Question for you four stroke guys
 

Marine motor oil? Automotive? Synthetic?
Since my new motor is beyond it's warranty, I really don't see a whole lot of differences between the marine ($$) oil for the crankcase and automotive. As long as the oil meets standards, what's the diff?
I'm also leaning towards loading up with synthetic. I think most oils, when at operating temp don't vary much in viscosity, but cold, the synthetic remains the same (I think. Feel free to correct me on this). And with the price of refined oil these days, I can buy synthetic for the same or less than regular petrolium based oil. I've been using the synthetic in my Toyota for a few years now based on the same logic.
I'd just like to hear your thoughts being this is my first (aside from a small kicker motor a few years back) four stroke outboard. I'm also going to call the marina that serviced this motor to see what they recommend. They are the ones that drained the crankcase for the owner to deliver it to me laying down.

check this topic out
http://www.charlestonfishing.com/for...TOPIC_ID=57068
I have allways liked shell rotella oil, there have been some articles in some magazines about it recently, and I know some highly regarded engine builders that use it regardless of what the sponser stickers say. Most of the big rigs you seee running down the highway are using it, and gettin close to 1,000,000 miles on an engine. I called shell to see if rotella was ok for a four stroke outboard, they were very nice and pleasant to deal with, didn't have to a machine or prompt the who;le time. They said Rotella hasn't been tested for marine four cycle engine, not that it wasn't ok, just it hasn't been tested, of course he said their other division(Penzoil) had a specific four stroke oil for outboards. I haven't tried rotella yet, but after talking to these guys I wouldn't feel bad about using Penzoil. Give them a call(got the # of their website), they are veruy helpful and will try their best to answer your questions

Thanks spare. :beer:

i can give you first hand experience with this. i used to maintain a fleet of 6 cats for an drilling company through a dealership and they kept haveing break downs due to engine oil not holding up under the extreme conditions. after testing many different types of oils and then sending the oil samples to a chevron lab to get analyzed and then sending the info back to merc engineers the mobil 1 full syn was the best hands down.

I've used Mobil 1 with good results as well, funny thign, if you read the fine print in the Mercruiser Warranty(not sure about Mercury OB) they do NOT recomend synthetic engine oil and will NOT cover any warranty failure due to its use. That being said, I still think Mobil 1 is a great oil. I used to run it in my 72, when I would first change the oil, the oil pressure would stay up around 40 psi at idle, after about a week of hard driving, the oil pressure would drop to around 20 psi at idle. we were using Mobil 1 in the 2 speed gearboxes on the sweepers, I contacted teh Mobil engeneers thru our company guys, they told me the oil is made in one viscocity, they add viscocity enhancers to create multiple oil rateings for marketing purposes. the viscocity enhancers breack down pretty quick, but the oil still does what its supposed to. Now a days its not uncommon to see 0-5 weight oil being recomended, and plenty of oil manufactures making it. They did tell me not to run Mobil 1 in any engine that use oil pressure to operate vital functions, like the 7.3 International that uses high oil pressure to fire the injectors

yeah brunswick is very very conservative about their warranty. to me that means their products do not have the quality controll that they should. but who knows why they do it. for example if you blow up a new engine during the break in hours if they wanted to be a@@ they could deny the claim.

some things they will cover years after they run out( ie: water ingestion on inboards) but some things they will deny to the end, a lot of depends on whos talking to them and what they think of you, the customer. Show up at a dealer with an internet purchased motor and try to get them to go that extra mile for you, good luck. And that goes for any product, Brunswick, BMP, Yamaha, etc

i agree with the above.....it definately has alot to do with the dealer if you deal with a reputable dealer that has good raport with the oem you'll have less trouble.

I know I've gone to bat for some of my customers who I feel really deserved help from the manufacture, but there are some( who usually want the most) that I will take the first thing the oem tells me.

The people who want the most are the ones who paid the least, Have the most, want it the fastest, generally don't deserve it, and can't understand that its not covered by warranty, the next thing they usually say is something concerning a lawyer. The more expensive the product, the worse it gets. the only guarantee in life that comes with being rich, is that you can loose it all. Just because people have money, doesn't mean they are smart.
Whew, now I can get off my soap box, I feel much better now, don't ask how my week was.

Boy you nailed that one. I work in the service department at the local Mercedes-Benz dealer and I've had similar experiences. Actually the worst ones are the ones who really stretched themselves financially to buy something they can't really afford. I just remind them that they can call their lawyer if they want to, but their lawyer isn't going to fix their car. The truly rich are much better to deal with.

the public....they are a tough crowd. they also want everything yesterday

CB...you've probably already put Mobil 1 in it and happy as a clam...since I bought I've only used Honda oil and had dealer change just to be on safe side...now outta warranty, I'll probably go Mobil 1 next change...

Its not even hooked up yet!! He was to lazy to do it here in my yard and took it some place, might be ready by September!! :head: So much for its cheaper then what we can do it for, how do you get cheaper then FREE??

Too lazy? F:cen:k you! And it is rigged up, thank you.

So lets see it?? I thought so!!

the reason the the OEM don't like synthetic oil is it works to well a new or rebuilt engine needs to wear in
at first synthetic won't let it

on some engines....as others dont. amg, srt, svo and the other factory performance subsidiaries all ship their engines with full syn and most use mobil 1. jag recomends castrol probablt because its a BP company but that is another topic. by todays engineering and machining standards of you can't cut a bore precise enough not to need to worry about break in, then you shouldnt make engines.

that what a service manager for a boat dealer up here said at a meeting I was at










i

Another kicker to synthetic oils is putting them into engines with seals that have lived there life with dino oil, they tend to leak oil after the switch. The synthetics are slicker than dino and will slide past older seals. Went through this one before with my COMANCHE. It didn't leak anywhere, I switch to CASTROL SYNTEC for extended service intervals and it looked like an oil shower afterwards. Switched back and the leaks stopped shortly there after.

i run rotella in every thing I own

15/40 is a bit thick for alot of applications. My 4.0 has a hard time turning over on a cool morning with 10/30 in it. To bad they dropped the 10/30 ROTELLA, that was some good stuff.

still find the 10-30 Rotella around here, and whos kiding who, you live in Fl, it never gets cool down there. haven't had any problems start on cool mornings with my Cherokee( gets just below freezing during the winter, but not for long). I'll tell you what I do have a problem with, when I start the Cherokee, it doesn't start right off like a fuel injected motor should, it has to spin over a few times before it lights off, I haven't even checked anything yet, any ideas?

Fuel pump? Slow starter from too thick of oil?(couldn't resist) The 91+ SBEC and JTEC should be able to start in about 2 revolutions of the crankshaft. My 88 takes a little cranking to get going due to the magnetic pick-up and sync set-up.

yep been there too with my old wrangler i had with the 4.0. the reason why syn oils tend to leak rather than dino oils is due taht syn oils molecules are pretty much uniform in size and that size just happens to be smaller than dino oil. where as dino oil has larger molecules with some smaller molecules but with larger unrefined ones in the mix therefore using the theory of blind probability there are more larger molecules at a given point than smaller ones with the dino oil. here is the kicker there is a difference between regular syn mobil one and high mileage full syn mobil. that difference is seal swellers. check out mobil's website they admit putting them in the high mileage, because that is how to keep the small molecules inside the crankcase with out putting new seals in. and not all the time will re sealing work becuase of the metal rotating part being worn from the old seal sort of a devil's advocate of friction and erosion. in other words if you want to run syn on an older motor get the high mileage stuff.