Marvel Mystery Oil

cfd408

cfd408

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jan 17, 2018
Messages
65
Location
Aurora, Colorado
Display Name
Display name:
Peter
This may sound like an odd question.. does anyone actually use this in their aircraft? I was talking with an owner of a '74 Beech C23 (180hp Lycoming) in Texas.. says he adds it to his fuel regularly and to oil at oil change every 50hrs.
I'm very hesitant if not skeptical.. Any thoughts on this?
 
The A&P that originally did the condition inspection on my Fly Baby started as a mechanic for Northwest Orient Airlines, back when they were flying Constellations. He told me to use MMO in my Fly Baby's Continental.

Haven't had any valve problems. Haven't had any elephants come around, either, so it works as a pachyderm repellent, too.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I get the adding it to the oil during oil change.. but adding to the fuel?
you won't see many flying elephants in Seattle.. maybe around Orlando... hear there is one based there.. lol
 
Lots of people swear by it.

1/3 of people polled believe in a flat earth.

There is a good chance it won't harm your engine if used in moderation.

A unnamed individual who's career was to test / specify fuels and lubricants at a place where I used to work classified it as "garbage".
 
My old timer mechanic, who is no longer with us ( RIP Daymond), swore by adding MMO to the fuel if burning auto gas. He had a '57 182 and took it to nearly 2000 hours burning auto gas with MMO. Twice.

Why? It's a mystery.
 
I use it as labeled at each fuel up. It acts as a upper cylinder lubricant and anti lead fouling. I believe it traces its use from WWII, when military planes used leaded fuel. Do not exceed labeled dosage.
 
Last edited:
tceq24443 said:
I believe it traces its used from WWII, when military planes used leaded fuel.
Click to expand...
"Vehicles of the post WWI era encountered carburetor problems, the most perplexing being clogged jets due to high lead content and other contaminants found in the gasoline of the time. The problem motivated Pierce to direct his creative ingenuity towards formulating a blend of chemicals and petroleum products to clean and maintain clogged jets. He was successful beyond his wildest expectations and the legend of MMO was born."
http://www.marvelmysteryoil.com/our-history/
 
wanttaja said:
The A&P that originally did the condition inspection on my Fly Baby started as a mechanic for Northwest Orient Airlines, back when they were flying Constellations. He told me to use MMO in my Fly Baby's Continental.

Haven't had any valve problems. Haven't had any elephants come around, either, so it works as a pachyderm repellent, too.

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...

Betcha it don't work for these guys. http://www.boldmethod.com/blog/article/careers/2015/04/bush-pilot-in-africa/
 
All the 195 guys use it. Idk anyone that does in anything besides a radial
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
1/3 of people polled believe in a flat earth.
Click to expand...

Correction: 1/3 of people who bothered to answer the phone or didn’t have jobs to do when the pollsters called...

Can’t think of anyone intelligent and busy who bothers with polls. Bored intelligent people jointly mess with online polls to make the pollsters mad. :)
 
cfd408 said:
This may sound like an odd question.. does anyone actually use this in their aircraft? I was talking with an owner of a '74 Beech C23 (180hp Lycoming) in Texas.. says he adds it to his fuel regularly and to oil at oil change every 50hrs.
I'm very hesitant if not skeptical.. Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
Lots of people do.
 
Paulie said:
Mystery oil, cam guard, wd-40, stp. There’s a sucker born every minute.
Click to expand...

MMO does clean the engine, there is a YouTube vid where a guy used it on a lawnmower engine, showed it before and after, it definitely clean it.
I use it on the before oil change flight, it thins out oil too much too much to use it regularly.
 
I posted a photo of a plastic jug of MMO in the hangar and it worked its magic on my engine.
 
Paulie said:
Mystery oil, cam guard, wd-40, stp. There’s a sucker born every minute.
Click to expand...

Having turned my fair share of wrenches building my Jeep I can attest to value and validity of WD-40 as a penetrating lubricant and rust inhibitor. Would never vouch for it as a fuel or oil additive though.
 
The engine on the 182 I'm working on has never been started, I bore scoped the cylinders didn't see any rust. I put 4-6 Oz of WD40 in each cylinder and cranked the engine for 4-5 seconds. Then pulled the lower spark plugs just to see what the WD-40 would look like as it drained, it looked kinda dark, and very oily. I think some one put some sort of preservative in it, WD-40 washed it out, because now the cylinder was are very bright and shiny..
I'm going to start it and see what happens.
 
MMO is basically mineral oil, thinner, and a dash of a chemical soap.
It thins the oil and dilutes it. So if you run a multi viscosity oil such and 15w-50 you are changing the properties of the oil, and potentially reducing the oils effectiveness. It does work well though to remove the sludge in the oil pan. I had some in the Aerostar, drain the oil. Plug it. Pour MMO down the dip stick (I forget why down dip stick). Let it sit overnight, drain. And flush with a coupe of quarts of oil before refilling.
As for putting it in the fuel, it does not burn well, does not get a chance to scrub anything, and when it does burn it leaves and dirty oily residue (same as mineral oil, oh wait it is mineral oil)

Sent from my LG-TP260 using Tapatalk
 
cfd408 said:
This may sound like an odd question.. does anyone actually use this in their aircraft
Click to expand...
The story on Mystery, Seafoam, and the other voodoo additives from long ago was they were regularly used because fuel and lubrication oil technology was basically non-existent. Most modern fluids have additive packages now with perform the same job as the old stuff.

But as with any old tip past down the pipe over the years, like putting batteries on wood not the ground, the validity of the tip is more cultural than factual in most cases. Is there still a place for Mystery and Seafoam? Sure. Any small 4-cycle engine will benefit due to their design and any round engine that sits for periods will still benefit from Mystery.
 
tspear said:
MMO is basically mineral oil, thinner, and a dash of a chemical soap.
It thins the oil and dilutes it. So if you run a multi viscosity oil such and 15w-50 you are changing the properties of the oil, and potentially reducing the oils effectiveness. It does work well though to remove the sludge in the oil pan. I had some in the Aerostar, drain the oil. Plug it. Pour MMO down the dip stick (I forget why down dip stick). Let it sit overnight, drain. And flush with a coupe of quarts of oil before refilling.
As for putting it in the fuel, it does not burn well, does not get a chance to scrub anything, and when it does burn it leaves and dirty oily residue (same as mineral oil, oh wait it is mineral oil)

Sent from my LG-TP260 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Do you have a valid reference for any of that ??
My brain-e-ack Daughter designs and builds Spectrographic analyzers, I sent her a specimen of MMO, and asked her to tell me what it was.
After some back and forth about are you real, she said this.
It is a light distillate, probably some thing like diesel fuel, with oil of winter green to kill the oder, and a red dye.
In theory, as a heavier oil it will raise the BTU content of gas, (an insignificant amount) the oil of winter green is a good penetrant in its self, but in this amount it will have no effect. Red dye? well it looks pretty.

As for my opinion, if it makes you feel good use it.
 
The NTSB notes at least two cases where pilots fueled their aircraft with mogas+MMO. It notes this only due to the ensuing crash. Wiki lists on NTSB analysis of the stuff to be quite different from the MSDS ingredient list (lard?) I generally use no additives in my oil or my fuel, with the sole exception of Stabil for my lawn equipment and some diesel anti-gel (tractor prist?) for the Mahindra.
 
Tom-D said:
Do you have a valid reference for any of that ??
My brain-e-ack Daughter designs and builds Spectrographic analyzers, I sent her a specimen of MMO, and asked her to tell me what it was.
After some back and forth about are you real, she said this.
It is a light distillate, probably some thing like diesel fuel, with oil of winter green to kill the oder, and a red dye.
In theory, as a heavier oil it will raise the BTU content of gas, (an insignificant amount) the oil of winter green is a good penetrant in its self, but in this amount it will have no effect. Red dye? well it looks pretty.

As for my opinion, if it makes you feel good use it.
Click to expand...

https://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=13005001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Mystery_Oil

https://www.msdsdigital.com/marvel-mystery-oil-msds

All about the same.

Tim
 
My grandmother used to extoll the virtues of Mystery Oil in her car. I thought she was daft until after I inherited her car and was in an auto parts store and found that it was a real product. Figured there was no point in bucking the trend now. It was minty fresh. Never used it in the airplane though.
 
The wiki article cites a cause of an aircraft crash to the use of this additive. I’m sure the Lycoming engineer has heard of it. Can’t find it’s use endorsed in my engine’s manual.
Nope, seems illogical to use in my plane.
 
oilburner said:
The wiki article cites a cause of an aircraft crash to the use of this additive. I’m sure the Lycoming engineer has heard of it. Can’t find it’s use endorsed in my engine’s manual.
Nope, seems illogical to use in my plane.
Click to expand...

I would not use it in fuel, especially if you have wet tanks, don’t know what it will do to the decades old sealant.
 
I suspect the product sold as MMM today has little in common with what was originally on the shelf 60 years ago. Plenty of benzene derivatives and chlorinated evilness routinely available in fuels and additives back then have fallen by the wayside since.
 
flyingron said:
...or just internal tanks. Lots of planes have rigid internal tanks inside the wings.
Click to expand...

It was early, I meant wet wings, ones that use sealant, sealant that could react to whatever chemicals are in MMO.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
The NTSB notes at least two cases where pilots fueled their aircraft with mogas+MMO. It notes this only due to the ensuing crash. Wiki lists on NTSB analysis of the stuff to be quite different from the MSDS ingredient list (lard?) I generally use no additives in my oil or my fuel, with the sole exception of Stabil for my lawn equipment and some diesel anti-gel (tractor prist?) for the Mahindra.
Click to expand...

Yes they were basically trying to run the engine off MMO. MMO is a 5wt oil. It will dilute octane if used improperly
 
MMO early 20th century technology, modern avgas non-fuel injected engines early 20th century technology....just saying

MMO is a 5Wt oil, when added to fuel it acts as an upper cylinder lubricant. When to much is added it will kill the octane. to much is not a good thing per the above reference NTSB reports
 
cfd408 said:
This may sound like an odd question.. does anyone actually use this in their aircraft? I was talking with an owner of a '74 Beech C23 (180hp Lycoming) in Texas.. says he adds it to his fuel regularly and to oil at oil change every 50hrs.
I'm very hesitant if not skeptical.. Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
If you follow the instructions, its not going to hurt the engine. That said the best thing you could do is fly your airplane at least twice a week at least 30 minutes at a time, one of the best things you can do for your airplane...and for general aviation. I hanger at TX46, we have 10 planes here. Mine flys at least twice a week on average, the other nine not so much. two haven't flown in years maybe decades, the others maybe once a year. Sad and pathetic.
 
Its amazing, as we recently acquired a YAK how much I've heard of using MMO even from our A&P,seems many believe in it.
All it is is mineral oil and stoddard solvent.
I've read tons on the subject and I've yet to find a reason where it's truly caused a failure Yes there was that one report where the FAA found it in the fuel but it still was not a contributin g factor.
Personally I will not put it in my oil as I have issues with diluting oil
but figure what concern could 4oz per 10 gallon of fuel could it cause or vice versa?
Aviation fuel is the cleanest gas I know and what other gasoline do you know that will set over a year or two without turning into varnish?
In addition to Aviation I'm into Large and Small tractors, other engine driven equipment,small engines and again there are many in these circles who Totally believe in MMO and its Magic qualities
Oh, it also according to the bottle it will also solve transmission leak issues in automobile transmissions.

I'm not totally convinced this mystery stuff solves all the problems of the world but I know a lot of people who I honestly respect their abilities and knowledge and their track record is excellent so I guess who am I to argue?
 
Back in the old 80/87 red days their was enough lube in the fuel to effectively lube the hottest part of the engine the exhaust valve, and guides, the newer fuels green, Blue just don’t carry that lubrication offered in the 80/87. I do run the smaller Continentals, over 70 years old, run non detergent oil,change oil more frequently than most 15 hours, use 8 ounces of Marvel to 10 gal of fuel 100/115 don’t use it in my oil, just for upper lube. TBO is around 1800 hrs. I have done 1 tear down and it just didn’t need it. Waisted a lot of money. It may be skuttle butt,but I think it works. Prof is in the pudding.
 
Many people running VW derived engines in their planes swear by it, too.

Some people report it reduces lead fouling in older engines run on 100LL. The MMO MSDS lists tricresyl phosphate as one of the ingredients... it's also one of the ingredients in Alcor TCP, marketed to reduce lead fouling... though MMO has 0.1-1%, and TCP is 10-20%.
 
I'm not aware of any controlled studies that show that there is any demonstrable benefit from adding MMO to your oil or fuel. There is lots of anecdata, but anecdotes are not data. The chemical composition does not suggest there should be any magical properties beyond that which is already in your aircraft oil.
 
cfd408 said:
WD-40 as a penetrating lubricant and rust inhibitor. Would never vouch for it as a fuel or oil additive though.
Click to expand...
My list of valid uses for WD-40 include rust inhibitor, adhesive remover, cleaning solvent, and aluminum machining lube. I cringe every time I see someone using it where a general light oil would be much more appropriate. With all the residue it leaves behind when it dries on metal, I can't imagine why anyone would try it as a fuel additive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top