Frank, now that I am on the Maintenance Dose the car does feel smoother, it almost feels like a new engine, through the whole process the car seemed to like having Auto-Rx in there like it did during the clean phases, now that I am on Maintenance Dose the car seems to like having the 3 ounces in there, car is running a little cooler and it seems to like the Wal-Mart Super Tech Synthetic Oil, car has great pickup, took a friend for a ride in my car, he does not believe this engine has 355,000 miles, he says that someone must have stuck another engine in while I was asleep one night, I remember you once said to me it was better to have the cheapest oil and a Maintenance Dose of Auto-Rx than to just have a very expensive synthetic oil in there alone, I tend to agree with you on this point, I will say that through this whole process I had my doubts, but I have been proven wrong and I am glad that I was wrong and my engine is much happier, I also put Auto-Rx in my power steering pump and will be draining out fluid soon, also when I park the car and shut it off there is no ticking noise that you get in some cars when you turn it off, I am going to enjoy driving on the Maintenance Dose for a while and the only thing you will here about filters is when I weigh all my old filters, talk to you soon Frank.
I just wanted to add that I was looking at my tailpipes today, they were totally clean, ran my fingers inside tailpipe and I did not get anything on my fingers, did the same thing on my Dad's 98 Monte Carlo which is fuel injected, mine is carburated, and I had to go inside and wash my fingers off as I had greyish stuff on my fingers, also checked a few of my spark plugs and they were clean, no black junk or flaky residue, finished application for my power steering fluid and it came out a dark red, changed power steering fluid then drove car, power steering made a scraping sound for a few miles and then went away, no more noise and power steering is now effortless, also car is alot easier to start,also read on BITOG that people using Maintenance Dose have had oil analysis done and have been told that they can double there oil change interval, have been on Maintenance Dose for 300 miles and took a sample of the oil and it looked brand new, also not a drop of oil has leaked out, while on rinse phase had a few drips, have not had any bad side affects since using Auto-Rx on the Maintenance Dose, it is imperative that you follow Frank's instructions and not try to reinvent the wheel, if you drive a car 200K and you are supposed to change your oil every 5K, you could spend say $8.00 for 4 quarts plus $3.00 on a filter, 40 oil changes times $11.00 is $440.00 doing it 20 times is $220.00, you would need 3 bottles to do 36 oil changes plus another bottle and still have some left over, so say $54.00, you have saved $166.00 plus any gas with taking extra trips to the auto parts store to get oil.
Carbon free tail pipe tips sounds all good. Blackened tips are usually a sign of either oil burning or excessive carbon build up from incomplete combustion. I would say that in the case of your Dad's Monte Carlo the latter, incomplete combustion is likely based on your description. Don't wait until fathers day to fix Dad up with a bottle of ARX.
I am not sure that doubling the OCI on dino, running the maintenance dose is recommended. I would consider running 4000 miles instead of 3000 miles. The extended drain intervals, with the maintenance dose, were run with a group III synthetic, PP, and with Mobil 1. Both oils are designed for longer drain intervals. I agree that drain intervals can be extended in a cleaned motor running the maintenance dose. But doubling the OCI is too much, in my opinion.
I hate to say that my Dad is old school, changed his oil and noticed some sweating underneath, meaning start of oil leaks at 100K, his philosophy is that is ok, but when my El Camino was leaking he was all over me, did the Auto-Rx thing and no leaks.
Dad, changed his mind, car has Mobil 1, guess this will be ok for clean phase, but will be running dino or Group III synthetic for rinse phase, guess $18.00 for a bottle is better than hundres or maybe $1000.00 or more to fix leak in future.
I would recommend to your dad to run the rinse with dino or a group III such as PP. I would think that if he is seeing only minor dampness or evidence of a crank seal, this should be easily corrected with ARX and the proper rinse oil to reseat the seal on the crank.
I have got to believe that at this point you should be able to run 3000 miles in your unit on a single filter. Last filter you changed out the oil was pretty golden yellow, with a small ring of darker material. I know your thinkng is that the motor runs hotter when the oil filter is becoming blind, but I think this is likely coincidence. I don't think the filters are going into bypass at this point. I would look for a coolant pressue leak in this vintage unit. Possibly the cap or even a thermostat that is sticking for some reason.
I don't think that weighing filters will be a real accuarate measure of whats happening internally, regarding deposits making their way to the filter. I think that you would be better served by opening up the filters and examining the filter media.
Richone, I noticed steam coming from my radiator cap, took it off and checked it, there was a small crack inside the cap, it is a be cool radiator cap, called them today and they are sending me another one, should be getting it on Friday, this cap has been on there for 5 years, I suspected the cap because I put a new thermostat on and the upper radiator hose would get hot but I could squeeze it, it was not getting hard, kind of like what a upper radiator hose would do if you sat and ran the car without the radiator cap on, the crack inside the cap was obviously on the metal part, guess radiator caps do not last forever, when car sits overnite there is a drop of coolant on my drip pan, maybe as the car cools down a little bit of coolant leaks from cap down onto the pan, I know I don't have a head gasket issue because the oil looks good, no catastrophic loss of coolant, no fouled plugs or major driveability problems, could the radiator cap problem be causing me to have issues with the filters, car is getting 21 miles per gallon in mostly around town driving, I am going to drive my other car until I get the radiator cap on Friday. On my Dad's car I just put in Mobil 1, I guess this ok for the clean phase but will get Group III Synthetic Oil for the rinse phase, when I changed his oil I did see some dampness only minor underneath, car is not loosing any oil, it has had Mobil 1 in there since 3000 miles, and my Mom insists that it get changed every 3000 miles which I do, her filters are always light when I take them off, I pointed out to them that the leak will only get worse without Auto-Rx, I put my car on the lift after I showed them there 96,000 mile Monte Carlo and they could see that my car was spotless underneath meaning no oil seapage, and I guess that I am right that a crack on the inside of the radiator cap is not good, again the El Camino will be sitting until Friday or Saturday and driven again when I get the radiator cap, look forward to hearing any suggestions and will also be ordering from Summit Racing a filter cutting tool.
Frank, now that I am on the Maintenance Dose the car does feel smoother, it almost feels like a new engine, through the whole process the car seemed to like having Auto-Rx in there like it did during the clean phases, now that I am on Maintenance Dose the car seems to like having the 3 ounces in there, car is running a little cooler and it seems to like the Wal-Mart Super Tech Synthetic Oil, car has great pickup, took a friend for a ride in my car, he does not believe this engine has 355,000 miles, he says that someone must have stuck another engine in while I was asleep one night, I remember you once said to me it was better to have the cheapest oil and a Maintenance Dose of Auto-Rx than to just have a very expensive synthetic oil in there alone, I tend to agree with you on this point, I will say that through this whole process I had my doubts, but I have been proven wrong and I am glad that I was wrong and my engine is much happier, I also put Auto-Rx in my power steering pump and will be draining out fluid soon, also when I park the car and shut it off there is no ticking noise that you get in some cars when you turn it off, I am going to enjoy driving on the Maintenance Dose for a while and the only thing you will here about filters is when I weigh all my old filters, talk to you soon Frank.
__________________ brent olsen
I'm confused. Why did Frank post to Frank and Sign it Brent? Was there an edit here or is somebody leading a double life?
The new radiator cap is working great and car is running fantastic, changed oil last night, 800 miles into Maintenance Dose and oil came out dark but filter was not as heavy, should be able to run to 3000 miles on this oil, cleaning is still going on, will keep everyone posted as to how things are going, also rinsing is still probably going on.
Thanks brent and keep us posted. Here is a little something I think you wil like regarding Auto-Rx.
Auto-Rx and WalMart Super Tech will out perform any dirty engine using any oil. Synthetics are great at cold flow characteristincs, enduring heat, resisting oxidation and all oils are a bit better at suspending contaminantes. Aside from some agressive addivitve packages (some with esters) that will displace some existing formations in their aggressive polar bonding, they don't do that much in the cleaning end of things. Simply stated, most oils are better at not making an engine AS dirty AS quickly as they used to. It still occurs since no oil is perfect. Given that most people are keeping their vehicles much longer than they used to, many are going to see gain from using Auto-Rx over their, now more common, extended ownership. The maintenance dose method eliminates this all together, but a treatment every 30k-50k should correct any accumulations in all but the most extreme instances. Using Auto-Rx can also result in reductions in energy costs. This was most measureable in the printing industry or where ever the device was electrically powered. The ammeter doesn't lie. I've got plenty who have experienced fuel economy increases with Auto-Rx.
I am about 1000 miles into Maintenance Dose and the car is running fantastic, will have to change trans filter and flush out old fluid soon to get the auto-rx out, changed power steering fluid that had auto-rx and it was very dark, all is well, my advice to everyone is to follow Frank's instructions and you will have great results. I changed the oil filter on my walk behind mower which has a Kawasaki engine and that little filter was heavy after running a little Auto-Rx in there, when I change the oil in my snowblower I plan on putting a little Auto-Rx in there. I talked with a gentleman who sells Amsoil and uses and recommends Auto-Rx and he told me that with the miles I have on my car everything might not be cleaned out until I have run 20K, right now I am at about 13K since starting the Auto-Rx thing.
Just wanted to say that last oil filter I took off was light and there was no oil sloshing inside, read on the internet that if oil is sloshing inside of filter that may mean that oil filter is at max capacity and you are in bypass because filter is full. I will keep everyone posted as to how things are going.
