Auto-Rx?

[scdtrd]

Well...... I did the search and read the posts.. and there were a bunch... on the bennies of using that Auto-Rx stuff to "clean" the internals of the engine. SO.... I got online, paid my money and purchased 2 12oz bottles. I pulled the valve covers before I did it to replace the leaky rear valve cover seal on a 94 1MZ-FE... and "check out the engine". When I saw the inside.. I knew.. I needed to do something. All metal parts.... that I saw with the exception of the lobes on the cams were... "copper" colored. David, my Toyota tech buddy who works on my car with me, said that is was "varnish" and not sludge. He said he had seen MUCH worse.. but.. it was pretty bad as varnish goes. SO... I replace the filter with a Purolator Pure 1 part number PL 10241 and 4.5qts of Castrol 20W50 and 10oz of Auto-Rx. According to the instructions, you do this and run it for 1,500 miles.. and then drain and "rinse" with dino oil.. and when you drain that.. your basically done. This applies to any engine with less than 100,000 miles.. as mine does with only 38,000 miles. SO ANYWAY.. 1,500 miles showes up on Friday. July 1st.. right! I call David, he meets me at my house after work and we pull the front valve cover.. and I see...... no change at all. Zip, zilch, zero, nada, nitch, nope, none!
It STILL looks exactly the same! I am thinking.. WTF?!?!? The oil looked... still semi-clear.. a little darker, but still clear and not "gritty" and useable. I replaced the fileter with another PL 10241 and added another 10oz of Auto-Rx to the oil. So far, I am underwhelmed. I was expecting.. at LEAST a small, noticeable... change. So, after another 1,500 I will post my findings. So, the my point to all this verbage is, has anyone has SIMILAR results? Am I doing something wrong? Should I let it go for a lot longer? Any suggestions are appreciated! I know about the Seafoam (did search) and the othere "cleaners" (did search too) and the Auto-Rx looked to be the least "harsh" and most metal friendly of the bunch. That is why I chose it. Thank you for your time!
SCDTRD

[D0UG]

It is good that you checked the results rather than keep buying the stuff thinking it was doing something. The copper color on the metal is fine. It may even be great! Sludge is a black buildup that is sometimes gummy on top and hard inside. Even putting a quart of xylene in your oil will not remove the sludge but it will harden the rubber gaskets. I have never seen sludge that is copper colored. I suspect your engine is clean -- don't worry about it.

[terrastrife]

varnish on the internals is fine.. thats just a coat of oil -- which is GOOD! :P

[mumser101]

While Auto-Rx starts the cleaning process in the first 1500 miles, noticeable results may not occur until the "rinse" phase when Auto-Rx is out of the oil. The "dino" oil of the rinse phase will clean out the remaining softened deposits. It is not a good idea to overload the engine oil with additional Auto-Rx; you go outside of the application parameters with possible unpredictable results.

LarryD