I've got a 1990 Chevrolet pickup with 5.7 engine that belonged to my late Father that has always been well maintained. It now only gets driven an average of 100 miles a month but each time it's driven, it's always driven at operating temperature and usually for 25 or so miles one way. It presently has 122,332 miles on the clock.
The ARX was added to a sump of SuperTech Synthetic 5w30 that had already been in for 8 months but only 640 miles on the oil. It now has 2,370 miles and 21 months on the oil and 1,730 miles in 12 months on the ARX.
My questions are how long do I leave the oil/arx in use before going to the rinse phase and how long of a rinse phase do I run since it takes so long to accumulate miles?
I did an oil drop test on a business card after about 800 miles in 6 months on the ARX and it had a very dark, almost black center but an almost imperceptible outer ring with barely yellow oil on the card. At 1,425 miles and 9 months on the ARX, the center had cleared up to an inner ring with just a shadow of gray color and the irregular shaped outer edge ring was a little more noticeable but still light - I'm guessing the contaminants got caught in the oil filter. Now, at 1,730 miles and 12 months on the ARX, the irregular shaped outer edge ring is yet more easily seen but again, not heavy. The formerly black center is still a ring with a shadow of gray color. Compared to the pics I've seen for oil drop analysis, the oil still looks serviceable. The oil stain is now more tan or light brown in color but still not as bad as the oil drop pics for the conditon that says plan to change the oil or test again depending on how long it took to get to this level.
It may take as long as another 8 months to hit 2,500 miles on the ARX...so, what is recommended?
While it's preferred to go the full recommended mileage ..hmmm (pondering).. I would have recommended the Fast Track method for this application. Given that you only do full warmed events (it take about 9miles/9minutes to warm the oil to 150F-165F ..but an additional 6-10 miles/minutes to reach around 200F), I believe it would be fine to follow the instruction. The product needs so much "time at temperature" to be the most effective. The 2500 mile span of the cleaning phase usually covers this for most people over the broadest variance in usage profiles.
I gotta admit, this is the most protracted treatment I've ever encountered time-wise.
Ok, for an update, I just changed the oil and filter and started the rinse phase ... the oil had been in for 2 years/2,867 miles and the ARX for 15 1/2 months/2,226 miles with all fully warmed driving events. My next question is; using this same driving pattern, would it be better to do 2 rinse phases of 1 year/1200 miles or would 1 rinse phase be enough and then start another clean phase or go to a maintenance plan using high mileage oil or just regular oil - which do you recommend? The motor has been well maintained with no smoking, oil useage or leaks...fingers crossed!
You've really got some challenges here on reasoning this out. This is such an unusual situation. I think that 1200 would be enough to start another cleaning. At your mileage it would be recommended. It falls into the confines of previous Auto-Rx mileage limits. The clean phase has been extended several times and the rinse phase in concert with it. This is to fit more seamlessly into most peoples maintenance habits and provide maximum value.
So, I'd say go the 1200, start another cleaning. Do another rinse. Start maintenance program.
-- Edited by geeaea on Wednesday 11th of November 2009 03:01:53 AM
