Mystery Oil (Put in Gas or Oil)

[03RoadRunner]

All -

Have you used this product? Mystery Oil.

You can place it in your gas tank and/or substitute a quart of oil when you change it.

I've used it on my '98 and '03...but only in the gas tank. About 4oz. per 10gallons of gas.

I was wondering if anyone has used it in their oil?

Thanks,
03RR

 

[03RoadRunner]

Nobody has heard of this? C'mon!

Okay...

So anyway...my wife's '98 4runner was having a slight hesitation when going down hill..then back up and barely tapping on the gas pedal to excel up the next hill.

Dropped in 8oz. of Mystery oil in a full tank of gas and WHAMMO!! Problem disappeared after a day of driving!!!

Side note: I'm replacing the fuel filter anyway, just because we have 95,000mi. on it and they recommend changing it every 30K. =)

Have a good one all...later
03RR

 

[toybox]

I've seen it at the parts store but I wouldn't dream of putting anything called "mystery oil" anywhere in my truck.

 

[Larry]

If you are talking about Marvel Mystry Oil it a great product, been on the market since the 20's. I use it to clean out old sludged up engines. Also use it on my 84 Honda Civic every six months or so. It cleans up the valve seals and stops the smoking on start up and slowing down comming off the freeway. For that it works. It's no magic bullet and they make no wild claims.

If you use it to clean up an old engine, use about a quart and drive it for a couple of hundred miles, but be sure to put your hand on the oil filter every time you park it. If the filter isn't hot, it's plugged, change it. If the engine is that dirty, change the oil and filter and give it another dose. Be sure to not over fill the engine.

Buying and selling cars after cleaning the up, inside and out, put me through college. So, I like the stuff, just don't expect the kind of things that the others promise.

 

[Brewster]

Back before gasoline was better formulated to keep injectors clean, I bought a new Generation 1 BMW 530i. It developed a rough idle (along with many other problems.) Naturally I complained to the dealer. I got a call from the service manager one day, and he said something like, "You're not going to believe this, but BMW is now recommending adding Marvel Mystery Oil to the gas tank." (I don't remember the ratio.) It worked. Whenever the idle would roughen, I would add it again for a couple of tanks and it would run smoothly again. A few years later, BMW worked with oil companies to get better detergent formulas. As I recall, the Texaco "System 3" formulation was BMW approved, followed by many others.

 

[T4R06]

i am new owner of T4R LE 06 V6 engine. 2 weeks using my new truck it was quite bored.. then when i discovered this cheapo MMO, damn! boom! happy now

 

[hossmaster]

I used to use that on my old 65 Ford pickup that didn't have valve seats for running unleaded gas.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Personally, I haven't had too much luck with "snake oil's" in the past so I think I'll have to pass.

I have found that the Duralube fuel treatment quiets the fuel injectors on my truck though, but I rarely ever buy any of it.

 

[Fro-Runner]

All -

Have you used this product? Mystery Oil.

You can place it in your gas tank and/or substitute a quart of oil when you change it.
03RR

Re: Mystery Oil (Put in Gas or Oil)?

How about putting it back on the store's shelf. If you change your engine oil , filter, air filter, fuel filter and PCV valve as specified; then you will never need a mystery solution.
I know because I have a 22 1/2 yr old, 1.8L engine in my everyday work vehicle. The darn thing has to have 300,000 miles on it. I still motor around the southern California freeways at 70-75 mph and it still smogs every two years.

Maintain your ride and it will maintain your way of transportation!

 

[Jeff Kleb]

Marvel Mystery Oil


I used to be an owner-operator in short-haul trucking, and I owned a 1993 International medium-duty diesel truck. After about every six months or so of hard city driving, I put a quart of that stuff in the crankcase and another quart into the fuel tank.

I ran it hard for ten years, and never had problems with the fuel injectors or internal engine parts. Did the Marvel Mystery oil help? Maybe......maybe not. I heard so many "old truckers" brag about that stuff and figured that if it worked for them it might work for me.

I sold that truck back in '03 and it is still in service with the new owner -- and it still runs like a top.

I just don't think I'll use it my 4Runner, though! Diesel truck engines are a little more 'tolerant' of things than are the engines in most modern passenger cars.

 

[rook]

Re: Marvel Mystery Oil

I just don't think I'll use it my 4Runner, though! Diesel truck engines are a little more 'tolerant' of things than are the engines in most modern passenger cars.

I agree..

I found an article written by the guys over at car talk

Dear Tom and Ray:




My dad, who knew more about cars and engines that anyone I ever knew, swore by the benefits of Marvel Mystery Oil. He always poured MMO in the crankcase at each oil change and sometimes put it in the gas tank. His cars always made it to 200,000 miles. Will Marvel Mystery Oil harm a modern engine? My 1997 Ford Ranger has developed an occasional noisy lifter problem that the dealer can't replicate. Harking back to my dad's experience, I'm tempted to dump a can of MMO in the tank and crankcase, but one of the dealer's mechanics said he wouldn't do it because the factory recommends against additives. There's nothing in the manual about additives. What do you think? -- Les

Ray: Marvel Mystery Oil is kind of like chicken soup, Les. It probably won't help, but it can't hurt.

Tom: The reason most manufacturers make a blanket recommendation against additives is because there are too many to keep track of. There are thousands of additives on the market these days. Several of them probably even contain chicken soup.

Ray: Most of them, like MMO, probably won't hurt your car, but it's impossible for the manufacturers to test them all. So they play it safe and don't recommend any of them.

Tom: And I doubt the MMO will solve your lifter problem, which could be caused by low oil pressure. So have your oil pressure tested. The lifter could also be leaking down, which is common these days with self-adjusting lifters. A lot of them are just not "beefy" enough by design, in my opinion.

Ray: But feel free to try MMO. And if that doesn't work, try some Haley's M-O. My brother puts that in his '63 Dodge Dart. It doesn't do anything for his lifters either, but the car is incredibly regular.

 

[Jeff Kleb]

-- Tom & Ray --


Those guys are very funny.......and they put a nice smile on your face when they tell you that your car has major problems. I used to listen to them on the radio here, but no longer catch them because of having a different schedule. Even so, their column will sometimes appear in the local paper from time to time.

Another product that has been around for years is known as Rislone (comes in a yellow plastic bottle). I have heard good things about it, and know that some police departments and taxi services used it as part of an experiment - with favorable results.

 

[greasefingers]

I have been using Marvel Mystery oil for years, but as a lubricant that one would use in place of 3-in-1 oil. Never in the oil or gas. It does not make sense to me? Regular motor oil is far better than Marvel since it is formulated for the engine with many additives and detergent. Placing any oil in the gas tank is simulating worn piston rings, to me? It will reach something around 800 degrees and completely thermally degrade leading to slightly more carbon in the head.

 

[Koz]

You may want to reconsider using Marvel Mystery Oil.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=003393

Koz

 

[Sac State]

Just pump a couple tankfuls of $4 premium. The detergents will take care of any carbon/sludge buildup. Or like me, just run 89 all of the time and you never will have a problem. And change your oil every 3-4K miles.

Where you get into trouble is buying cheap branded gas that does not contain any detergents.

 

[pipspeak]

Where you get into trouble is buying cheap branded gas that does not contain any detergents.

Doesn't all gas contain detergents these days? AFAIK the only major difference between brands of gas is the type of detergent they use. The base gas is a simple commodity and is the same whatever refinery it comes out of.

 

[duzuck]

Doesn't all gas contain detergents these days? AFAIK the only major difference between brands of gas is the type of detergent they use. The base gas is a simple commodity and is the same whatever refinery it comes out of.

Sure, all gas originally comes from some hole in the ground in Saudi Arabia or Sudan, but each company has different ways of dealing with it once they're in possession. On my old truck, I used to have real problems with the idle, it would occassionally stall, and it sounded like a bag of GMC bolts. Luckily it was stick, so moving stalls never meant anything to me: I just pulled out the clutch. But I soon found out that the gas I was putting into my truck was widely known (in these parts of Ontario) as crap. One of our local fuel suppliers, to go on unnamed, who supplied fuel to certain local gas franchises, is known to have subpar holding tanks, where groundwater can seep in. He is also known to mix the excess low octane stuff with the high octane too. I know that this sort of stuff is probably common to all of you, but if you beware of what you're putting into your tank, you might just have luck.

Upon learning of this crappy gas, I switched to only certain gas stations, I never buy from the indian reserves or ma and pa gas stations (some of them might be all right, but how can you know?), and my truck hasn't stalled on me in over one-and-a-half years. There's still a hole in the floor which bad gas can't explain, but that's another story Maybe because it's a GM.

Nah...

 

[Light_Mania]

There was a time when almost all of the major oil companies were competing with each other on how much detergency they put in their gasoline, and fuel injection systems stayed clean. Then at some point, I don't know the year, the EPA mandated MINIMUM levels of detergency in gasoline. Almost all of the oil companies reduced their detergent package to the minimum. I think Chevron, for one, was an exception. Anyway, the car manufacturers noticed an uptick in problems fuel injection systems, and traced it to the decreased detergency in most gasolines. Apparently, attempts by some of the auto manufacturers to get the oil companies to return to high gasoline detergencies were not met by satisfactory responses. Four manufacturers took things into their own hands and set a standard to meet, and invited the oil companies to meet that standard. Initially, just Chevron and QuickTrip gasoline was certified, but now quite a few others are too. The list is on this website: http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html

Bottom line is that there are differences in gasolines and how well your Toyota will run on them.