Marvel Mystery Oil

I have been in and out of the forum with respect to several issues over the past 6 months....basically all involving and regarding oil usage in my 69 E-type roadster...I bought the car about 4 years ago and I suspect it had been garaged and not operating for at least 2 years prior to - probably more...after getting it running and smoothing things out...I have been puzzled by excessive oil usage and leakage (about 50 miles per quart) What I could not understand or didn't make sense of was how something that ran so well, put out very little smoke and could burn (or leak) so much oil...it just didn't add up. Compression tests performed were all 140 with the exception of 2 cylinders which were 120...and also performed a vacuum test with satisfactory results, while it was leaking a lot of oil, it didn't seem to justify the loss of a quart every 50 miles.

Getting the idea from an old car buddy of mine, 6 months ago I pulled all the plugs and flooded each cylinder with MMO. Every two or three days, adding more, turning over with plugs out and letting it sit and drain down into the crankcase. After 2 weeks of this, I fired it up and burnt off about 3 or 4 minutes of "the white cloud"... then, I mixed some MMO with gas and fogged both carbs at about 2500 RPM's with about 1/2 a quart of that solution for about 15 minutes.

Prior to any of this experimentation, another issue the car was having was oil pressure...the gauge would "peg" at 60+ and pretty much stay there-even after warm...also, usually on every ride, after a little push, I would hear some valve tapping too. At first I didn't think much of the high oil pressure, in fact, thought it was good. But then, maybe started thinking excessive oil pressure could be "pushing" oil out or thru this 100k+ mileage motor somewhere. I had inspected the breather and all seemed fine there and also, upon further inspection, plug color looked normal, if anything, slightly hot...soft brown to white but okay....no excessive oil there.

With all of that MMO in the crankcase...I drove it about 80 miles and then changed out the oil at the end of May...there was a very slight bend in the flexible oil overflow line running off the filter housing to the crankcase and I replaced it then. Also did a thorough cleaning of the filter canister and inspected the spring. I considered an oil flush but decided against it.

I have driven the car 450 miles since then and am now averaging about a quart every 120-150 miles...significant improvement. Of further interest, after about 150 miles into the last oil change in May, the oil pressure no longer buries off the gauge anymore...it idles down to about 40 and doesn't go to 60 that easily anymore...even at speed on the highway-it settles in at less than that....notable. The valve tapping has become very rare, although I get a few occasionally but not very often at all, even after driving at great distances or speed...

When I changed the oil & filter yesterday at 450 miles (this car drinks 10 quarts to get midway on the stick and I use Valvoline or Penzoil 20-50) the oil was filthy...looks like my Tahoe's oil at 5,000 miles or worse. Black. At refill intervals, I have and will add anywhere from 1/2 quart to a full quart of MMO as an oil additive...I now by the MMO in gallon jugs.

My conclusions....I am not quite ready to start pouring MMO into my morning orange juice but I am sure starting to think about it. I have to say I think the MMO helped. No question about the oil pressure and the valve tapping issues..oil consumption has improved too...I did another compression test recently and now the two bad boy cylinders are much more in line with the other 4, less disparity between them all now...so maybe a stuck ring? was released...I can't say for sure.

Still considering the oil flush, but I think I am liking what I am doing here, changing more frequently, and flushing as we go that way...I am not sure about this, but the car seems to get better oil consumption performance with fresh oil and also less leakage at renewal...as the oil gets dirtier, both of these things start going in the wrong direction...

Not a scientific study, but took the time to make observations and take notes on all of the above and so I could share with you in the hope that it is helpful to someone else...

Also, appreciated the feedback from various members along the way - many thanks for your ideas.

Bernie