There are many engine treatment products on the market, each with its own claim of wonders. There is certainly a lot of marketing hype for such products. For some, they are even backed by product demonstrations to proof the point. If you take a closer look, you will probably notice that many such demonstrations are created under controlled conditions. There are even some setups skewed to show what the product manufacturer would like you to see/believe. Somewhere along the line, many of us must have been a sucker for such products.

How often do you have the chance to actually take a look at the internals of an engine which has been treated with an engine treatment? I have seen the internals of two different engines which have been treated with AR² Rev-Er-Up. Let me briefly describe to you the two setups.

1^st setup

Subaru WRX 2.0 litre boxer engine. The engine has been through numerous number of carpark races. It certainly qualifies for a highly stressed engine. In one instance, the boost was increased way beyond the recommended settings. The compression ratio was way too high to support the high boost pressure. As a result, detonation occured. The engine was running pretty bad and blowing smoke. Later, the engine was stripped apart to access the damage. The pistons were badly damaged by the detonation. Ever seen piston ring gaps being fused together in one lump of metal? As for the piston rings, what piston rings??? :-( In such circumstances, the block is usually not spared. The surprising thing was, the honing on the block is still perfect. Not a single scratch!

2^nd setup

Mitsubishi Lancer MIVEC (4G92) engine. It is another highly stressed engine (no thanks to the driving habits of the owner). It has been through two dyno sessions and a number of trips to Malaysia at high speeds. All these took place without an engine oil change. The car was driven way past the scheduled service interval. I wonder how many of us are guilty of this? Tied up by work, we will probably get the oil change done another day. Funny thing is, there is always another day.

The inevitable happened. The engine started to burn engine oil. It became so bad that it was gulping 4 litres of engine oil in a month! There was an occasion that the engine ran dry (no oil at all on the dipstick!) and you can hear the ticking noise (almost a sure sign that the bearings are gone). Unable to put up with such nonsense, the engine was finally stripped apart. The piston rings were damaged (especially the oil control rings) but the pistons are fine. There was practically no damage to the engine block as the honing on the block is still in tact. The bearings suffered only slight surface scratches. From the sludge deposit left behind (certainly an ugly sight), it is certain that the engine oil has been cooked and it no longer offers adequate engine lubrication/protection! Despite of that, the rest of the valvetrain components are still in a good condition.

As the saying goes, seeing is believing. Had it not been the use of AR² Rev-Er-Up on these two engines, the damage would have been worse. I have not seen any impressive laboratory demonstrations for this product. There are no advertisements on it. What I did see was the end result of  real-world setups treated with AR² Rev-Er-Up , which is far beyond the control of any product manufacturer. I am convinced, this is no snake-oil.