ARX questions

[LAGA]

I am 1000 miles into my first ARX treatment and have a couple of questions. First, the reason I am treating my 2001 Ram 1500 5.7 is even though I cannot see any sludge because of the baffle under the oil cap I can reach in with my finger and rub the inside of the top of the valve cover and I get a thick black coating. Is this sludge or carbon deposits or soot? The truck has 55K miles of city driving with a heavy foot. I ran Syntec 5w50 with 4000 OCI since new for the first 5 years and now run M1 10w30 since finding BITOG about a year ago. Also, at 900 miles into clean phase I noticed the oil pressure gauge is running higher than it used to, still in normal range, at highway speeds. Does this mean the oil filter is getting clogged? or is the motor pumping more oil? Is the oil sending unit before or after the oil filter on this motor? BTW I love this site!

 

[va3ux]

I would call this sludge from oil vapors condensing on the underside of the valve covers. Could be some soot in there as well and there certainly will be carbon. Sludge can be formed from repeated low temp operation whereby crankcase moisture emulsifies with the oil ("low temperature sludge"), or from extended high temperature operation and oxidation of the oil whereby heavy hydrocarbon species precipiate to form varnish/tar-like species.

If you aren't running a thicker oil than you normally do and you are well familiar with the oil pressure behaviour of your machine, then I would say that there is a reasonable chance that the elevated oil pressure is from restriction in the oil filter due to the presence of deposits. You'll know for sure if you cut the filter open and inspect it after you change it out at the 1500 mile mark.

 

[LAGA]

From your reply I would guess I have the low temperature sludge. I have a 3.3 mile commute and only get to drive the truck over 20 miles once or twice a month. I will cut open th oil filter when done with clean phase and post results