I have a 54 Olds 88, and it has a canister on the firewall with Marvel Mystery Oil cast into it. The canister is tied into a vacuum line coming from the vacuum side of the fuel pump, and it runs to the back of the carb. Does anyone know what this setup is, and what it does?
It provided lubrication to the valves. Or so advertised. Neat accessory to have , or so I think. There should be an adjustment to control the amount going into manifold
This just may be how this stuff was invented. Story about Marvel Mystery Oil: During the summer of 2000 we were cruising through the Central Adirondacks of New York State in our mostly original '23 Touring. We stopped for gas at a local station, and a gentleman who appeared to be about 80 yrs old, in coveralls, came out to the pumps. I noticed he had a thick New York City accent. He admired the T, and we talked about old Fords for a few minutes. I finished g***ing up, and topped off the tank with a 4 oz. baby-jar full of MMO. He said, "Why do you use that stuff?" I replied, I'd been using it(I'm 53 yrs old) for over 30 yrs in all my flathead V-8s, Model As and Ts, good upper cyl lube, etc, etc. He said, "I'll tell you a story: During the Depression, when I was in high school, I worked as a mechanic in a sewing shop in the Garment District in NYC. Those old sewing machines had visible oilers on top, and when it got hot the oil would stink, and the ladies who ran the machines would complain. The owner, whose name was Marvel, (pronounced Mar-VELL) told me to go down a few doors to the candy factory-I think it was a 'LifeSaver' type candy- and get a couple of gallons of Oil of Wintergreen and some food coloring. We mixed it with the 10 wt. sewing machine oil to make it less offensive to the ladies. It became popular with the other shops, and Marvel made more money with that oil, than with the sewing. Whenever anyone asked what was in the oil, Marvel said, 'Don't ask... It's a MYSTERY!' and that's how the name came about!" You meet the most interesting people when you drive a Model T! Regards, Steve DeCosa Oswego, NY By Marvin Kleinjan (Marvin) on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 10:24 pm:
Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I guess the inverse oiler really worked. This Oldsmobile had been setting since the 80s, and with some fresh gas and filing the points it fired right up, and didn’t smoke or anything.
Cousin hooked one up on his Corvair. He found the MMO unit in an old barn . He cleaned it up and hooked it up to the intake . Filled the jar up with MMO , started the car and tried to adjust the setting on the oiler . It ****ed a pint of oil into the running engine quickly. I don’t know why the plugs didn’t fowl out as the blue smoke rolled out of the exhaust. It took a couple days before the MMO was all burned out of the engine.
“Wintergreen oil” is actually a synthetic. It isn’t used to make it smell good, it is one of the best penetrating oils around. Stuck piston rings used to be a common defect with mistuned engines.
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