ARX success story - Ford Vulcan 3.0 V-6

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dnewton3

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I'd like to share my recent experience with Auto-RX. I'll try to present this testimonial as briefly as possible, while still providing important information.

In 1997 my father purchased a Taurus with the 3.0 Vulcan OHV engine. He drove it for several years. During that time he loaned it to a friend, who had a mishap with the car. The front right freeze plug burst during her drive. She was near my father's home at the time, and so she continued to drive it home several miles, without any coolant! This happend when the car had approximately 50k miles on it. My dad had it towed to the dealer, which installed a new plug, filled the coolant system and checked pressure, and returned the vehicle. My father continued to drive it for a few more years without incident.

Fast forward to 2005; my father sold the car to me with 60k miles on it. I did the routine 60k maintenance and used it as a daily driver. It always drove fine, and as this engine design was never a high-performance engine, I was content to just drive it and not worry. It recieved routine O/Fci's at 5k intervals under my care. It would regularly consume some oil, but nothing drastic; perhaps a quart in 5k miles.

Fast forward to late 2007. I decided to try some ARX engine treatment. I pulled the front valve cover to visually see what type of contamination was present; very little actually, at all. I had sent some digital pix to Gary Allan and he commented how "clean" the engine seemed. Still - the experiment seemed like the thing to do. I decided to take some compresison readings at Gary's urging.

I was not surprised, but very disappointed, at what I found. Of the six cylinders, #4 and #5 were way down on compression. #4 was at 120 psi, #5 was at 110 psi. The others were all in spec at around 165-180 psi. I noticed that these two cylinders (#4, #5) were adjacent to the freeze plug that had burst several years ago. I chalked up this poor compression to worn rings and/or scored cylinders. But for the sake of the experiment, I forged ahead.

The ARX trial was to see what performance could be achieved by ARX when the dosage was doubled, and the application phase cut short in mileage. In other words, I used two 12oz bottles for a 1k mile application run.

The fundementals were as follows:
*1997 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan with 87k miles @ application phase.
*PP 5w-30 synthetic, which already had 2k miles on it
*AAP "red" filter #3600 (a purolator rebrand)installed
*daily driving including a 50/50 mix of city/highway
*winter weather conditions typical of Indiana
*regular fuel used without any particular brand loyality
*vehicle driven with "normal" habits (not too hard or easy).

At 88k miles (on 2-8-08), it was time for the rinse phase and another compression check. The rinse phase oil is QS dino 5w-30 with another AAP filter.

Here is a synopsis of the compression pre-application and post-application, rated in PSI, with an ACTON compression gage. Multiple reading were taken per cylinder to average results, and rounded to the nearest "five" for ease of reading.

Miles......87k...88k
cyl 1:.....170...180
cyl 2:.....170...180
cyl 3:.....165...180
cyl 4:.....120...180
cyl 5:.....110...150
cyl 6:.....180...180

I AM ASTOUNDED!
As you can see, with no other influence other than the ARX treatment, there was SIGNIFICANT restoration of compression in the two defunct cylinders. Specifially, cylinder #4 gained 50% compression, all the way up to the equivilant of the others. Cylinder 5 gained 40 psi, up from 110 to 150, though not completely up with the others. In fact, ALL cylinders gained, and five of the six are at 180 psi (+/- 2psi in acutal readings)!

It is suspected that the ARX will continue to work it's "magic" on cylinder #5 during the rinse phase, which has just begun. I will take another compression check on #5 at 90k miles, when the vehicle is up for it's next routine maintenance, and the dump of the "rinse" oil.

I cannot stress this enough; I AM AMAZED at the performance of this product. I initially thought I had an engine that might necessitate a tear down. Instead, I have realized a very significant gain in engine compression. It is apparent now that the overheating incident so many miles ago had "coked up" the rings into the piston lands with detrimental varnish and other various buggery. The ARX performed exactly as advertised, freeing up the rings to do their job.

As I had experimented with ARX in the doubling of the dosage, and halving the apllication mileage, I cannot comment what a "normal" application might have done. I suspect that similar results would have been achieved, but just taken more time.

I will keep all posted of the progress of cylinder #5 when the 2k mile rinse phase it completed at 90k miles.

Kudos to Frank and the ARX!
 
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Great post!
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I have the readings on my Pillar Pod mounted boost/vacuum gage, silent HLAs, decreased oil consumption, increased performance and a 3 mpg increase, to verify that ARX decoked the rings in my engine, and like you I was also astonished that a little 12 oz bottle could do so much.

The rinse phase showed, for my engine there is still more to clean and even more benefits to be had, and so I put in another bottle just a few days ago.

I look forward to your subsequent reports.
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When I approached Dave about this, I was searching for another Dan (fueltankerman). Dave almost qualified. He didn't have the ultra high mileage that Dan had on his Escort, but did a decent job of maintenance and otherwise took good care of his car. I'll see if I can find the digital images of the interior ..but when I saw a clean engine, I was someone disappointed since there really was nothing to clean up. Really, his front bank looked about as good as any "after" Auto-Rx treatment that I've seen. He, like Dan, saw little need for Auto-Rx. This was the main qualifier. Dave, like Dan, was an "agnostic" when it comes to anything other than routine maintenance. In his case, other than this insult, he was mostly correct in this "show me" disposition.

Dave was probably not too happy when he performed the compression check since he was blissful in the ignorance of this condition ...and I had just added a new anxiety to his life (what have I done
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...
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) ..but, as he said, he forged ahead anyway in good faith to see if it could be favorably effected.

Well, it worked
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One of a few Amsoil dealers that believes or admits there are other high quality lubrication products besides Amsoil. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this test and then sharing the results here for all to see. I see these kind of results all the time, but just don't do all the compression tests or before/after pics. Before/after mpg and power/smoothness and lower oil consumption says it all for me.
 
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Gary really is very special


Yeah ..yeah ...and so was my education
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..and, yes, Amsoil makes some of the very best products out there. This product kinda hangs out there all by itself.


Keep in mind that I didn't do any of the work here. I just hooked up a product with the (luckily) right people. It would all be worthless and for not without the efforts of the ultimate participants; without whom these tests would not be possible.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Gary, kudos.

you are adding a very generous and interesting series of tests to BITOG.


Oh, it's easy from my end
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Just a little $$ and "the army of the willing"
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Other than that, just an insatiable compulsion to know "errrr...what happens when you do this"? ( don't EVER tell me "whatever you do, don't press the RED button!
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" without a thorough explanation
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)


As an after note, you can probably tell by Dave's presentation that he's not your average stroke. He's got a mechanical engineering back ground and worked/works for some very well known companies. I'll leave the details as he chooses to share them. This was an added bonus in the finding. Someone who would debunk automatically. I really have lucked out here.
 
Gosh - I'm ususally the guy standing in the corner, telling some gulible fool to push the red button ... Looks like Gary turned the tables on me.
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Still - I think we all came out winners on this one!

I can attest to the success of the ARX first hand. This is my first experience with the product, and I'm nothing but pleased. I have always been skeptical of "additives", thinking that they were mostly "snake-oil".

This in one product that is head and shoulders above the sea of it's competitors, and it deserves all praise earned.

If I get a chance tonight, I'll try to get the filter cut open and post a picture, (if I can figure out how to upload the photo).
 
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As I follow up, I cut open the filter last night. The filter was unremarkable. There were no heavy deposits, no significant loading, or anything to indicate some massive event.

I can only speculate that this is the result of three possibilities:
1) the double doseage did such a good job, that it broke down any deposits to a point whereby they were emulsified with the oil, and flushed out with the OCI
2) the engine was so clean to start with, there was not much "debris" to pick up in the first place.
3) some combination of items 1 and 2 (my vote is here)

Regardless, the end justifies the means in my mind. Compression restoration was the goal, and in that arena, ARX performed admirably!
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The most that I'd expect to see in your filter would be some fine "grit" like some turbo owners see. Your engine was so clean as it was that I'd not expect much to be apparent in the filter.

I finally found the images. Here are three images. As all of you can see, Dave took very good care of this engine. Most would be envious of having it this clean after an Auto-Rx treatment.

dnewton3my6.jpg


dnewton2sy5.jpg


dnewton1iy4.jpg



What it proves more than anything is that "apparent" cleanliness doesn't necessarily mean that everything is clean. It appears that localized accumulations and formations don't show themselves in the overall visual indicators.


Oh ..we're getting deep here ..indeed. More nooks and crannies are being discovered and explored. All good stuff.
 
The pictures represent my Taurus 3.0 Vulcan before the ARX treatment. With this clean starting point, I presumed that there was little effect to be experienced with ARX; I could not have been more wrong. I thought that with the extreme cleanliness of the valvetrain, there had to be physical damage to my engine (rings, pistons, cylinders), as evidenced by the initial compression readings.

I have rarely been so happy to be wrong! I must sound like a resounding gong, but ARX performed just shy of a religious miracle. How much "power" has been restored would be difficult to establish, as I never took any "before treatment" tests (such as 0-60, or dyno readings). Still, it stands to reason that such compression gains can only be interpreted as a good thing. While acceleration is subordinate to the often subjective "posterior-o-meter", fuel economy can be directly measured, over long term.

(Thanks to Gary for posting the pictures; yet another good use for him! Information specialist, pontificator, see-er of all things good and plentiful, and all around honest Joe. Where is the end?)
 
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Some other thoughts occured to me as well.

It is unfortunate that Auto-RX and some of its competitors are considered similar, at least to the casual observer. I would classify ARX as a product that removes byproducts that inhibit the design intent of the components of mechanical equipment; it liberates the engine's parts to do the work they are designed to do.

Most other products, such as Marvel Mystery Oil or Lucas Oil Stabilizer, only seek to modify or otherwise mask the environment that the engine operates in. They add to the complexity of the operating arena, rather than simplifying it.

Further, MMO or LOS must be present to have some perceived effect on the engine. ARX, on the other hand, has as its sole intent the removal of barriers and/or inhibitors to the engine’s design. Shortly after its removal, the undesirable effects of combustion byproducts ARX sought to eliminate are also gone. The effect is long lasting as well.
 
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I also use ARX, and I too am amazed by it's effectiveness. Out of fairness I have to say this though. MMO will also dissolve and remove carbon deposits. I use MMO occasionally, in my gas, to clean the upper cylinder area. I am sure it will also do the same in your oil. I do not use MMO for that purpose however, because I believe it's solvent properties have a strong effect on motor oil, and this makes it unwise to use it in a running engine.
 
I have used MMO in the past. It is hard for me to quantify the results. And the more I read about it, the less I am inclined to use it, as referenced to the solvent issue. I don't know enough about it to clearly state it's content, so perhaps you are right in that I should refrain from distracting from it. Still, my experience with it was, shall I say, marginal, because I couldn't really tell if it worked or not. The ARX, on the other hand, was a clear performer, as verified by the compression checks.
 
Thank you for understanding my intent. You most definitely have too.
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I think I know just how you feel also. Auto-Rx, 'wow', it just completely amazes me also, leaving no room for doubt at all about it's effectiveness.
 
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