Originally Posted By: morris
were we fighting wwll in 1923?
Nope! What appears to be a difference of history in this thread is my fault: "developed further in WWII for use in aircraft engines" is more accurate.
The Turtle Wax website on MMO does post the very early history of the product just as
paulo57509 related it. What I should have said is that in WWII the miltary
turned to Marvel Mystery Oil for a
solution to the problem of tetra-ethyl lead and carbon buildup on supercharged bomber and fighter plane engines. I imagine that some additional research and testing was necessary because it was to be used in aircraft flying in extreme weather under demands for exceptional performance compared to automobiles on the ground. But it was recognized that a product that dealt with lead and carbon build-up in engines already existed and that is why the military was interested in it.
As I recall it, the Army Air Force, which then became the Air Force, would keep 55 gallon drums marked MMO on the airfields and the ratio of the mixture used was 1 quart of MMO to every 80-100 gallons of fuel depending on the aircraft. 1 quart to 80 gallons is the same ratio advised today as 4 oz to 10 gallons of fuel on Marvel Mystery Oil bottles available commercially.
I wasn't alive during that era, but I had elderly relatives who enlisted and sought out Army Air Force duty just before WWII became a global conflict. They each told the story of how MMO became a staple of wartime aviation. That story did not compare to the details of the campaigns they managed to live through that took decades for them to finally get to where they were able to talk about the war and not just about why they used this nice smelling red stuff in their cars.
Sorry. Overall, MMO is a good, helpful product. There are others, less versatile, more expensive, with less noticeable results.