I wanted to share the experience of an additive skeptic here. I have known this guy Jerry now for about 7 years. We worked side by side on BMW's for several years and got to know each other's experiences and likes/dislikes. He has always been an additive skeptic and says that they are temporary fixes at best and not worth using. He has recently changed his mind about that after using Auto-Rx.
Jerry has a 1997 F-250 Powerstroke 4X4 with nearly 150k miles on it. It is a good running truck, and he has always changed his oil at 5000 miles using one of the 15W-40 diesel oils. He says that the oil does not get near as dark or sooty as oils in other diesels he has owned or worked on. We still keep in touch and I have mentioned over the years some of our successes with Auto-Rx in engines, transmissions, and powersteering systems, helping to avoid costly repairs and rebuilds. He is one of those guys that says, ok let me know how it is still doing in a few years. THEN maybe I'll look at it.
He bought a 30+ year old 3 cyl diesel tractor that runs well, but smokes some (blue/black). He was sort of disappointed at the power output after he got it and started to work it fairly hard around his place.
Then, about a year ago they bought a late model Duramax for his wife to use to drive across the country to different shows to sell her yarns, etc, pulling a good-sized trailer to all these places including California once a year. She had been driving his F-250 up until then, but had had a couple of breakdowns like a pwr steering hose busted, etc. The new truck is a lot more powerful and refined and barely knows a trailer is hooked up back there. After driving the Duramax, he is really disappointed with the power of the older, less powerful Powerstroke, which was kept to do more local or regional trips. I suggested he give the ARX a try because I know that the injection system uses the same oil as the engine internals, so is subject to deposits and wear over time that will affect power output.
So he finally bought 3 bottles, and when he changed his oil, put in 30 oz of ARX with the 15 qts of oil. He saved 6 oz for use later as a maintenance dose or whatever. At the same time he decided the old diesel tractor could benefit from the same treatment. With a 8 qt sump, he used 3 oz per qt (2 more bottles) for a quicker cleanup since the tractor does not get run near as much as the truck. The results are that he has little if any smoke from either engine now and he said the power improvement has been remarkable on both. For a skeptic, he is truly impressed with the results so far. He is still thinking about buying a "chip" to boost his power even higher in the truck.
The last part of this relates to his auto transmission in the powerstroke. These units are the weak link, even if the ATF cooling and filtration is good. The earlier E4ODs and 4R100 units could shift or lock up erratically or harshly at times. He has been complaining of this lately. He drops the pan every 40k miles for a partial fluid and filter change with MerconV fluid. He is coming up on one of these soon, so I suggested he put the remaining 6 oz of ARX in this trans and drive it 1000 miles. He is very nervous about any additives in there, but I had him read the testimonial from "Dave" about his truck, so he is now gonna try it.
-- Edited by bmwtechguy on Thursday 17th of September 2009 07:31:35 PM
He should love transmission changes in performance. Great narrative hope other readers realize your background and credentials as say oppose to a post on bitog by Bo Peep.
I talked with Jerry this week and he had just gotten back from a long trip in the F-250 from Wisconsin, pulling a trailer. They had 2 shows on the same weekend (hers was the bigger of the 2 shows and was in Michigan) and so they had to use both trucks and trailers. The comment that he had was that the F-250 Powerstroke was able to pull all but the steepest of hills now without shifting down as it used to, in order to maintain speed. He mentioned several times how impressed he was with the improvement in overall power and that the difference was very noticeable. I asked him at some point if he would ever use ARX again, and he said "absolutely". He said that he was having no problem keeping up with his wife, (driving the 2007 Duramax) except pulling away from stoplights- then she would leave him in the dust for a mile or so.
This is another personal example of noticeably good results that have been achieved when Auto-Rx is used in a well-maintained engine that had no real issues other than normal wear and tear.
One another note, he said he has finally decided NOT to boost engine power with the use of a chip, which he feels would accelerate the demise of his transmission with the added torque and power. I thought this was a wise decision. He says he is going to add ARX to the automatic transmission next.
