Hi all. I'm a BITOG poster, which is where I heard of Auto-RX. The other day I got in two bottles, and yesterday I put one bottle in my truck with a fresh change of Castrol GTX 5w30 and a Motorcraft FL1A filter.
To give you a little background, I purchased this truck almost a year ago, in May of last year. I soon found that the lifters seemed noisy. I had a 1994 Ranger with this same engine in it, with more miles, and it wasn't this noisy. And that's what led me to A-RX. I drive very short trips, several times a day. My engine rarely warms up, unless I take it out to go to the bowling alley or the mall. I try to get out at least once a week, not only to warm up the truck, but also to keep myself sane from work :).
It's going to take a long time for me to hit 3000 miles on this oil change, but I'll be sure to keep you updated on my progress. I know not to be worried about odd noises during either phase. And, let's face it, the reason I'm doing this in the first place is because my engine was noisy :). During the clean phase I'm just going to let it run, and keep an eye on oil levels. During the rinse, I'm going to change the filter halfway through just to be on the safe side.
Even though my Ranger is a year newer, and has the SOHC engine, I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I was. The SOHC has a problem refered to as the "timing chain rattle", the tensioners don't get fully lubed fast enough and can cause the chain to rattle (between 2500 and 3000 RPM's) when the motor is cold - once the motor is up to temp, the rattle doesn't happen. Auto Rx has greatly reduced the amount of time it takes the tensioner to get fully lubed. The motor is more quiet, and "even sounding" after the treatment. I strongly suggest that you follow up with the maintenance plan.
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2001 Ford Ranger, 4.0 V6. Mobil 1 0w-30, Motorcraft FL 820s filter, 3oz Auto Rx
It's gonna take me a while to get through both phases of Auto Rx. My last oil change was an average driving time for me. A few longer trips, one 300 mile round trip to Philly. Still, I only averaged a little over 17 miles per day. My typical workday consists of about 5 miles of driving, total.
Well, just finished up the clean phase, and am now puttering on through the rinse. I opted to change my filter at 1500 miles through the clean, and will do the same in the rinse. The only thing I've noticed so far is a bit more valve noise, that should go away by the end of the rinse.
Finally got through the rinse phase. I'm not as impressed as I was hoping to be. Everyone talks it up so much in so many applications...
My truck still sounds the same, and in fact, has more noise from the bottom end of the engine than before. This could also be because it's getting cold... but I was hoping to never hear the "marbles in the oil pan" sound again...
If your noise is due to oil not getting where it needs to like inside a hydraulic lifter that is partially clogged up, or a chain tensioner that is slow to work, then ARX will help. If the rocker arm is worn out where the pushrod articulates (common) then you need a new rocker arm and push rod. In other words, ARX cannot replace missing metal due to wear which is now causing valvetrain noise. Or bottom end noise, too. That's not a cleaning issue, obviously.
That being said, I don't see how you would have those kind of wear issues at 84k miles.....
I didn't think I had wear issues, either. That's why I figured A-Rx would solve my noise. The engine is now at 90k miles. My old Ranger was sold at 135k and wasn't this noisy...
Perhaps the valve chain tensioner is a weak area for oil flow. Additional cleaning may be necessary. I would think Franks advice is worth trying. With respect to the marble sound in the bottom end...?
