Having dealt with stiction for the past several months, I'm going to Archoil as a last result. I tried Rev X, which worked as long as I kept it in the oil, but it obviously didn't fix anything since the stiction returned as soon as I stopped using it. It's good stuff, but way too expensive for a cover remedy. Next came Hot Shot's Secret. Honestly, I have seen gradual improvement over the last oil change with HSS, but the emphasis goes on the word "gradual". I'm on the 4000 mile mark with HSS and while I'm experiencing improved performance once the truck is warm, cold starts still suck. In the middle of summer now, with the temps around 75-80 in the morning, the truck still bucks and complains until the temp gauge starts reading in the normal range. So today I ordered my Archoil and am switching from Mystic JT8 15w40 sythy blend to full synthetic Delo 5W40. I know, I won't be able to say for certain if it's the synthetic oil, lighter oil, or the Archoil that will make the difference, but to be quite frank, I really don't care what it is, as long as it works. Stiction really sucks and from everything I've read about Archoil, I'm excited to give it a try.

 

Possible FICM issue?

 

Replaced the FICM this past winter for the 2nd time at 130k. I'm going to be purchasing a heavier duty alternator this year to replace the stock one, as I understand that the stock alternator is often the cause of FICM issues. As of right now, though, he FICM seems to be working properly

 

Archoil is also a bandaid for the Stiction problem . I have been using it for a year now and as long as I keep using it, the cold start will not be an issue. New injectors is the only cure.

 

Yep, a fact of life for the 6.0. I'm ok with band aids right now because I don't have 3 grand burning a hold in my pocket for new injectors, but I can see that train coming down the tracks too. I paid less than 40 bucks for the archoil, so if it works, I'll be ok with doing that every oil change while I save my nickles and hope I can get through another six months without a major (knock on wood) failure.

 

You can clean and polish the injector spool valves as a cure, but IMO that is "hit and miss".

 

You can get a full set of OEM remanufactured injectors from autonation ford for just over 1600 bucks, 204.00 each after the cores are returned and depending on where you live there is no sales tax.

 

Have you done that? I've seen a video on You Tube where a guy pulled his injectors, took them apart, and cleaned the spool valves with fine grit sand paper. My questions: First, how labor intensive is this whole operation - the guy in the video pulled one, not all. Second, are the tolerances so tight that a little too much pressure with the sand paper will result in a total failure? Third, cleaning the spool valve itself is one thing, but the thing rides inside a channel - does that need to be cleaned as well, and if so, how do you clean it, and after everything is said and done, is this just a temporary fix?

 

I haven't done it, but others have on the forum and posted their results.

 

I will no longer polish spools. I would chalk it up as a band-aid solution as well. Doesn't seem to last, especially compared to new injectors.

I would still consider it a better alternative than the snake oils.

Josh

 

Good to know. It is not a quick thing to do for sure.

 

I don't know that I would classify 9100 as snake oil, a connotation of something that doesn't work. Doing vehicle testing as a career, I'm kind of critical of products and fixes.

I had a very definitive stiction issue with an injector in a Ford rebuilt motor. While going to synthetic oils helped, it did not resolve whereas using the 9100 did eliminate it. I would describe it as a temporary aid at this point as a few months ago I needed to replace one injector after 50k+ miles. In a few weeks I will be changing my oil and at first will not reuse the 9100 so I can see if the replaced injector was my stiction injector.

I think the product has a place, but the person has to make the judgement call about do I want to pay the price to diagnose and replace a problem injector, or do I want to invest in using an add-on product (for some time) until it is more convienent to do the mechanical change. This view might be modified if that was not the stiction injector.

 

As far as "snake oils" concerned it's more my why and really the forum's way to classify those particular "remedies" Right or wrong, it's what is done.

Over all it seems Rev-X is total bunk, just a crap ton of potassium and boron.

Archoil has it's place and many have noticed some effect. I tried it in a friend's truck with minor stiction and it helped one injector slightly. I have a couple Youtube videos documenting that. I was hoping for at least one fore follow-up video with that truck, but the weather warmed quickly making a cold start pointless so I'll likely revisit that testing again this Fall/Winter. Although by then I would guess it'll have 12-15k more miles than the initial testing.

Polishing spools does work. It more time consuming of course and injector o-ring kits need to be purchased. The issue I see is the only one part of the injector is being polished, the spool and not the bore. Also, new reman injectors have the updated coils with the oil bleed slot. My conclusions have come from 3 trucks that had the spools polished and stiction returned on average 15k miles. I know the owners were religious with synthetic oil changes and monitor FICM etc, so what happened? Good question.

So....

Use Archoil every now and then at $41 a shot, or polish the spools for $48 or a Motorcraft injector for $205.

Josh

 

So here's my update on the 9100. I got home yesterday from a fly fishing trip and had about 150 miles of mountain driving so the oil was good and hot when I got home. Once I hit the driveway I immediately changed oil to Delo 5-40 and added the 9100. I ran the truck around the block and then took the used oil down to O'Reilly's and dumped it. Came home, parked, and didn't drive it again last night - I probably put about 25 miles on the new oil. I was excited to give it a test this morning, so I got up early, went out and fired it up. It's summer so the start up is typically the same as usual. The road test, though, was incredible. A night and day difference in the way the truck usually runs on the first trip of the day. I usually have to drive a mile or so before the oil will heat up enough to get clean shifts with no bucking. This morning, right out of the driveway, I got to 3rd gear without a hitch and the truck is definitely running better. Is it a bandaid? Yea, maybe. But if you've experienced stiction in your own truck for any amount of time, you know you will do practically anything to get it fixed. $38 bucks a bottle and full synthetic costs a lot of money every 5k miles but I think it's a good fix for a nagging pain in the butt problem.

 

WOW that Delo 5w40 oil is amazing!
Glad you have some good temporary results. I'd still save for new injectors.