Hi, I am from Manila Philippines and I have finished my clean phase.  I am currently in my 200 km of rinse phase.  My car is Mitsubishi Lancer GLX 2000 - 4g15 SOHC Carb engine with manual transmission f5m41.

First off, my engine wasn't sludged nor was it heavily varnished.  There was this golden color similar to fresh cooking on the walls of the cylinder head, rockers, and cam.  I really envied those high mileage cylinder heads and still have their natural gray metal color w/o any sort of golden oil deposit - that is with their engine not being dismantled for any sort of maintenance.  To cut things short, I wa just after removing the discoloration - that's it.  To me (based from the looks alone) my engine is still still clean and not sludged nor varnished.

Since 2000 when the car was bought first hand, maintenance was dealer based and engine oil is the mitsubishi oem fully synthetic Turbo XP 20w50 (rated for both diesel and gas).  The car was not fully used until year 2004 when I began working.  From 2000 to 2004, the car was loyal to the recommended 5,000 km oci.  2004 until the ARX treatment, the car was undergoing 10,000 km oci, which was also dealer based.  During the 5,000k oci, car was near perfect - oil change without much of oil darkening.  During the 10,000 km oci, I experienced something different and not good.  One thing very noticeable was that the oil darkens quite abruptly after the first 5,000 km.  Others followed, erratic idling, high fuel consumption, sluggish acceleration at high rpm's.  Car was only city driven to and from work and occasional provincial trips.  No races nor tracking.

It was in 2007 when I began to dwell into self maintenance of the car due to high labor costs and my "kinda" pessimistic attitude towards having someone else do my car.  That was when I realized that I do not like what I see in my cylinder head.  Again, it wasn't sludged nor heavily varnished - it was like fresh cooking oil in the grocery.  At that stage I was experiencing sputtering at high rpm's w/ and w/o a/c.  I rebuilt my carb, changed my fuel filter (fuel pump was still perfect), changed plugs, dizzy cap, rotor (ignition coil resistance was still perfect), htw, auxiliary belts, timing belt, water pump, idler bearing, and clutch.  All those done and no success - still sputtering around 4k rpm.  Btw, my redline begins at 6,5k.

I was introduced to ARX from a local board.  I researched and read and found that ARX won't do harm since it wasn't petroleum based.  I got the product along with Shell Helix 10w40.  Coming from a 50 weight oil, it was very noticeable that I can reach higher rpm's faster.  Frankly, I wasn't convinced that this is an ARX effect because of the oil weight.  After a few hundred km's there was still sputtering until a few hunder km's more before my clean phase when I noticed that I can now go beyond 4k w/o airconditioning and not sputter.  There was still occasional sputtering w/ airconditioning on.

When I drained my oil for the rinse phase, I noticed nothing different from the oil that came out - black.  What caught my attention was the oil filter.  The oil inside was quite thick and darker than the one I was able to get from the oil pan.  I can't remember any point before in my previous oil changes this kind of used oil consistency inside the filter.  BTW, I was using vic oil filter C-415.  It wasn't sludge, but was thicker than those which i usually get.

Now the clean phase, so far, I haven't felt any sputtering yet w/ and w/o airconditioning - that was until 4k rpm (before still w/o airconditioning at 4k and car was sputtering).  As of this moment, I haven't opened my cylinder head yet - no tappet clearance adjustments (I did it prior to the clean phase).  I only opened the oil filler cap.  I'll be opening the valve cover after the rinse phase.

I still haven't reached my primary goal of having a zero discoloration head with all natural metal color.  I think this is really far far away still or nearly impossible unless I really do manual cleaning, but I am still hoping for results from ARX to achieve this.  NEVERTHELESS, I got something different and unexpected - I am loosing (still in the process) the sputtering problem little by little!  Believe me, I am excited to get to 5,000k and take off my oil filter again.

Even at this point, I am sure I will be going for another cycle of clean and rinse.  I never realized how dirty my engine was in the unseen areas.