www.iFourWinns.com

I use 15w50 Mobil 1. I also use Mobil 1 in the drive. My manual recommends 30, 15w50 or 20w50 fully synthetic. Oil is cheap compared to engine rebuilds. I do two per year. One on re-commision and one in September.

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2005 Four Winns Horizon 200

My first oil change I decided to use regular 5w mineral oil due to yearly oil changes and very low usage. After seeing how dirty it was after changing in at the end of the season (25hrs use), I'm switching to synthetic this fall for extra protection. I suppose an hour on a boat motor is much harder than an hour on a car motor. I was surprised.

As far as gear oil, I'm going to use Mobil1 for sure. It on the other hand comes out clear even after two years of usage which is 50hrs for me. The manual suggests yearly or every 50hrs.

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-2006 H180 VP3.0 SS 21p

jwerner, I get that even using the 25W40 synthetic blend. It is my opinion that the application of the engine is what causes this, not the oil itself. I think everyone would probably note the same appearance of the oil when drained.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

+1

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Ok, this is going to be a very dumb question..........but I need to get this right.

I have a 00 248 Vista with the 5.7GS engine.

I see where everyone is saying Synthetic and that's what I will go with. My question is what exact oil to use. The manual says SAE 20W / 50 but also says "** Single grade oil can also be used, at temperatures above 0°C SAE 30 should be used."

So when I walk into my local Auto parts store, what should I ask them for?



Thanks in advance,

OilDummy!

If you have a 2000 year engine...and if synthetic was not used up to now, I'd not be changing to it because it can cause leaks through seals that may be a little weak but the syn will clean away whatever crud is making it not leak.....so go into West Marine or any marine store and get some Chevron Delo 400 straight 30, or Shell Rotella T straight 30, or Pennzoil Marine straight 30....OMC specified straight 30 in my old 88 4.3 and I have used the Chevron the 7 years I have had it (original engine not rebuilt) and it likes it just fine, with good oil pressure. I prefer not to use multi vis oils in marine engines. Single weight oils hold their viscosity better in high rpm use that marine engines see.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Actually 2 answers.....to a "dumb" question.

No, it's not a dumb question. It's asked daily on thousands of discussion bards just like this one!

And no you really don't need to get this right!

As LouC can attest, EVERY KIND of oil has been tried in marine engines.......AND there's almost NO marine engines that fail due to oil type. They usually crack from freezing or die due to other problems. (not oil....unless you run it out)

If you don't want to use what Volvo suggests use literally whatever you want as long as you change it at the end of the season.

My previous boat (66 Mark Twain, Mercruiser 150) had every kind of oil you could try including single and multi grades and synthetics in it's 39 year life before I sold it. It never had the head off. It had 2 or 3 thousand hours on it when it was sold (the hr meter failed in the mid 80's I sold it in 2005, it had 1500hrs on the clock)


It still ran ok and had adequate oil pressure.

We're all "recreational oil changers". We also are all sold on our own "pet" brand of oil and even some of us are sold on our own "pet" additives and other snake oils. In spite of all the snake oils out there and lack thereof, VERY FEW engines die due to oil.(unless you let it get low enough to lose oil pressure and run it that way)


Just about EVERY ONE of these "oil threads" end up with people indicating what "they use" and usually end up in rather heated battles over what is better (in everyones opinion) They waste a LOT of bandwidth arguing over which oil is best. It happens over and over on boat, car, truck, motorcycle, John Deere tractor, lawnmower, etc etc etc boards all over the internet. The answer is always the same. "I use xyz xW-xx oil and I've never had a problem" Or My uncle used XXXX and never had a problem......etc etc etc.


My conclusion? It doesn't appear to matter. It's all been tried. No one had a problem!!!
Use what ever blows your kilt up!


What do I use? I'M NOT TELLING ANYMORE! It just clouds the issue & It doesn't matter!


Cheers,

Rick

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1987 Four Winns Liberator 211, formerly OMC 460 King Kobra powered, replaced in 2006 by a 1997 Mercruiser 454/Bravo III

That's funny

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Ardy
Adelaide South Australia
Red H180 3.0 Merc

Remeber that diffrent manufactured engines have a set of tolerences for main brgs. and rod brgs. when they recomend a certain viscosity of oil it is to make shure that the rods and mains get proper lubercation, a 20wt oil will not flow as easy into brg. journals on a engine with tighter tolerences and is recomended to run a 5w30. And the same goes for a engine set up to run 25w40 use a 5w30 and main and rod brgs. will fail prematurely and the top end will suffer allso, especialy the valve springs because they will no be cooled properly by the thinner oil. marine oil is not the same as car oil, marine engines create more heat more shock load on engine. Run the viscosity that is recomended and dont think of your boat as a car.