99 CRV 89K, change to Synthetic?

[TucoRamirez]

Hello all. I'm really glad i joined these boards as i have lots of questions regarding motor oil/ filters. My father has a 99 CRV with a B20Z2 engine and has, unfortunately, neglected this car (as he does with any car he drives). The car has about 89K on it and i've been changing the oil and filter myself ever since about 70K miles (I couldn't change the oil any earlier since i didnt have enough automotive knowledge). I use dino Castrol GTX 5w30 with an STP filter. I am very strict on 3-4K OCI's for this car; the problem is i go off to college and can only change his oil when im home (usually every 3-4 months) and sometimes he runs his car to 6-8K (or maybe more in the past!) in one OCI.
I am worried about this car as i've peeked into the valve cover and the rockers and springs seemed pretty dirty and sludgey, almost like my CRX at 165K. It is quite a shame that he has been so neglectful to his car and I really want to try to rescue it and ensure many more thousands of miles on this engine. Since the engine does not leak at all, and i wish to help lengthen the OCI's, I was thinking about switching to synthetic for him. I really think in the past he would run his engine for who knows how long on one OCI (20K?

) which is why his engine looked so dirty. Shall i start running the partial synthetic oils first? What filter should i use? What do you guys think? Any insights would be appreciated as i really want to save this engine!

 

[Quest]

Run 1 round of AutoRx before you switch over to synthetic (personally, I prefer full synthetic if possible, instead of synthetic-mix or "semi-syn").

 

[Auto-Union]

1/2 q of Kero at idle for 10 min in a cold engine. Then do a short dino run. Any synth would work fine at any time, but a cleaner engine is better. I have a 98 CRV, quite clean at 86k when we got it. Went to Mobil 1 and use Havoline too. Havoline and other dinos would work fine for your app, but if you want synth....MaxLife.

 

[benjamming]

Tuco,

I would suggest spending some time reading up on the site for a few hours. The additives section has a lot of information about AutoRX.

 

[AndyH]

quote:

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Originally posted by TucoRamirez:
So what exaclty is autoRX? Sorry for being such a newbie. Do i pour in a quart of that stuff with some regular dino then take it for a quick run and pour it out to flush the engine? Then pour full synthetic?

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This should help clear things up:
Auto-RX FAQ and Application Instructions

Any additional Auto-RX questions you may have probably should be posted over on the Additives, Fuel, Oil, Cleaner forum.

BTW,

to BITOG!

 

[m2200b]

If you're going away soon - you won't be able to do the ARX if you can't either change the oil at 1500 mi after he ran the ARX clean phase and after another 2000 mi after he runs the rinse phase on dino.

I had the similar problem of my daughter taking a sludged Terdel to college but not being able to follow that regime while she has the car in San Diego. I ran a rinse with ARX for 500 and then let her drive off with the rinse phase at 2-3K when I expect to able to dump it again.

If you can't ARX here's what I'd do
GTX again before you go

I don't see much harm if goes 5K on SM dino before you come back for XMAS.

Not coming back then

2. Pepboys $30 coupon for xmas for his oil change

I don't see any point in a blend other than
Tropartic, Motorcraft and Maxlife - all about $2 a qt at WM and at least comparable to better dinos.

If its dirty you are going to want to get even a syn out at its first 5K OCI run anyway.

 

[TucoRamirez]

So what exaclty is autoRX? Sorry for being such a newbie. Do i pour in a quart of that stuff with some regular dino then take it for a quick run and pour it out to flush the engine? Then pour full synthetic? Also which synthetic and what filter do i use? Can i just use a regular Purolator or STP? So with synthetic i'll be able to run a higher OCI? How high?