2.5L ('98-'01) Marvel Mystery Oil in poorly maintained, high mileage truck

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

note: 2000 ford ranger 2.5l 2wd mt, 275,000mi, i received the truck at 120,000mi .... i have gone quite a few oil changes to over 5k miles and/or over 10mo

Hey, I am wondering if it is a bad idea to place Marvel Mystery Oil in my high mileage engine? i have never "de-sludged" my engine before.
my lifters seem to be ticking, though many mechanics have said it sounds fine, one buddy says to add MMO to my engine to clean out oil sludge over 500 miles and then do oil change.
i recently read "in terms of additives, don't try to fix something not broken "
i also read that MMO is a very mild cleaner and from what i have searched online, no one has really had any problems with it causing problems to the engine.
am i at risk of dislodging sludge and then leaking oil through bad gaskets in my engine? or any other unforseen problems?
i burn about 1qt of oil every 1k miles, but afaik i am not leaking any oil

sorry, i wasnt sure what keywords to type to find a relevant thread i could bump. ive been searching the internet for answers for about an hour, now.

 

[19Walt93]

Do an oil change and substitute quart of ATF for a quart of oil, it'll do the same thing cheaper. If it makes some noise at 275,000 miles it deserves to.

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

what bout my concerns of dislodging sludge and damaging my engine?

 

[racsan]

any certain type of atf better than another for this purpose?

 

[scotts90ranger]

Not really, they're all high in detergents but regular DEX/MERC is fine and is pretty much what marvel is...

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

i should also mention i accelerate like a grandma and cruise at grandma speeds. and drive down dusty roads often enough. how does that affect engine sludge build up?

is dropping oil pan and cleaning sludge off the bottom of a ranger considered easy? i have limited space and tools.

 

[racsan]

I think sludge issues are more about quality of oil and how often oil is changed, along with engine fully getting up to temperature. If it never fully warms up, thats going to play a major part.
I think to drop the pan youd have to raise the engine some, almost be easier to pull the engine & have it on a stand. Easier to get things back together that was too.

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

should i MMO my vehicle or nay? i have like two internet people saying beware damage, a lot of indiferent people saying use atf fluid and a lot of search queries saying its a fine/mild treatment. i am so indecisive.

 

[Shran]

How do you know there's any sludge in there...? I just had a 4.0 open that has a shit ton of miles on it and there was very little. Modern oils are often OK to run for extended periods too.

I don't think MMO is going to do anything for you. I think it's a waste of money, it's not going to hurt anything, and it's not going to help anything either.

I have had a couple engines that had nasty lifter ticks - I dumped about half a quart to a quart of diesel fuel into the oil, ran it at idle for about 20 minutes, shut it off and let it sit for an hour or so and then changed the oil. It did seem to help.

 

[Blmpkn]

Once a vehicle starts burning a quart per thousand miles the owner should pretty much stop worrying about additives and start worrying about where in the yard they're going to park said vehicle after the new one comes home.

 

[Shran]

Once a vehicle starts burning a quart per thousand miles the owner should pretty much stop worrying about additives and start worrying about where in the yard they're going to park said vehicle after the new one comes home.

My fiance's Prius burns about that much. Has around 190k on it. I guess it's a Prius thing...which is funny because instead of saving the climate by running on battery power, it's polluting by burning a stupid amount of oil. It's weird though because it never smokes and the plugs look great.

 

[19Walt93]

what bout my concerns of dislodging sludge and damaging my engine?

ATF won't dislodge sludge, it'll slowly dissolve it. Especially if you do a bunch of low speed short trips you should be changing the oil a minimum of twice a year.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

My fiance's

Oh yeah??

 

[rubydist]

A quart per thousand miles isn't very much each revolution of the engine, so a decent cat will clean that up so you don't see smoke.

1000 miles is on the order of 3 million revolutions of the engine, and a quart of oil is on the order of 20,000 drops, so its like a drop of oil every 150 revolutions of the engine. That's really not much when you think about the fact that there has to be some oil on the cylinder walls to lubricate the rings and its impossible to wipe it all off each stroke.

 

[Blmpkn]

A quart per thousand miles isn't very much each revolution of the engine, so a decent cat will clean that up so you don't see smoke.

1000 miles is on the order of 3 million revolutions of the engine, and a quart of oil is on the order of 20,000 drops, so its like a drop of oil every 150 revolutions of the engine. That's really not much when you think about the fact that there has to be some oil on the cylinder walls to lubricate the rings and its impossible to wipe it all off each stroke.

I really appreciate you doing the math lol. Doesn't seem like so much usage when you put it that way.