Which "After Run" Oil to Use?

[Pete Markese]

After approx. a year in the hobby, I have gone back and forth several times in regards to which after run oil is best to use. Being new, I tend to rely on the advice of all of you more experienced hobbyists, but sometimes like is expected I see conflicting reports and then wonder what to do. I have seen opinions expressed about using transmission fluid, Marvels Mystery Oil, air tool oil and others and I thought I'd just ask here and see what comes out as being the consensus all around favorite from you all. What is the "best" oil to use to pickle you engine? Please share your opinion.

 

[moparbarn]

boy, pete, you know how to start a hot topic . i'm grabbing a beer to watch this :lol: :lol: ! like you said, LOTS of different opinions. i mix wd-40, 3 in 1 oil, marvel air tool oil up in equal parts for mine. flush first with wd-40.

 

[anthony_marquart]

You know,.. I don't know that any of the many recommended ways won't work. I like to flush with WD40 then some MMO.

BUT, I've also gone a lone time without the WD40 and just the Oil... I've also used transmission fluid...

you just have to be sure to get the alcohol out of the engine and then add some good lube. Alcohol attracts moisture,... so get that out and add oil till it blows out the plug for a few seconds.... you'll be fine..

 

[RaceMechaniX]

I have been flushing with WD-40 or Rost off first followed by a 50/50 mix of MMO and ATF for many years with no problems. Some motors are over 14 years old and still run well.

Tyler

 

[steve wood]

this past summer i started using transmission fluid exclusively. i'v found my engines look like new now after using it all summer, even in the mono, which can fill with water if it sits dead for any length of time. the engines have no rust at all. i'v been running boats for almost 30 years. and the motors look better now than ever

 

[Don Ferrette]

My personal choice home brew after run is a 50/50 mix of Marvel air tool oil (not mystery oil) & synthetic gear oil. I blow the motors out with WD40, a shot of WD into the water jacket, hold the boat up & let the excess run out the pipe(s) then about 10cc of my brew spinning the motor(s) over by hand. A good brand of ATF works well also like Steve uses but I'd still mix with the gear oil just to thicken it up a touch, but hey that's just me. B)

 

[Andy Greene]

My personal choice home brew after run is a 50/50 mix of Marvel air tool oil (not mystery oil) & synthetic gear oil. I blow the motors out with WD40, a shot of WD into the water jacket, hold the boat up & let the excess run out the pipe(s) then about 10cc of my brew spinning the motor(s) over by hand. A good brand of ATF works well also like Steve uses but I'd still mix with the gear oil just to thicken it up a touch, but hey that's just me. B)

Yep 85/140 synthetic gear lube and good quality ATF 50/50 OR 60/40 takes the runny out. After following the flush steps of course- The WD40 in the water jacket helps alot also- just dont always remember to

 

[Bob Finn]

Flood it with Wd40 to flush the water and fuel residue, and then ATF is very good. I've also used Corrosion X, but its a bit pricey.

 

[Thom]

Flush with WD40 / Lube it up with a marine "fogging oil" / wrap it in paper towels and store it in a ziplock . The F.O foams up as you squirt it into the motor. Makes me feel like it's gettting into every nook and cranny. Since it's designed for 'off-season storage' of marine engines, it holds up well for longer periods of storage as well.

>Thom

BTW - this has been a very friendly thread - not exactly what you (Mopar) expected, huh?

 

[moparbarn]

oh no, i expected it to be civil, just much more varied in opinions. much more of a consensus than i expected. just thought it was going to be more "fun" to watch. btw, good idea with the fogging oil, having been a factory trained ob tech, i can see where that would work very well .

 

[robertpickard]

I flood with wd then use marvel mystery oil never had a problem. Robert

 

[Thom]

Not to get too far off-topic but I also use the fogging Oil in my 71 Dart Swinger - 318. It sits during the winter.

>T

 

[Brad Christy]

Pete,

My method is to flush with WD-40 (which seems to be the common consensus) and then flush with a 50/50 mix of MMO and synthetic air tool oil. Then I pull the engine, fill it completely with the MMO/ATO mix, fill the flywheel with the mix (to coat the front bearing, something most people neglect) and stand it, flywheel down, in a rack I have and let it set while I wash the boat out. One of the last things I do is to dump the oil out and spin the engine over with the starter to get most of the oil out. Then I wrap the engine in a towel and seal it in a Ziploc bag. It stays there until the night before I'm going to run again. This keeps the engine from leaking and gunking up the inside of the hull between trips to the pond.

As a side note, WD-40 should NEVER be left in the engine for any extended period of time. WD-40 is a water displacer (WD) that does so by way of ABSORBING it. If you leave it in the engine, even if mixed with other oils, there is water in contact with the internal parts within 24 hours. It is a good cleaner but a terrible oil or rust inhibitor. Something to think about.......

Thanks. Brad.

Titan Racing Components

BlackJack Hydros

 

[Scott Norris]

Well Pete, I guess you figured out by now that there's really no set best formula for after run oil. You ask 100 people and you'll probably get 95 different answers. I bet they all work pretty well!

 

[Valet]

I use only marvel oil, great stuff .

boy, pete, you know how to start a hot topic . i'm grabbing a beer to watch this :lol: :lol: ! like you said, LOTS of different opinions. i mix wd-40, 3 in 1 oil, marvel air tool oil up in equal parts for mine. flush first with wd-40.

 

[steve wood]

only problem with marvel mystery oil is that it destroys o rings and silicone exhaust gaskets. if you use b&m tranny fluid you will find it is real thick, unlike cheaper brands

 

[moparbarn]

thom - i try to start my 73 charger/360 every few weeks, to aviod that & keep fluids ciculated everywhere else.

steve - the old type "F" tranny fluid is much thicker than todays dexron/mercon atf, if you can still find it. cheaper than b&m trick shift, too. old street racers trick, use the thick stuff in a dexron spec trans, for harder shifts. couldn't go the other way, dexron in a ford would burn it up, back when.

 

[Geraghty]

The truth is girls most anything mentioned here will work very well as long as you use a "ton" of it.

The big bearing killer in our motors is the nitro not the water or alcohol. Nitromethane is the oxidant and very corrosive.At the end of the day you must flush it out of the motor with a ton of something and I mean a ton.Three [3] seconds of after-run isn't near enough to get rid of the residual nitro.

I see a lot of motors and I would venture a guess that 98%+ of all the bearing failures I see are a result of poor after-run clean-out practices,not material or bearing quality failures.

ATF is the perfect choice for our application....Nothing is harder on lubrication that an automatic transmission."Big" loads and "big" temperatures and more often than not the ATF is a victim of poor automatic transmission maintenance practices and yet they still continue to motor down the road.

Here is the best part of using ATF.......it is cheap.

 

[Marty Slater]

and now you know the rest of the story :lol:

very glad to see you posting again Rod

Marty

 

[Tom Foley]

Great topic , I like a wash with any of the popular water dispersant lubes and a final rinse with outboard motor Fogging Oil available in cheap aerosol cans . This stuff protects and does not solidify over YEARS of storage !! Whatever works ! :lol: