Marvel's Mystery Oil

[lloyd3]

Does this stuff help stuck rings at all? Old wives tale or an actual value?  Any downside to use?

[Daytona R/T SE]

Does this stuff help stuck rings at all? Old wives tale or an actual value?  Any downside to use?

I don't know about the rings, but I've loosened up seized engines with it and they ran fine afterwards.

A friend of mine did the same with a '51 Dodge pick up that sat out in the desert for 30 plus years, he drives it all over the place now.

The only downside is, they smoke like Mount Saint Helens for quite a while when you fire them up...do it outside.  

[XH29N0G]

Completely unrelated to your application.  Seeing the name brings back memories of using the stuff and the smell from my time as a kid on the outside of my dad's outboard motor each time we pulled the boar from the water and flushed it.  He told me they used to use the stuff when he was a kid on his mark 20H (mercury) and how he remembered the smell at that time.  I loved the stuff, but now wonder whether it was as good for as I thought it was then.  

[67tbird]

The machine shop I go to uses a 50/50 mixture of it and wd-40 to keep stuff rust free and lubricated.

[odcics2]

For loosening rusted parts : ATF and Acetone 50-50 mix.    

VERY cost effective!  


Also - MoPar Heat Riser Solvent works wonders, if you can find it cheap enough, like at garage sales. (5 cans for 2 bucks)

[GMP440]

   No downside to it's use.  Been using it since the early eights.  Never had a lifter that I could not quiet using Marvel Mystery oil.
   It will loosen piston rings if the piston and ring assembly were submerged in MMO.  In an engine, the MMO would seep into the ring grooves, but the rest would drip down past the pistons.
    If allowed to set in the ring grooves, eventually they would loosen up.   I have used MMO to free up seized engines.  Works well.

[lloyd3]

OK, how about using it in a non-seized engine to possibly help rings get a newer, better seal? If the accumulated crud from sitting for 30-years was cleansed by pouring it down the carb with the coil disconnected (no spark!) and then letting it sit for a few days?  I know this has the sound of desperation to it but, what would one have to lose here?

Lots of old-timers (& who isn't these days?) used to pour ATF down the carb for exactly the same reasons. Occasionally this would reportedly produce the desired results.  The other possible result would be that the "crud" actually helped maintain what little seal that still existed. When it was gone, the rings were then really ineffective.

[odcics2]

If the rings are shot, the rings are shot....   

[Troy]

I haven't had anything stuck yet - but I use that stuff to take the corrosion off of aluminum (heads, intakes, wheels, brackets, etc.).

Troy

[TexasStroker]

If it isn't seized, but has sat quite awhile without being turned over, I was always told to use an oiler and shoot ATF in each cylinder (via the spark plug hole) and let it set...I guess the logic was it decreases scoring and burns off.

I will say, all the times I've done this with newer oilers I wind up having the ATF leak out wherever I place it...be weary of that.  At work I only use Goldenrod oilers and haven't had that happen. 

[BrianShaughnessy]

A friend freed up a '36 Olds 6 cylinder that had been sitting for years with it. 

[NHCharger]

Was just talking with my Dad about MMO. He said they were using it to free up seized engines when he worked for Wentworth Motors as a teenager. My Dad is almost 85. Do the math

[Kern Dog]

A math problem? Really?

[XH29N0G]

just a sec.  let me find the calculator app on my phone....

impressive - that is a longer time ago than my dad's 20H  mercury story

[alfaitalia]

It was invented in 1923.

[fc7_plumcrazy]

   No downside to it's use.  Been using it since the early eights.  Never had a lifter that I could not quiet using Marvel Mystery oil.
   

you use it to make a noisey lifter quiet?

Carsten

[krops cars]

Try it. When I was a kid old guys swore by it. What do you have to lose.

[BSB67]

impressive - that is a longer time ago than my dad's 20H  mercury story

I'd like to hear that story.

[XH29N0G]

I don't know too much about it other than when I was a kid we used to spray marvel's mystery oil on our outboard motors because my dad grew up in south Florida, spending a lot of his time with a friend running utilities (boats) and old Kefauver(?) mercury engines. He used to tell me about the boats and engines when I was a kid and using marvels mystery oil to take care of them. He still loves those old engines and recently acquired a small number and a D utility from the early 1950's.  We have yet to run them, but he did just fix up (or have fixed up) a mark 25 for my 16 year old nephew.  I think those boats were what started him liking things mechanical.

[BSB67]

Pretty cool.  Used them as a kid, have a few today still.  Funny though, never done anything to store them.  I think there was so much oil used in fuel that short of total neglect, they were probably fine.

[GMP440]

     "you use it to make a noisey lifter quiet?"

      Carsten

      Yes.   MMO quiets noisy lifters.  That's my experience.   Add it to the oil.  For example, a five quart oil system;  use 4 quarts oil and 1 quart MMO.  May take a few days to a couple weeks
     before the lifter cleans up and ticking goes way.  Once it stops ticking, change the oil again and just go back to 5 quarts of oil.

[odcics2]

MMO is part solvent, part metal protection.   

[fc7_plumcrazy]

     "you use it to make a noisey lifter quiet?"

      Carsten

      Yes.   MMO quiets noisy lifters.  That's my experience.   Add it to the oil.  For example, a five quart oil system;  use 4 quarts oil and 1 quart MMO.  May take a few days to a couple weeks
     before the lifter cleans up and ticking goes way.  Once it stops ticking, change the oil again and just go back to 5 quarts of oil.

thanks.
I will have to figure out where to buy it in germany.
Might be worth the test

Carsten

[5wndwcpe]

I've been substituting MMO for a quart of conventional oil in my '02 diesel 2500 since new.  The truck has 226,000 miles on it now and the last time I pulled the valve cover, the inside was clean enough to eat out of.  Then again, I'm not a picky eater, so YMMV. 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The machine shop I go to uses a 50/50 mixture of it and wd-40 to keep stuff rust free and lubricated.

Sounds like something that just might work if the wife!   

[ACUDANUT]

The machine shop I go to uses a 50/50 mixture of it and wd-40 to keep stuff rust free and lubricated.

Sounds like something that just might work if the wife!   

If the wife what ?

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The machine shop I go to uses a 50/50 mixture of it and wd-40 to keep stuff rust free and lubricated.

Sounds like something that just might work if the wife!   

If the wife what ?



Obviously she caught me typing that & smacked me around before I could finish. Now I'm really finished.   

[odcics2]

The machine shop I go to uses a 50/50 mixture of it and wd-40 to keep stuff rust free and lubricated.

Sounds like something that just might work if the wife!   

If the wife what ?



Obviously she caught me typing that & smacked me around before I could finish. Now I'm really finished.   

Sounds like this story did not have a happy ending....   

[fc7_plumcrazy]

     "you use it to make a noisey lifter quiet?"

      Carsten

      Yes.   MMO quiets noisy lifters.  That's my experience.   Add it to the oil.  For example, a five quart oil system;  use 4 quarts oil and 1 quart MMO.  May take a few days to a couple weeks
     before the lifter cleans up and ticking goes way.  Once it stops ticking, change the oil again and just go back to 5 quarts of oil.

it worked.
Lifter got quiet

Carsten

[Bad B-rad]

Lots of old-timers (& who isn't these days?) used to pour ATF down the carb for exactly the same reasons. Occasionally this would reportedly produce the desired results.  The other possible result would be that the "crud" actually helped maintain what little seal that still existed. When it was gone, the rings were then really ineffective.

I bought a 1971 Plymouth Duster, in 1997/1998,(I was 17 or 18) and it only had 22,000 miles, but it had sat for long time, and the engine oil was like coal.
My grand pop  showed me two ATF tricks for cleaning out an extremely sludgy engine.
One was the down the carb trick with the ATF.
He did it with the car running, he used one hand to pour the ATF, the other to keep the engine running.
The second was to drain the engine oil, install new filter. Then when refilling the engine use a mixture 60% correct engine oil, 40% ATF. Next run the car up to full operating temp for 10 or so minutes.
Then drain the engine, change the filter, and refill with correct engine oil, and you are good to go.

He also taught me an old trick they used as a way of keeping engines clean. About a day or two before an oil change he would add one quart of ATF, or MMO,  drive it for a day or two, then change the oil.
He did mention not to tow or run the engine hard when driving it with this mixture prior to the oil change.
Back then ATF was mostly a mixture of hydraulic oil with tons of detergent, or cleaning agents.

Just a bit of info:
My grand pop was born in 1919, and after WWII became a heavy equipment mechanic, he started in the union in 1948, and "retired" in 1982.
He taught me all sorts of old school tricks, some may no longer work, for example, he told me they used to pour Coca-Cola on rusty tire beads and let it sit for a few minutes to help get the beads loose. They have changed what is in the soda, so this no longer works.


I have had great luck with MMO, and stuck engines myself.

[XH29N0G]

Excellent about the lifter.

lloyd3, thanks for the story.  Fun to read. 

I'll follow up with my old boat motor stories.  My dad got one of those old engines running (I think a 4 cylinder 35 HP from the 50's) and just passed it to my nephew who just turned 16.  They are boating and waterskiing with it.