Mystery oil

BuckeyeMan71

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Location
Ohio
TDI
03 Jetta wagon
Has anyone ever used Marvel mystery oil in their TDI before and oil change for like 100 miles
 

CleverUserName

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Oct 25, 2014
Location
NorCal
TDI
2014 OZ Cruze CTD & 2010 JSW 6MT & 2017 GMC Canyon CCLB ATX 2.8 Duramax
I’ve heard of people using MMO, kreen and even kerosene to clean sludge out of neglected engines. They may work but I’d be careful to not put a load on the engine if you’re intentionally adding solvents to the oil. Just idle only

personally I’d use a lubricant that has solvent properties like Redline or VPB Restore if you want to clean the inside of your engine. You can leave it in for 10k miles and it will clean everything up slowly.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
There is nothing to clean. If you have lots of sludge then this is a seperate issue that potentially cant be fixed chemically.
But if it's just normal oil changes for you and everything seems fine, save your $.
If you want to "clean" the oil system, understand that diesel engines run dirty oil by appearance.
 

2004LB7

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Location
California
TDI
2006 Jetta
Pull your valve cover and take a look. You will likely not find any sludge or any reason to use MMO
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
if you have sludge up in the head you can see via taking off the valve cover, your engine is screwed and immediate steps to free rings and save the cam should be taken, but if you see that, the turbo is probably shot as well.
99.999% chance you will find none, unless you never changed the oil!
 

BuckeyeMan71

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Location
Ohio
TDI
03 Jetta wagon
if you have sludge up in the head you can see via taking off the valve cover, your engine is screwed and immediate steps to free rings and save the cam should be taken, but if you see that, the turbo is probably shot as well.
99.999% chance you will find none, unless you never changed the oil!
I’ve had it off no sludge or anything in there. I’ve changed the oil several times and it has nothing in it. I was just curious. I have a 6.5 turbo diesel as well that hadn’t run it 18mths and I put half a quart in it and drove it for 1K then changed the oil in it again and it was clean as well. I was just wanting to make my baby last as long as I can. She has 286k and runs great except for a little hiccup every now and again with boost on colder days. I know that the #2 diesel doesn’t have the lubricating factors like days of old and I want her to go a million miles
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Yea. Your fine. Just change it as needed. Spend that $ on sending your oil to blackstone labs for analysis if you really care! Otherwise save it up for quality oem stuff or good summer tires!
 

redbarron55

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Location
Navarre, FL.
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI Executive
If someone told you to add some mineral spirits to your engine along with a little naphtha would you do it?
Oh I forgot a little red dye too.
 

MukGyver

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2020
Location
Sierra Ca
TDI
2004 Jetta PD
love marvel mystery oil. Have used it for years. If you're stuck on doing it... I would not go 100 miles with it before an oil change on a Tdi, maybe only 25 miles - by draining no more than one quart and add the same amount in MMO., then drain overnight. Not sure what that would gain you tho since you have determined there is no sludge buildup. I think the above advice is better.
 

turbobrick240

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Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
I mix mystery oil and seafoam at a 1:1 ratio and call it seadragon blood. It's an amazing all purpose hinge lubricant. Works great on everything from door hinges to gate hinges, and even hood hinges. From Honalee to Honolulu it can't be beat!
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
These things you do. They actually do things you need to be done? Is the detergent in your oil not doing the job or are we all just going 20k between oil changes and a quick gargle of snake oil enough to fix the neglect?
 

jettawreck

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Location
Northern Minnesota-55744
TDI
2001 Jetta and 2003 Jetta
I’ve had it off no sludge or anything in there. I’ve changed the oil several times and it has nothing in it. I was just curious. I have a 6.5 turbo diesel as well that hadn’t run it 18mths and I put half a quart in it and drove it for 1K then changed the oil in it again and it was clean as well. I was just wanting to make my baby last as long as I can. She has 286k and runs great except for a little hiccup every now and again with boost on colder days. I know that the #2 diesel doesn’t have the lubricating factors like days of old and I want her to go a million miles
I'm not sure what you mean by #2 diesel fuel not having the lubricating qualities of years past. If you live in an area it state that mandates 5-10% bio-diesel the lubricating quality will be great(er).
Really doubt you have any reason to be finding a solution for an issue that may not exist.
 

Rrusse11

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2014
Location
PA Deutsch Country
TDI
2002 Golf, 5spd; 05 Jeep CRD
An MMO oil change is in the engine, #2 Diesel should only be running in the fuel system. Now I do put MMO in the fuel to help lubricate the IP and to help keep the injectors clean. MMO is a 5W oil with wintergreen in it to give the smell,
it was originally developed, so the story goes at least, by a guy who was running a sewing factory. The smell kept the workers from complaining about the "oily" smell of the machine lube. I like the stuff as a standalone penetrating oil,
cut it with acetone or lacquer thinners, and that'll get into anything.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Quantifiable results or just driver placebo?
Seeing as none of you have actual data to back these wild claims up, it's bubkis and probably doing more harm then good if it's doing anything at all.
 

2004LB7

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Location
California
TDI
2006 Jetta
According to this diesel lubricity chart, MMO reduced the lubrication of diesel fuel. I don't know what it is made of but what Rrusse11 posted seems likely.

I would not use it on anything inside the engine or fuel system.
 

MukGyver

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2020
Location
Sierra Ca
TDI
2004 Jetta PD
I think it's important to know enough about any product to know the effect it truly has. The chart above supports my understanding of MMO which I think of primarily as a "cleaner" than a lubricant. The mineral oil is merely a "carrier". I use MMO for a specific purpose and that is almost always as an injector cleaner and NOT to be run in every tank. And since I use it periodically, I do tend to run it a bit hot and normally add a touch of 2 stroke oil to counter the cleaning action.

It also makes a good penetrating oil. Bottom line, if you don't understand the purpose and limits of anything you add, you can screw things up. So be careful.. especially with these TDI's. With that said I do think its a misnomer if MMO mentions it as a great lubricant.
 
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redbarron55

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Location
Navarre, FL.
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI Executive
MMO is basically Stoddard solvent (mineral spirits) and Naphthalene with mineral oil and some red #3 dye.
It's only real purpose is to clean out wallet.
It works well for squirting on stuff, but doesn't belong in a precision engine.
We used to add a little to the gasoline for a Top Engine Lubricant, but it probably didn't do anything then either.
 

wilder11354

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Location
Montrose, Pa
TDI
2014 SE passat 6dsg
only used it years ago, for pickling P&W R985 radial engines when we stored them for a few months at a time. Put a T connector in carb fuel inlet to carb, warm engine up, then SLOWLY open t valve in small incremnets, slowly until engine would foul out plugs. Ohh they smoked a lot until plugs fouled and engine died. Pull all spark plugs, put desicssant dry plugs in. Unstore, put in new spark plugs, let new fuel from tank flush carb bowl, seal carb and restart, again lots of smoke and rough for a few minutes till it all was burnt out. Never had issues with engines from doing this. Never used it as oil additive in them.
 

johnsTDI

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Joined
May 25, 2019
Location
Canada,ont North America were Neighbours to usa
TDI
2012 Highline
Has anyone ever used Marvel mystery oil in their TDI before and oil change for like 100 miles
Personally i would not bother with using a cheap low results product like M.M.O. instead i would use a Professional Grade Product like
BG for the DY'R that wants worthy results. i would run there E.P.R. in the oil for 20 minutes with the occasional lite rev for (increased Oil Pressure splashing around Piston Rings & overall engine oil circulation) afterword drane oil. fill near the top using proper spec synthetic oil/Fliter of Your choice then top it off adding DOC oil Conditioner for further added cleaning & anti wear Protection that DOC also will Neutralize any of the residual left by the EPR Cleaning. I have Personally used these products & always noticed my vehicles ran stronger there after than using any cheap off the shelf nock off.


 

CleverUserName

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Location
NorCal
TDI
2014 OZ Cruze CTD & 2010 JSW 6MT & 2017 GMC Canyon CCLB ATX 2.8 Duramax
Personally i would not bother with using a cheap low results product like M.M.O. instead i would use a Professional Grade Product like
BG for the DY'R that wants worthy results. i would run there E.P.R. in the oil for 20 minutes with the occasional lite rev for (increased Oil Pressure splashing around Piston Rings & overall engine oil circulation) afterword drane oil. fill near the top using proper spec synthetic oil/Fliter of Your choice then top it off adding DOC oil Conditioner for further added cleaning & anti wear Protection that DOC also will Neutralize any of the residual left by the EPR Cleaning. I have Personally used these products & always noticed my vehicles ran stronger there after than using any cheap off the shelf nock off.


Ironically you’re advocating using an additive that is not VW 505/2/7 with the “proper spec” oil. Guess what, when you add the BG DOC to VW 50X oil it’s no longer 50X. The BG also likely adds additional sulfated ash since it says it enhances buffering of combustion acids which could impact DPF longevity. If you want enhanced buffering use CK-4 oils.

Ive had VW dealers upsell me these additives as well, however I’m smart enough to know they are not worth the extra money and any claimed effects are dubious at best.

Any high quality PAO/Ester based oil like Redline or VPB Restore will have solvent-like cleaning action and dissolve engine sludge and carbon. It’s safer to use and it’s effects are heavily documented.
 

johnsTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 25, 2019
Location
Canada,ont North America were Neighbours to usa
TDI
2012 Highline
additive that is not VW 505/2/7 with the “proper spec” oil. Guess what, when you add the BG DOC to VW 50X oil it’s no longer 50X. The BG also likely adds additional sulfated ash since it says it enhances buffering of combustion acids which could impact DPF
Lets say maybe your right about adding Doc oil conditioner. then in that case Just use Your choice of synthetic Euro spec 507.00 oil on my 2012 TDI i usually run 5w30 Top Tec Liqui Moly oil today i bought some Mobile 1 ESP 5w30 on sale for $35.00 a jug to use on next oil change in 2 weeks
 
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