Auto RX in 1993 Camry 4 cyl. with 155,000 miles

[Craig L]

After reading a lot of good things about Auto RX, I decided to try it in my 1993 Camry wagon's engine. The car has the 5SFE engine and 155,000 miles.

Car runs perfectly and just passed NJ state emmisions tests with extremely low levels (about one-tenth of allowable) of HC and NOx, and zero level of CO.

But, the engine seems pretty sludged up, based on how the underside of the valve cover looks and how the top of the valvetrain looks. I took pictures last week of the inside of the valve cover and the top of the motor to serve as "before" photos. There are some hard, carbonaceous deposits on the head and even on the camshafts. It will be very interesting to see if they go away after this Auto RX treatment.

I plan to leave the 10oz. of AutoRX in for about 1000 miles with a filter change (and autopsy of filter to see how much slime it caught) at 400 miles or so. Currently engine has Exxon Superflo SL 5W-30, Auto RX, and a OEM Toyota filter. Plan to use a WalMart SuperTech filter at 400 mile, and then Castrol GTX 5W-30 and a Bosch filter at the 1000 mile mark.

I will certainly take more pictures along the way. I'll post them later if they show anything worthwhile to share.

 

[mkosem]

very good, I'm planning to run RX in my grandpa's 1993 Camry 4cyl sometime soon. They are great engines.

--Matt

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

A bump

I finished an Auto-Rx treatment in an '88 Civic Wagon with AWD. Car has 113k miles on it. 2 weeks ago I changed the oil w/ the A-RX and replaced it w/ Citgo Superguard 10w-30.The next change I will have the Citgo oil analyzed as I owe Dragboat big time

I just clocked my mileage and got over 31 MPG. I had been getting 28 MPG. Before I'm flamed, this is just 1 tankful and I'm not convinced the A-RX had anything to do with it. Just a post with an observation.

 

[FowVay]

I must say that I have not seen good results with heavily sludged/carbonized engines and Auto-RX.

I have two examples: a 1996 Nissan Maxima with a 3.0 liter DOHC engine and a 1986 Nissan 300ZX with a SOHC engine. Both V6 designs. The Maxima has 165,000 miles and the 300ZX has 115,000 miles. Both cars have been poorly maintained so I used them as a test to see if the Auto-RX would remove the visual deposits that were seen inside of the valve covers. After the initial 500 miles on both engines there was no visible improvement inside of the valve cover.

What was noticeable was the reduction of oil leaks on the 300ZX. It had two visible leaks which seem to have slowed to a irrelevant rate after using the Auto-RX.

Both vehicles are going to get a second treatment so hopefully I will see some cleaning of the hard, black carbon on the camshafts.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Fowvay,

I would hope that Frank would comment on your observation. If A-RX is not a solvent, does it promise to clean the inside of a valve cover?

 

[pruntyc]

It sounds like it would be a good time, to see just how good Rislone is. It works, you should give it a try, it don't cost that much, and then you would know.

 

[FowVay]

Neither of these vehicles belong to me. They belong to my neighbors and I just wanted to do a experiment to see what results would surface. I have no doubt that the Auto-RX is doing something because it has slowed or stopped the oil leaks on the 300ZX. I think that it just might be much slower at working than we're used to.

To clarify, the deposits that I'm speaking of are on the camshafts and head castings (although the covers are completely filthy). The Maxima has a cast aluminum cover that I removed so that I could take pictures of the camshafts and the 300ZX has a stamped tin cover that I didn't removed.

I have not changed the oil in the engines yet so I can't say what is in the filters.

 

[sprintman]

I ran my 1st bottle 800kms, 2nd bottle around 1500kms from memory and 3rd bottle 5000kms. It is a slow cleaner and i'm not sure if 800kms/500 miles is enough?