From drag racing champion to inventor: Stinnett launches new engine fogging oil

Stinnett said the idea to make his fogging oil, “Foggit,” came after seeing the damage rust can do to engines that sit dormant for a while, specifically engines that sat in boxes while being shipped to his repair business.

“When they come in and we take the engine apart, the cylinders are rusted,” Stinnett said.

Rust can happen on any engine, Stinnett explained, especially on engines that sit idle for longer periods of time, such as classic cars and trucks, antique tractors, boats and jet skis, chainsaws and more. To prevent this, fogging agents can be applied to the affected areas, essentially sealing the engine against moisture and surface rust.

“We tried all the different marine foggy oils and different household and hardware store sprays as well and none of them seemed to do the job as well as what we wanted it to do,” Stinnett said.

So, a few years ago, he began to play around with formulas to create a better fogging agent, eventually teaming up with a racing friend, Steve Williams, the former CEO of K&N filters. In early 2019, Stinnett and Williams contacted a chemical company out of Minnesota called Hocking International Laboratories which helped refine the formula.

“That took another year and a half and development, of them experimenting, refining what I’ve done,” he said. “These guys are professional chemists working on an exact formula that was both effective but it also had to pass laws regarding causing cancer and shipping and then it had to be economical enough to mass produce and sell.”

After a lot of trial and error, Stinnett said, they arrived at a final product and went into production. His product, Foggit, is a high-performance fogging oil, designed to “cling to cylinder walls, prevent rust, protect the surface, and be easy to apply.”

As a racer of 40 years, Stinnett has had ample experience working with engines. Starting his career in the early 1980s, he would go on to win four NHRA world championships as well as 26 national events and 19 division five championships.

The transition from racing and working on engines to creating products to protect them was easy.

“It kind of went hand in hand,” Stinnett said. “When I started in the ‘80s and I started winning, people come to you to see what you’re doing to outrun them and then they want to know if you’ll build their engine.”

Sales of the oil — which retails around $20 a can — have taken off, he added.

“We started selling it at our very first event we took it to,” Stinnett explained. “Between me and my wife, we sold like $5,000 worth of product.”

While Foggit is available in Emporia and online, it will also become available overseas.

“We signed up and shipped two complete pallets to an exclusive dealer in Australia,” Stinnett said. “They jumped on right away so we want to have the rights to it in the whole country of Australia. And we’re currently in negotiations with dealers all around the United States and Canada.”

In the meantime, Foggit is available at Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply, Stinnett Automotive and online at foggit.com and Amazon.