I saw a post recently about a guy who puts 4 oz per 10 gallons of gas of marvel mystery oil through his Flathead V8. I assume this is to lubricate the valves and upper cylinders. Is anyone else out there doing this ? Sounds like a good idea to me. Does it make your car smoke?? Please let me know if you have some information guys. Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
4 oz oil in 10 gallons of gas is pretty unlikely to cause any smoke. Probably very few people did that to original flatheads and they seemed to last ok. But do it if you want to.
I run my Stihl chainsaw at 40:1 and it doesn't smoke. 4 ounces to 10 gal. is 320:1 Your not going to see any smoke. Will it help an old flathead? Not sure. I know when I brake free an old motor that hasn't run in years, I always add a little oil to the gas. I figure it can't hurt. May help free up sticky valves and rings. As far as marvel mystery oil? Not really sure what's in that shit. Always thought it smelt a little like diesel.
I run about 3oz. /5 gal. in my gas. Not only in the car but also in my tractors. The tractors get a lot of hours over a yrs. time. I think it counteracts the effects of the alcohol. I don't know if it helps or not but it can't hurt.
Maybe consider Seafoam. My friends & I have had good luck with it in non-car uses. Seafoam cleans out the fuel system and stabilizes the gas as well. Most recent use was with the gas powered auger that had not run in 8 years and my son needed to use it. I replaced the poly fuel lines and put some gas in it. It would not fire so I coaxed it to life with some ether. It was running rough so I added Seafoam at the ratio of 2 oz per gallon and let it run for half an hour. We could clearly hear the idle slowly go from a rough stumble to a nice smooth idle. Now the auger fires up on the first or second pull. Seafoam recommends 1oz per gallon for what you would like the Marvel Mystery Oil to do and an advantage is that it is a fuel stabilizer.
I suspect all that is in MMO is pretty much straight low viscosity napthenic mineral oil, which provides some solvency to soften and clean up varnish deposits. But modern fuels have pretty good detergent chemistry that the fuels from the old days didn't have, to prevent varnish formation to keep fuel injectors clean and working properly, so I don't know that there would be any benefit from using MMO for that. Mixed in with the gas it probably provides a little added lubrication, which probably isn't a bad thing considering the removal of lead from gas. I don't know, I think it tends to be more of magic snake oil that actually beneficial, but I don't know that it will harm anything. I definitely would NOT add it to the crankcase, diluting modern motor oil, and possibly screwing with the chemistry.
I add a couple of ounces of MMO to 16 gal. of gas along with some lead additive. Opinions vary depending on if you have hardened valve seats and the octane rating of your gas. Doesn't seem to hurt anything, from my perspective.
In the old days they said adding MMM like that would double the life of valves and rings. Today's gas has no lead, which protects valves and it is dryer as well (less oily). I would say adding MMM will do your engine good and protect against valve wear.
Or you could just add two stroke mix oil. It works well to lubricate rings, valves etc and has stabilizers to combat the effects of ethanol blended fuels. A half a cup in a tank of fuel works well and doesn't smoke.
MMO is special, to say the least. I've seen it bring back engines in ships that were literally shut off and walked away from, dating back to WW1. Many of them were stuck! I call it marvelously mysterious oil.
MMO can also help your gas tank not rust at the gas line if there’s a little water in the gas. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hey guys. Thanks for all of the input and comments. I decided to use the Seafoam. It’s actually a better choice in my opinion. After talking with some mechanic friends they all said it was the way to go. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've been driving my 39 for around 25 years and probably have over 50,000 miles on it and have never used any kind of additive in the oil or gas. Never a problem.