I do remember him posting that he is a "traveling" mechanic. So, perhaps us east coast @&@&@&@&ers could get a group purchase of head gaskets and convince him to come our way. Perhaps if he knew there were 10 rigs that needed head gasket's done, it would be worth his time for a road trip.
Thanks Trabe for answering my question on AutoRx. I spent the morning reading Bobistheoilguy.com The Owner of the company is on the site and you can tell when he posts about his product. However, plenty more recommend it. Looking at what they did in the Automotive industry gave their posts a lot of credibility. I ordered some and I'll give it a try.
The head is clean, but I am sure there is still carbon behind the ring packs and I would like to get rid of that. I'll post up results.
No socks, but you're wife won't be home til later.
Hadn't realized that Robbie has his own shingle now. I'm happy for him. Definitely one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Only had a chance to wheel with him one time, but when I'm in Denver in early Jan maybe I'll try to swing out and say hi.
Robbie - if you happen to read this - I wish you all the luck in the world, but you won't need it. Good things happen to good people.
Romer, your truck is in good hands. It's a plessure to wheel with you Robbie, even if I do get you lost . The best of luck to you . Junk, give us a ring when you get out here
With no other alternative other than an engine rebuild to get rid of the carbon, I turned to AutoRx that is praised on Bobistheoilguy.com.
I just completed the first cycle and now am into the 2nd cleaning cycle recommended for engines over 100,000 miles.
Oil after the AutoRX 1500 mile cycle came out fairly clean. The oil after the 2000 mile rinse cycle came out fairly dirty and the oil from the filter came out a little sludgy (Thicker than the pan). I ran another quart of clean oil through while draining for good measure as an extra poor mans rinse.
2nd cycle started for 1500 Miles with AutoRx. The trip next week to South Dakota will eat up a lot of that and I should be starting the rinse cycle in Early April and it should be complete shortly after returning from Moab.
Other observations:
Before the head gasket and fuel injectors were changed, I was averaging about 11MPG. After Robbie was done with his magic, I was averaging about 12.1 to 12.5 running mid grade gas. The last month I have been running an average of 12.8 to 13.2 MPG. I would estimate that the driving style is all pretty similar, but not always. I am not claiming that AutoRx itself improves your gas mileage, but thinking it reduces the carbon making it easier for the Pistons and thus allows it to operate closer to normal.
I will update again when the 2nd rinse is done.
Remember, I am not an oil expert, but did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Sorry, just re-read your first couple of posts and didn't see anything specific to the HG and specifically to #6 gasket deformation, etc. I'm just still a skeptic on this whole 'head gasket as PM at <200k miles' so I'm curious how bad it was.
Sorry, just re-read your first couple of posts and didn't see anything specific to the HG and specifically to #6 gasket deformation, etc. I'm just still a skeptic on this whole 'head gasket as PM at <200k miles' so I'm curious how bad it was.
Guess your right. I didn't take pictures, but Robbie showed it to me before we threw it out. It matched the other HG's that were or already did go bad. Must have posted that in another thread.
That's the funny thing, I had the classic catastrophic wear points/failure points (#6 water jackets and fire rings) but I also had failures ALL OVER the thing as evidenced by razor thin seals around all the cylinders' fire rings and almost all of the water jackets (specifically the oval ones that are not reinforced) were swollen and just just just starting to shed a little. The whole thing was structurally starting to fail. It may have lasted ten more miles or it may have lasted ten thousand more miles.
That's the problem; as close as I can tell there is no way to tell what's wrong unless you actually have some symptoms startup. In my case I had no single symptom...I know at all times exactly what my real coolant temp is, I know that with each and every oil sample sent in it came back clean, I know I have no external leaks, I even know at all times what my air/fuel mix is so I could instantly detect if something like internally leaking coolant was leaking enough to effect the mix measured by the o2 sensors. I had no single symptom and yet it was failing for sure.
I think the message is two-pronged: one - I cannot imagine anyone doing this as a PM being sorry they did; IOW I cannot imagine anyone doing this as a PM and being able to say "My gasket was perfectly fine." two - If your strategy is simply to wait til the thing blows then AT LEAST make sure you aggressively address the problem as soon as the symptom starts and IF you start overheating somewhere pull over right away, pump the heat up full force, and shut down as soon as possible. Anyways, my .02$. HTH
. The best of luck to you
