bottle, and I typically don't get around to properly disposing of it for a couple months. I have it dumped at the Pennzoil Quick change facility close by. Over the coarse of 3-4 oil changes in the tractor, I have noticed that a substantial amount of residue remains in the bottom of the clear container.

Just for kicks, I added a couple fluid ounces of John Deere 10W30 into the bottom of the clear container and swirled it around. Sure the oil darkened slightly but made no real progress in dissolving the sediment. I tried it again with a 3-4 fluid ounces of fresh oil and a proportionally big slug of LC. Again it came out dark, but showed no real signs of dissolving the mass at the bottom of the container.

Lastly I enriched 4 fluid ounces of oil with the cleaning ratio of ARX, a few swirls and wow. The bottom of the containerbecame clean and all the residue was suspended and drainable out of the bottle.

I really believe that what came out of your engine sump pan was collected over the years. Further more what you did find in the filter was likely top end or ring deposits.