Florida Man Drains All The Oil Out Of A Nissan. Then He Replaces It With Maple Syrup From Dollar General: 'I Think It Runs Better'

A Florida junkyard owner who spends his weekends finding new ways to destroy old cars has posted his most bizarre experiment yet. He empties the crankcase of a running Nissan, refills it with four quarts of brown sticky liquid from the Dollar General syrup shelf, and then claims the engine runs better afterwards.

One day after its June 16 publication, the video had racked up 2.2 million views and a comment section that was split between Americans laughing along with the experiment and Canadians making politely furious objections to the claim that the liquid was really “maple syrup.”

Crushin Florida’s (@crushinflorida) 346,000-follower channel is built around stunts, dares and the disposal of junkyard engines in the Florida Keys. The caption reads, “The comment section wins again! @Dollar General let me know what I should use next.”

The Experiment

The video begins with the host standing next to the car holding what he calls “the whole bottom shelf” of maple syrup from his local Dollar General—eight or nine bottles, including, he says, “a bunch of sugar free and one red that’s not a real test. It’s maple syrup in an engine, sir or ma’am.”

He runs a baseline start to establish how the car sounds with motor oil, drains “about four quarts of just some nasty looking chocolate milk” from the pan, then pours in the syrup.

He then wheeled out a Super Troopers reference that hundreds of commenters noticed: “Oh go girlfriend, I’m your mother—somebody please tell me you got that reference.”

He then adds, “I don’t know how to tell you guys this but I think it runs better with maple syrup in it,” he says after the second start. “It doesn’t look good but it smells delicious.”

He calls the test a success, signs off, and teases a follow-up using “a few two liters of something special in my truck” to flush the syrup back out.

Can You Use Maple Syrup In An Engine?

The most common complaint in the comment thread had nothing to do with the engine. Hundreds of commenters, many tagging themselves with Canadian or Vermont flags, took issue with the labelling.

“That is not maple syrup. That is colored corn syrup,” wrote Armemom5. “As a Vermonter, sir, that is corn syrup, not maple syrup,” Lindsay added. “Let’s see it with actual Vermont maple syrup and I will be satisfied.”

Crushin Florida acknowledged in a reply to one of the Canadian commenters: “That oil change would’ve been $200 for the real stuff.” The US Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service puts the 2023 US-average retail price of pure maple syrup at $55.70 per gallon, with syrup from Vermont, the country’s largest producer, at $57.10. Four quarts of the actual product would have run him roughly $56 even before tax, against the roughly $8 the Dollar General table syrup likely cost.

Pure maple syrup is also a different substance under federal labelling rules. Food and Drug Administration guidance on single-ingredient sugars defines pure maple syrup as the concentrated, heat-treated sap of the maple tree, with no soluble materials added or removed. The Dollar General product is not that. Several commenters described it as flavoured corn syrup with brown coloring.

Canada, specifically Quebec, controls the world maple market. The province’s producer federation reports that Quebec accounts for roughly 72% of global maple syrup production, and runs a Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve that warehouses surplus harvests, with capacity for 55 million pounds, to keep the price stable when production swings. The reserve currently contains just over 40 million pounds.

The Chemistry Problem

Several commenters identifying as chemists, chefs and mechanics pointed out that the test missed the part where it would matter most. As long as the engine is running, the syrup stays hot and liquid; the trouble starts when it cools. “The sugar in artificial maple syrup is a hydrocarbon, just like motor oil, except that it is way more reactive and will crystallize as it heats up and dries out,” wrote Andrew B8118, who said they are a chemist. Alan, another commenter, put it more bluntly, “It’ll ruin the engine. The syrup heats, water evaporates, and crystals form and ‘f’ up everything.”

The Exploratorium’s guide to candy-making stages confirms this, walking readers through what happens when sugar syrup is heated and cooled. As a syrup cooks, water boils off, the sugar concentrates, and the highest temperature the syrup reaches dictates what form it takes as it cools—soft ball at 235°F, firm ball at 245°F, hard crack and brittle at 300°F-plus. An engine oil gallery running at the 200°F-plus range Crushin Florida demonstrated with his temperature-control valve sits in that range.

This was the thing many commenters wanted Crushin Florida to test next. WiscoJeeper2024 wrote, “Shut it off. Let it cool down for 30 minutes. Try to start it again.” Jenne83854 added, “Let the sugar crystallize in there and then see how it goes.” Crushin Florida replied to one of these threads that an update had already been posted.

Some commenters suggested that he should now drive the car to a chain oil change shop and film the technician’s reaction. The mechanic, Lugipuff723 wrote, would either run for cover or “actually fix it.”

Motor1 reached out to Crushin Florida and Dollar General via email. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.