The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Ampco Marvel Mystery Oil injection for leaded eng

http://www.ampcolubes.com/index.php?content=products
Several people in the Local car club have used these mines still in the box.Saw this in a past post thought I would share where they were bought.

I had totally forgotten about those things. They work really well on seasonal old engines such as old tractors and they were very popular on field trucks that were only used during the harvest. I never saw the need for one on my old jalopy in the 50's or 60's. A trip from here to Stonewall with my foot in the carb burned the carbon out of the upper cylinder.

are you sure you don't inject snake oil into the engine?

Our family shop sold and serviced those things back in the early 1950's, and they had absolutely nothing to do with unleaded gas. The only thing that burned unleaded in those days was a Coleman camp stove or lantern. During the Korean war, the gasoline sold on the civilian market was prone to cause massive carbon deposits due to most of the good additives being used for aviation gasoline. The upper cylinder oilers were used to inject "tune-up oil", usually Bardahl, Marvel, or Aviex, to reduce carbon deposits on intake valve stems and guides. By about 1955 or so, the gas quality improved, and the oilers became unnecessary. The only reason to run one now would be for the "old school" nostalgia of having a 1950's accessory under the hood, sort of like a traffic light prism on the dash, or a necker's knob on the steering wheel!
Jerry

The upper cylinder lubricants you mention also dissolve varnish which unleaded gas does create. I still think that having a mist of UCL on your valve stems isn't a bad idea for seasonally used engines. As for old engines used continuously, I think these units would have no use. West Texas sour crude caused a lot of carbon buildup until leaded gas was no longer produced.