Marvel Mystery Oil - fact or fiction?

DaveH

DaveH

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
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12,249
In high school I used to work for an engine shop and they used marvel mystery oil when assembling engines.

Subsequently I've read about it's use in vintage piston engined airplanes. People still swear by it in modern cars for use in both engine oil and gasoline additive.

I think I'll vote for snake oil. (Unless I had an old car with a sticky lifter and I might try it then ;) )
 
In spite of the ridiculous claims on the label the stuff does have a couple of uses -- but it's real hard to recommend it without laughing....
 
I had a friend that,back in the 60s owned a '61 Ford Galaxie,every oil change he added a quart of Marvel,it seemed to do alright for that.It seems to me to be a little thin for an assembly lube,I use straight 30w.I know guys that use it in diesels to help clean injectors,you'll find a lot of people swear by it.I prefer Lucas products.;)
 
A good utility oil and...while Balistol smells like s**t, Marvel has a pleasant odor.
 
I've used copius quantities of the stuff in the past, like a dozen cans maybe as engine additive and household oil. I eventually gave up on it since aside from the awesome classic style can and marketing labels it's no better than any other oil. The short of it is it may have been hot stuff 40 years ago or whenever it came out, but nowadays I'd rather use mobil-1 synthetic if I was looking for a budget/utility lube (I also use it in my truck). The rate at which it varnishes is faster than almost any other oil I've seen.
 
I'll have to go look for it, but an independant study was done on fuel additives (sponsored by members of a diesel truck forum) in regards to the new ULSD formulation. In terms of fuel lubricity, the marvel mystery oil actually made the fuel worse.
I don't have the study bookmarked any more. If I can find it again I will post the link later.
 
bell said:
A good utility oil and...while Balistol smells like s**t, Marvel has a pleasant odor.
Click to expand...


Yup, I keep a dripper of it around the garage for various light lubrication needs... Mostly as a thread lubricant. Honestly, though, if triflow was cheaper I'd just use that.
 
I spent many years in the Diesel parts and accessories biz, and I can tell you that people spend zillions of dollars on crap that they don't really need - especially crap that you add to fuel. Magnets are another big racket.

But, Marvel mystery oil is not a bad product... it does have some uses - I wouldn't add it to my gasoline, and sure wouldn't add it to diesel fuel. It's basically oil cut with some solvent or detergent - like kerosene. It's commonly used to lube air tools. It's really kind of an old school version of WD40. It will work anywhere you need a thin lube.

My dad was a Detroit Diesel mechanic for years, and they used a thin white grease called Lubriplate and plain old engine oil for assembly lube. Lubriplate comes in a white tube with a blue top. He was known to occasionally spill a tiny bit MM oil into an open carburetor if the family car wasn't running right.
 
i used to sell marvel oil in the late '70s, nothing wrong with it, is "ok" for initial assembly of engines (though other stuffs better imho, lubriplate on the bearings and mobil one on everything else FWIW) and is also ok for lite lubeing duties around the house, is a ok honing oil IIRC, if ya use a good quality oil in the proper viscosity (ie mobil one, castrol GTX, etc) theres really no reason for adding anything.

it wouldnt hurt anything but its not gonna be some big improvement over std oil in any way.
 
Almost all of these "special" products you see are nothing more than the modern day version of snake oil.

Special fuel additives, special oils, magnetic doodads, magical black boxes that halve your fuel consumption and so on, virtually all cleverly designed to do little more than separate you from your money.

Just about every single one that's been subjected to an independent, properly conducted scientific test has proved to do very little at best and some even make things worse.
 
We always used Marvel to winterize our boat engines. They were 350 blocks and we'd pour 8 oz thru the carb and let it stall the engine. All lubed for winter!

My father was an engineer at Exxon Research and had access to a lot of interesting additives but always used Marvel in his boats.

Win
 
Can't ever remember seeing anyone use it at any of the race tracks I have been to , if it were that good , they would all be using it :)
 
oh i bet if they sponsored a car they'd use it and claim it was the next best thing to canned beans lol.

which is why testimonials from racers have little meaning to me, especially testimonials about products they get $$ to use.
 
We still use it at work to lube the moving parts ,flap hinges, trim tab hinges on our planes
 
If you're into nitro RC cars, it makes a really good after-run oil. :thumbup:

I haven't found a need for it on the real car, though.
 
Also, befitting the fact that this is a knife forum, this is the best oil to use as a lubricant for satin finishing blades.:)
 
Why MMO, of course.

(Unless I had an old car with a sticky lifter and I might try it then ) That's exactly what is a recommended use of MMO. I recently used it to free a stickly lifter caused by a slight head gasket leak allowing antifreeze to mix with my oil. I was also using water wetter in the 'freeze, it allowed the stuff to really mix well in the oil and hide. The resulting ever thickening sludge would finally clog a lifter until it collapsed.

There are "snake oils" out there that deliver. When Mobil One came on the market in the early '70's, it wasn't appreciated much either, especially when Cadillac found a lot of owners using the 5w-20 in their cars in the summer. Back then, that was way under spec and some suffered engine destruction. Now, engine specs allow it.

Those that spend time on car forums are well aware of what MMO can do, as well as other products. It certainly isn't at all like WD-40, which is actually processed fish oil, and has virtually no long term lubrication effects at all. It's just a Water Displacing spray suitable for old school distributor caps on a rainy day, as far as I'm concerned. I can tell you as a former commercial locksmith for eight years, NO lock manufacturer recommends it as a cylinder lube. I've cleaned plenty of doorlocks gummed up with it. Try opening your store on time with gelled fish oil mixed with dust jamming the pins. THAT stuff IS snake oil.

Or cheap hone oil, but I only use S30V and never need to sharpen anything. :D
 
As to the WD40 comments ... :rolleyes: The fish oil thing is urban legend .. Here's what I picked up on the web on WD40

WD-40's main ingredients, according to U.S. Material Safety Data Sheet information, are:

50%: Stoddard solvent (i.e., mineral spirits -- somewhat similar to kerosene)
25%: Liquefied petroleum gas (presumably as a propellant; carbon dioxide is now used instead to reduce WD-40's considerable flammability)
15+%: Mineral oil (light lubricating oil)
10-%: Inert ingredients
The German version of the mandatory EU safety sheet lists the following safety relevant ingredients:

60-80%: Heavy Naphtha (petroleum product), hydrogen treated
1-5%: Carbon dioxide
It further lists flammability and effects to the human skin when repeatedly exposed to WD-40 as risks when using WD-40. Nitrile rubber gloves and safety glasses should be used. Water is unsuitable for extinguishing burning WD-40.
 
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