hellerlake wrote ... "The arborist's chips I have gotten always came full of shredded leaves and/or needles which begin to break down immediately. There's plenty of nitrogen/organics. As for mulched beds that have not loosened up, what were they mulched with? Bark? Bark is naturally imbued with a waxy substance to protect the tree from moisture. It's suberized. It never really breaks down, and incorporates into the soil because of the suberization. Eventually, it breaks down into waxy, little fibers that form a crust on top of the soil. " An arborist friend once had a 25' tall birch tree-spade moved to his front yard. To start, the hole was half where the lawn was, and half in shrub bed that was never rototilled - same soil to start - but had a barkdust layer maintained for at least 10 years. The half circle in the lawn when dug, was pretty much unchanged. But old bark had decomposed enough to improve the bed soil. Down to 12" depth it was darkened some, and crumbled. It was handy to have seen the side-by-side comparison where the soil history was known, to see the change on the bark side, versus the lawn compacted by mower tires and bag weight side. Sometimes I've applied both. The last home in south Oregon, I put down about 8 truck loads of the chipped tree branches first, then laid barkdust on top for a more groomed look. 20 years ago, when we got about 30 big truckloads at my mother's 2nd acre in Beaverton, the wood chips with plenty of branch wood broke down pretty quick, which was nice. Thought it may be worth adding ... One golf course superintendent I worked under at Columbia Edgewater Country club in Portland, some year back, used to add fine barkdust to the sand for some of the new greens. It was because they decomposed - but decomposed slowly. The new greens were about 3% to 5% bark and the rest sand. His education was in agronomy. From what I've seen since then, the method makes sense.

If you have the money to throw away - pitch it my direction..lol......:-) If the oil level at the dipstick does not appreciatively drop between oil changes, then, you have NO leak(of engine oil). Seepage yes - IMO, they all seep, some more than others... Assure that you do not have excessive pressure in the crankcase, that the PVC system functions properly. Identify the "leak", it could be power steering oil or ATF. Some say that the use of Auto-RX stops these leaks......

Anti leak oil additives are TEMPORARY only and then you throw the car away. They actually swell up and partially desolve the gasket material stopping the leak. If all the crap out there as in " rebuild an engine in a can " did work why are all the engine rebuilders stil in buisness and doing very well? If you ever use a stop leak additive in a car's A.C. there is a warning on the can. " All A.C. warranty is void if a stop leak is used. " Remember the B.S.A. or Triumph motorcycle ? Put S.T.P. in the oil and see what happends. You make sure you park those bikes over a drip tray if you did. You wouldn't make it to the vendor and back before your crankcase dripped dry. You will forget to check the oil one day on your van and run her dry. Now you need an engine.

I pulled out ye olde detergent formulation handbook (yes, I have one)... I see that sodium metasilicate (powder) and sodium metasilicate pentahydrate (liquid) "provide alkalinity and can protect soft metals such as aluminum, copper, zinc, brass and tin from the corrosive effects of strongly alkaline cleaning solutions. Silicates also reduce the redeposition of soils." My book also states that STPP is often combined with sodium metasilicate to produce a synergistic effect where the two work better together. Also of note regarding STPP, it cannot solubilize fats on its own, but can with the addition of SDDBS (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate). Some people in this forum are under the impression that STPP can rid your machine of gunk and clean oil stains from clothing, which doesn't appear to be the case. However, my book does recommend that if you are using detergents with a precipitating softener (sodium carbonate, soda ash, wash soda, etc) in hard water, adding STPP will prevent those precipitates from agglomerating onto your washer parts. You will note that the vast majority of drum spiders in front loaders are made from aluminum, a metal that can be corroded by a strongly alkaline cleaning solution. The addition of silicates to such a solution should minimize the corrosive effects on the spider assembly.