Added MMO Today...

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The Critic

The Critic

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Yesterday, I was going to change the oil on the Saturn since it has been 8,000 miles since the last oil change on Shell 5w30 conventional.

Right when I decided to walk outside, it started pouring. So, the idea of changing the oil quickly went away.

My dad claimed that he checks the oil level religiously. So, I pulled out the dipstick. Nothing. The stick was dry. Any oil droplets that touched my paper towel was darker than black gel pen ink.

So, I added 2/3 quart of Shell 5w30 (maybe 1/2 qt of it made its way into the crankcase, I probably spilled the rest) and 1/2 qt of MMO. I have never used MMO before, but I decided to buy some and try it just to see what the big deal is.

I plan to change the oil when I come back in about two weeks. During this time, the car will probably accumulate another 500-1000 miles. Will the MMO do any cleaning if I leave it in the engine for a short period of time?

Thanks!
 
8000 on dino? I know dinos are much improved now but is this common practice now? I've used MMO for 1k before oil change and it seemed to do some good cleaning.
 
Originally Posted By: stenerson
8000 on dino? I know dinos are much improved now but is this common practice now?


Well, on my particular car the interval is 6mo/6k for normal service, so I am about 2,000 miles overdue.

But in general, conventional oils can go as long as 12,500 miles (or more) on the newer GM vehicles with Oil Life Monitors.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
But in general, conventional oils can go as long as 12,500 miles (or more) on the newer GM vehicles with Oil Life Monitors.


Rather than topping up with a quart of oil, I would have taken the car to some instant oil change place, and had the oil changed right away.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Yesterday, I was going to change the oil on the Saturn since it has been 8,000 miles since the last oil change on Shell 5w30 conventional.

Right when I decided to walk outside, it started pouring. So, the idea of changing the oil quickly went away.

My dad claimed that he checks the oil level religiously. So, I pulled out the dipstick. Nothing. The stick was dry. Any oil droplets that touched my paper towel was darker than black gel pen ink.

So, I added 2/3 quart of Shell 5w30 (maybe 1/2 qt of it made its way into the crankcase, I probably spilled the rest) and 1/2 qt of MMO. I have never used MMO before, but I decided to buy some and try it just to see what the big deal is.

I plan to change the oil when I come back in about two weeks. During this time, the car will probably accumulate another 500-1000 miles. Will the MMO do any cleaning if I leave it in the engine for a short period of time?

Thanks!


The MMO will do some cleaning for that short period of time. My suggestion would be to add MMO to the engine again after your trip and run it for the full OCI. Try about 15% of the total oil capacity.
 
Too late to edit, I don't own Saturns but here is something interesting I'd like to add. I was talking to a local mechanic friend of mine who runs a nice shop near me. He uses MMO in customers cars, and fooled around with it in a Saturn Shop car they have. He told me after about 5000 miles of using MMO in the Saturn shop car the compression actually increased based on readings he'd taken. He said it does a nice job cleaning an engine and getting to the rings. I like this guy, as he is one of the very few honest mechanics in the area. Everyone who uses him has nothing but praise for him. The other mechanics in the area have a few strikes against them.

Reason we got to talking about it was I saw a stash of MMO qts and that got my attention. He was telling me about Saturns, most of which I knew from reading here.

I was in for a state inspection. He said he's been using MMO for about 25 years now in his shop. Very interesting.
 
It works. I did a 2000 mile run, checking the oil every week. Other than the oil having a slight redness to it it didnt do much other than help with valve train noise...i guess the engine was cleaner than i thought.
 
Originally Posted By: ARB1977
It works. I did a 2000 mile run, checking the oil every week. Other than the oil having a slight redness to it it didnt do much other than help with valve train noise...i guess the engine was cleaner than i thought.


It worked on the noise, great! People have to understand, not all engines are heavily loaded with sludge and grime, You can't clean something that isn't dirty. Many people will report Engine Cleaner X did nothing, when in reality maybe nothing needed to be done. OTOH maybe there was little cleaning to do, and it took care of that.
 
Man Critic.....I would have found some way to change the oil and save the MMO for the fresh fill. I think 8k is pushing it, especially since the oil level was that low.
 
Whatever you put in, you did good and at least bought some time before the next OC.
I think the MMO is a good idea for you projected interval. Even it's detractors admit is is a decent internal cleaner.
 
Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
Man Critic.....I would have found some way to change the oil and save the MMO for the fresh fill. I think 8k is pushing it, especially since the oil level was that low.


The scary part is, I think I have added 2 quarts during this oil change interval, and that doesn't include the oil and MMO that I added yesterday.

However, I just made a 240 mile trip today and the fuel economy was 39.7mpg after adding MMO. The trip from last week was closer to 36.
 
I do 10k with conventional oil in my truck all the time with great used oil analysis. We have tractors on our farm I do 500-600 hour change intervals with conventional oil as well. Again, great used oil analysis. I mean, if you had an average speed of 60 mph that'd be like 36,000 miles. I realize that's a little different from passenger cars but I wouldn't worry about your number of miles too much.
 
I dunno, I prefer to have a wide margin of safety. The best way to keep an engine clean, is to remove dirt from the engine entirely. E.g change the oil. If people stuck to the tried and true 3k OCI, they really wouldn't have to worry about engine sludging etc.

I would never run 8000 miles on conventional oil. I know that you could probably do so with a premium synthetic, but why bother pushing the oil (and the oil filter!) to its limits? Across the entire lifetime of the car, motor oil is a minor expense.

For myself I use Valvoline synthetic 5-30 on a 3K-4K OCI. Right now Autozone is having a sale and you can get a 5.25Qt Jug of valvoline synthetic + filter for $26.
 
I agree with most of what you say, but certain engines end up getting sludged up by design flaws, or a lot of short trip use. I had a buddy that needed a VC gasket on a Ford 300 I6. He did 3000 mile OCI's with a good conventional oil, and was the original owner. He was also a contractor so typically he'd drive about 50-75 miles a week RT. Then use the truck to run around on estimates, watch his kid play ball, or take him to Karate on the weekend. He'd drive a total of about 200 +/- miles a week. When we pulled that VC there was quite a bit of junk collected up top. We cleaned it best we could and I put his truck on an MMO diet.
 
well- it's too late to change it now. Change in 2 weeks, then for the next oil and filter change, do it sooner than scheduled-ie 4K miles.
Problem solved


Steve
 
So, I accumulated another 1000 miles on the MMO and the oil level dropped by about .4 qt.

The oil appeared dark brown, nothing unusual.

I changed the oil and refilled with Shell 5w30 and a Wix filter. Once the oil level drops, I may add the other 1/2 qt of MMO to the crankcase.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
So, I accumulated another 1000 miles on the MMO and the oil level dropped by about .4 qt.

The oil appeared dark brown, nothing unusual.

I changed the oil and refilled with Shell 5w30 and a Wix filter. Once the oil level drops, I may add the other 1/2 qt of MMO to the crankcase.


I had the same thing happen with my Marauder, when I changed my oil I added 19 ounces of MMO since my engine holds 6 quarts of oil which is 192 ounces, so 19 ounces of MMO is about 10% volume.

I remember checking the oil at about 1000 miles and the oil level was down about 8 ounces. I went ahead and added 8 ounces of oil and now at 2500 miles on this OCI the oil level is perfect.

I asked Demarpaint about this, and he told me the same thing happened to him, his thoughts were that maybe MMO did some cleaning in the ring packs. My thought was the MMO probably soaked into some crud or junk inside the engine.

It will be interesting to see what the oil looks like when I change it in another 2500 miles, at that time I will have had 5000 miles on this OCI with MMO.
 
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