ARX carbon fecal matter quandry

[Brandon Gatz]

On my 3rd consecutive RX treatment. Why 3? Good question. I acquired the car('00 Volvo V70 XC AWD Wangon) 4 months ago with 83k mi. All seemed well except the 5 pot turbo sounded like a diesel at idle, and oil was burnt(would not wipe off either) onto the dipstick and underbelly of the oil cap. WOT was an exercise in futility, as the car would stutter and hesitiate under high load. Methinks the previous owner forgot to change the oil for a couple ten of thousand of miles. I don't know, i don't know much of anything actually. I do know one incontrovertible fact however: a $38k car should have intermittent wipers...so maybe Volvo's are supposed to sound like diesels...

Flashforward to ARX #1: within 500mi 2 MPG increase across the board, WOT now possible, and races against GEO's Metros are now within my imminent domain. ARX #2: by the completion of this cycle the dipstick is 90% stain free and glistening free! WOT is now a joy. ARX #3: i didn't really think i needed it, but the engine still sounded a bit dieselish, too much so for a car of its caliber me thinks. 150mi into this cycle the car starts smoking profusely from the rear of the engine, i could not pinpoint exact location due to heat shield. The car ran fine, sounded fine, MPG fine all the way back home another 150mi. I resolve to take her into the shop the following day but digress. The smoking becomes less and less over the next 6 days until it finally ceases completely. The car runs better and I'm like....what? I am now wondering if ARX knocked out a big chunk o carbon fecal matter loose or the like....ideas?

 

[sprintman]

I ran 3 RX cleand on an 89 Mazda 626 hatchback (GT) and a 2000 Subaru Outback 2.5 manual with no probs. Yes my engines were clean. The Mazda needs another now but I believe it's so long in the tooth it may not be worth it.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

forgot to mention...i performed a proper rinse cycle with each stage....

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Did you cut open the filters after each clean/rinse cycle? If so, what did you find?

My experiance with my 89 turbo Caravan was that the engine went from poor to good to great with one A-RX treatment. I put a boost gage on it and found that the turbo was spooling instantly. Made a big difference in throttle response.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

what the...chrysler turbo'd the caravan in the 80's? wow.

the filter is the cartridge type, so cutting open was unnecessary....i never saw any gunk though through treatment 1 and 2. When I change the oil for this 3rd cycle i'll post results of the state of the filter.

 

[Volvohead]

With the warranty OCIs on these white block turbos and the complete indiscretion of what dealers may have put into them (usually bulk conventional), it wouldn't surprise me if your engine was heavily sludged up long before 83k.

But desludging is what ARX is all about, and it appears that it helped in this instance.

As soon as you are confident that the engine is fully cleaned and is not leaking, switch over to a full synthetic at 5k OCIs. This turbocharged engine should have been run on this from day one. I'd run one additional short cycle beyond the ARX instructions, on dino, just to tighten up the seals and rinse out any residuals before going to a synthetic. Keep an eye on the rear main seal in particular.

Being a Volvo owner, you probably already know to make sure the ATF, coolant, and brake fluid has been changed out if unsure of age. Regular fluid changes is the key to these vehicles lasting as long as they do.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

The day i took the car home i performed a M1 full syn 5w30 oil change and was running that for approx 6k mi till i discovered ARX via Volvospeed.com. I intend to go to Royal Purple after the flush stage of this final treatment is complete, due to what i've read of M1 causing undue engine noise...

 

[Volvohead]

I wouldn't run a 5W-30 in that engine. That US market recommendation is likely CAFE driven and not what Volvo recommends elsewhere. Consider Delvac 1/T&SUV 5W-40 or the 0W-40 (at shorter OCIs) before bailing on M1. I understand that like M1 0W-40, RP tends to shear down early.

Otherwise, if you can afford it, RL 10W-30 is my first choice for the higher output white block turbos. But it may be overkill in an XC70. Others have reported good performance with GC 0W-30, but it is getting hard to find.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

how bout RP 0-40?

..and what's the deal with the T&S blends, how are they different from other full syn M1 of the same viscosity?

[ February 06, 2006, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: gr8gatzby ]

 

[Volvohead]

I suspect that any 0W-40 may shear to some degree in that engine with longer intervals. Keep the intervals sane (5k max) if your heart is set on it. If it's any assurance, I've run M1 0W-40 in my R at shorter intervals (under 4k) and it was fine. The R engine is a little different from the others, so it should hold up even better in yours.

But I'm not sure you really need a 0W-xx in that engine and climate.

 

[ALS]

I suspect especially if it was a leased car it was abused with extended OCI's. You should see the sludge monsters at my Volvo dealer. We are talking 90% or more of the newer Volvo's are lucky to see a short OCI of 10K with dino.
The factory recommends 7,500 mile OCI's. Tech's working there would like to see it lowered to 5K OCI's on the white blocks.
I do 5K OCI's with Mobil 1 with my Volvo
87 745T and 6K OCI's in the 97 960.
The 745 runs a maintenance dose of Auto-Rx and the 960 is running with a LC maintenance dose.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

forgive my Volvo n00bness, but what does "white block" reference?

 

[ALS]

The 5 and 6 cylinders are Aluminum Block motors.
Aluminum = White metal
The old 4 cylinder Iron Block motors are referred to as Red Blocks due to the paint color used on them.

 

[Volvohead]

You "might" be able to pull off a 7.5K OCI on a NA white, and even on a really strong conventional. I have a plain jane 2.4 in our base 850, and I don't do that, but perhaps one could try it.

But on the turbos it's a whole different story, and ALS is correct. Anything over 5K is asking for trouble, and more so with a conventional.

The white blocks are very good engines in my opinion. But they are a little harder on oil than generally understood.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

my engine loses absolutely zero oil between changes. i think it is a good engine, it's everything that's attached to it that's rapidly draining the pockets of my extended warranty company.

 

[HEV]

My very best used oil analyses in my 99 S70 T5 are with Amsoil 10W-30 ATM. I’ve tried Mobil 1 10W-30 and 5W-40, German Castrol 0W-30, Shaeffer’s 7000 10W-30, and the Amsoil. The car has always had fully synthetic oil with OCIs of 5000 miles. I’m still amazed at how much junk comes out of the engine when I treat the Swed to ARX.

Regarding the smoking. I think that Frank at one time mentioned that your car may smoke some when the ring packs are being cleaned, but then it goes away.

Regarding your diesel sound, the fuel injectors on these engines are very noisy and make a noticeable clattering sound.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

ring packs for teh win.

 

[jonny-b]

Hello, gr8gatzby. I think your thougts about changing to RP 5/30 is the thing you should be doing. I am using the 5/30 RP myself with great results. The instruction-book say that I shold be using 10/40. The engine is a small 1.5 liter diesel engine that often sees 5500 rpm!!! I drive it some 13-15000 miles(up to 25000km) on the oil. In 15000 miles it use maybe 8-16 ounces of oil(almost at the top marking at the dipstick). By the way, the engine now has gone 210000 miles.