Schrodingers Box MAF diagnosis video reaction

Schrodingers Box part 1 reaction:

Anyone else catch that he introduced himself as MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor)? Nice Freudian Slip...not a true one, but the phrase has slowly changed to mean that something you're mind is working on came out. So cool. :)

Purposeful or not.
At 4:20, Matt (Schrodingers Box) is about to talk about IAC or the idle air control valve. While this is a bypass of air around the throttle valve, realize all the air that gets to this also has to go past the MAF. So, if you have a known expectation of your idle RPM and what your MAF could be, it could be a way with a scantool only to know if there is something wrong with your MAF. Just remember, this can be misleading as idle can be wrong for other issues like running rich. IAC will respond with more air than normal and RPM will usually be raised.

Matt's spoiler alert didn't ruin anything for me about his new tool. He had hinted at 7:20 about about another non scan tool test I was all smiles. :) I have this bad habit of reading comments before the video or as it runs, so I already new an oscilloscope was coming!

17:06 By now I'm very excited. I have successfully diagnosed two bad MAF sensors prior to this video. 1 was super easy. 2.3 to 33 g/s was normal for my car at idle. 93 g/s per second at idle and random spikes around that abnormal number as I pushed on the throttle? Okay. I knew what was wrong.

The better MAF I condemned I didn't do directly. On my car the MAF and IAT are in the same component. IAT was reading very accurately as compared to my "laser" thermometer of the intake that the IAT sat in....but when it got above 43 degrees C it would race hotter. The "hotter" the air the more the PCM believed it needed less fuel. The O2 sensor caught it and increased fuel trim.

I reference being excited by 17:06 as I realized my MAF is 100 to 200 degrees F hotter than the IAT? Well, since the IAT was getting off the more it got hotter after it's accurate range. of 43 degrees C...well hey, by it being in the same part I condemned my 2nd "MAF" ;)

By the way the 2nd way I had known to condemn a MAF (I'll go ahead and be more honest now, I condemned an IAT, it was just attached to it in the same part of a MAF, Lol) was achievable by DVOM, chart of known resistance representing what temperature and a laser thermometer.

I cross referenced my results via scan data and the laser thermometer as well. There's no way to get around that laser thermometer for this technique.

21:45 It seems to me that the way the MAF was intentionally designed was to appear to be a potentiometer. I think they avoided changing how PCM's reacted from the early VANE type MAF's and how they'd have to see a potentiometer.

So, analog MAF's appear to be engineered to me to prevent re-engineering PCMs. Sure the PCM needed the equipment to produce voltage and maintain constant temperature, but the change in V sure seems like a potentiometer.

by AutoBravado

For another article by AutoBravado discussing how I fried my MAF. The articles intention was to be about water decarbonization only, but I got into some related concepts as water decarbonization done wrong would get this sensitive sensor broken.

Milky Oil Cap? Reasons you should or shouldn't worry.

In case you haven't watched the video yet, milky sludge on an oil cap is simply an indication of water condensation in an engine. At the worst, it means you've blown through a head gasket and coolant has been ruining your engine for some time. Simply check your oil on the dipstick. If it's not milky too, then you're probably just having problems with living in a cold area, or your taking too short of trips for the water to boil off in your engine.

Despite no milkiness under my oil cap, and generally driving in a warm environment, this explains why there is a general brown tinge to all the parts inside of the engine in my 1999 Chevy Prizm. I should have been increasing my oil change interval.

I think I do a lot to prevent issues, always using quality synthetic motor oil like Mobil 1 or Castrol with Syntec. When these synthetic motor oils are the extended mileage type my oil looks pretty clean up to 5k to 5.5k miles, but when I get synthetic that doesn't have the "extended" design I only get about 4.4k miles out of the motor oil. (These synthetic motor oils are rated at 15k and 7k respective to my 5.5k and 4.4k mile synthetic motor oil change intervals.) I'm basing these decisions by how dark the oil gets.

It's all those short trips. I'm building up water, and therefore acids because of living in smaller towns since 2005. The metal of my engines in a Metropolis looked much better. You know, where I was usually driving at least 23 miles to work, and I bought much more used cars and it was a colder area too.

Short trips really are hard on cars. I never fully believed it, but "proof is in the pudding"! Just don't eat it! lol

I guess at 130k miles of having even my reduced "extended" synthetic motor oil change intervals, I should have stayed under 4k miles the whole time (car has 170k miles plus now).


Check out one of my other articles about synthetic motor oil. This article gives some answers to the questions. Why synthetic? How does it help with my cars miles per gallon?

by AutoBravado

Does Techron Concentrate Plus really work?

I know we can't go back, but I wonder if the Techron would have been effective at the soft carbon that hadn't baked on back at the beginning of the first video in this series? To be honest I don't think it's something ChrisFix or I will ever test.

To catch everyone up, ChrisFix is doing multiple fuel injector cleaner tests on a engine with some carbon build up. He has a bore camera so he can show evidence, rather than just listening to the engine or having a feel for his truck that can't be proven or shown on camera.

Think about it. Techron Concentrate Plus really doesn't look effective on the hard build up. For the price the Gumout did pretty similar work with a lot less cost on his earlier video. Plus, I see Gumout on sale at AutoZone...I don't know how often, but when on sale you can get almost 4 bottles of Gumout to the Techron at full price. Sure the Techron goes on sale too, but usually by not nearly as much.

On impulse before a 2,200 mile trip I did in my truck I ran Gumout Regane and the old Techron together. From other subscribers of ChrisFix's YouTube channel, I believe I actually got the PEA that techron used to show on the MSDS. The current MSDS for Techron doesn't show PEA anymore. That seems to be the cleaner of choice that actually has scientists finding data and publishing journals on it.

The results I could really feel came in about 1/2 through the trip. I filled up on gas pretty often and didn't get my tank low so math says that since I had double concentration between the two cleaners that it probably took half the trip for the solution to get pretty diluted.

I really wish I had a bore camera to see the before and after. I will say this though. It normally takes several thousand miles for my trucks oil to get some black in it. My oil was fresh before the trip and after it was as dirty as if I had driven more like 4000 miles. It's my only indicator that cleaning happened that's visual other than the experience of the engine really opening up, getting smoother, and sounding quiter.

To be fair, ChrisFix did a much better test than I did. I could show the results. When I ran Gumout Regane in my 1999 Chevy Prizm right after the water decarbonization article I wrote, I really didn't feel any difference. Since I had bought it as a buy one get one free, I figured why not put it in the truck? My MPG did improve throughout my journey. And the biggest changes were during the time that I still had a significant concentration left of the Gumout Regane and Techron Concentrate Plus.

Now remember, I felt quite the difference that I used to hear from friends all the time back in the day when I bought this Techron bottle. That was when it still had PEA. It's what convinced me to even put it in my truck. All my friends that thought it worked before have stopped buying it, and having seen the current MSDS myself, it doesn't have PEA. It makes me wonder if PEA has gotten more expensive. Seeing as Techron Concentrate Plus is one of the most expensive products on the shelf at my local store, I think they're just trying to make money on a reputation for PEA that used to be in the product. Well, even without bore scopes, all my friends have stopped buying it.

These videos get me to say a lot and I hope my personal experience may be of benefit to another. It's really too bad that I can only speak from how the engine sounded. I should have taken some screen shots at least from my Torque App before and after I did see a HP/torque bump, but I was also at lower elevation later in the trip, so having thicker atmosphere may have been the cause. Maybe that would have turned up some more evidence. I did see significant changes on my OBD II data during my trip. I haven't yet gone through many, many fuel receipts that I did MPG in a thorough way, but I'll be sure to report back with more detail.

Just for reference:
I was hauling a full load in a full sized truck bed on a 2004 Nissan Frontier XE with the V6 3.3 option with no supercharger. Also, when it was very cold out my engine seemed to ping some. My knock sensor went bad and it's on back order. I'm doing a knock sensor location mod once my parts from Bosch are no longer on back order so I'll be sure to report any MPG changes! Nissan put the knock sensor deep under the intakes so the proper job is a full days work, while the mod only takes 15-45 minutes. More to come. :)

Get more tips on how to improve your truck's or car's miles per gallon on my main website. Or watch my own video and reactions to a fuel additive. Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant:

by AutoBravado