Oil for Outboards

[PistolP]

Last year I bought a 1988 Starflite with a 1988 200hp Mercury outboard and am thinking of using Amsoil Series 2000 2-cycle engine oil. Though this oil is pretty expensive I think it could be worth it. The motor has 20 hours on a rebuild. Does anyone have any opinions specifically regarding this Amsoil product or suggestions for another brand? Thanks.

 

[PistolP]

Last year I bought a 1988 Starflite with a 1988 200hp Mercury outboard and am thinking of using Amsoil Series 2000 2-cycle engine oil. Though this oil is pretty expensive I think it could be worth it. The motor has 20 hours on a rebuild. Does anyone have any opinions specifically regarding this Amsoil product or suggestions for another brand? Thanks.

 

[JW]

Some people swear by Amsoil, others don't because of it breaking down in the container and getting 'chunks' in it.

I switched from the Mercury Premium Plus over to the Pennzoil 100% SYN at the recommendation of a top engine builder, Jay Smith of JSRE. He frequents the ScreamAndFly.com board. He builds a LOT of Mercury racing engines, and has found that the Pennzoil 100% Syn (not the blend!) is the best made.
What I like about it is that it's 100% biodegradeable and can be found at Wall Mart and Menards in the gallons for only $19.95. I was paying $16.95 for the regular Merc gallons, so only a few dollars more for 100% synthetic is great. Oh, and it's rated TCW3 also. I ran my 2.5 Promax 225 all last summer, put 7 gallons of oil through the motor, and my compression tested exactly the same at the end of the year as it did the previous year.

1995 2100BR/1995 225 Promax 2.5 EFI/10.5" RapidJack setback/23" Tempest

 

[Shameless]

This is kind of a loaded question. What JW says is the only good thing I have heard about Penzoil. When I used to work with the manufactures, they always said never run the junk. I have personally not run it, so I guees I can't really say on Penzoil. I have run the relativly new OMC synthetic for the ficht motor and had great success for the short term, but did not run it long term, more than one year. When I raced outboards, I used Yamalube semisynthetic and saw incredible results. I ran that for years, and one of my motors saw four years of action without a rebiuld. That is awesome. Now, take this as a grain of salt so to speak, remember, some people think Baja actully builds a good boat...

 

[Chris]

I run 100% Synthetic. Usually the Ficht stuff, because the local marina is an OMC dealership.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Webmaster
Checkmate-Boats.com-The Fanatics Home!

 

[Shameless]

Once again, this is up for debate, but my engine builders always told me NEVER switch to synthitic with a motor that has more than 250 hours with regular tcw-3 oil run in it continuosly.

 

[JW]

Bill, I would NEVER use any Pennzoil product in any of my engines EXCEPT for the 100% synthetic 2-stroke oil. Pennzoil bought it from Itasca, so it's not 'really' a Pennzoil product. They just own it now. Jay Smith of JSRE swears by it. I now do too. My motor is 8 years old, I have no idea how many hours were on it when I switched, but with 7 gallons of oil last summer (?350 gallons of gas?) and no compression loss, I swear by it now too.

1995 2100BR/1995 225 Promax 2.5 EFI/10.5" RapidJack setback/23" Tempest

 

[Shameless]

Thanks for the update on that JW, like I said, I personally never used it, so my info was not my own experiances, THat does make a big differance that the synthetic is not their own blend. Good luck with the monster, I would go for the foot throttle with trim and jackplate on the wheel

 

[JW]

The oil does smell a little different though.....When you pour it, it kinda smells like Playdough and dish detergent.....and it smells a little different after it goes through the motor too.

1995 2100BR/1995 225 Promax 2.5 EFI/10.5" RapidJack setback/23" Tempest

 

[Shameless]

Ohhh, I love the smell of synthetic tw0 stroke oil

 

[PistolP]

Bill:

I missed the old debate but what is the reason
your engine builders gave you as to why you should never switch to synthetic oil with a motor that has over 250 hours on it with regular tcw-3 oil run in it?



<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bill:
Once again, this is up for debate, but my engine builders always told me NEVER switch to synthitic with a motor that has more than 250 hours with regular tcw-3 oil run in it continuosly.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[PistolP]

JW:

I also have seen "chunks" in the Amsoil Series 2000 2-cycle oil and find it disconcerting that others have had the same experience. Do you think it would "chunk"-up or settle in the gas tank.

Thanks for the suggestion regarding Pennzoil full synthetic, I remember Walmart selling the Itasca synthetic oil and if it is the same stuff than I might try it.

PistolP

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JW:
Some people swear by Amsoil, others don't because of it breaking down in the container and getting 'chunks' in it.

I switched from the Mercury Premium Plus over to the Pennzoil 100% SYN at the recommendation of a top engine builder, Jay Smith of JSRE. He frequents the ScreamAndFly.com board. He builds a LOT of Mercury racing engines, and has found that the Pennzoil 100% Syn (not the blend!) is the best made.
What I like about it is that it's 100% biodegradeable and can be found at Wall Mart and Menards in the gallons for only $19.95. I was paying $16.95 for the regular Merc gallons, so only a few dollars more for 100% synthetic is great. Oh, and it's rated TCW3 also. I ran my 2.5 Promax 225 all last summer, put 7 gallons of oil through the motor, and my compression tested exactly the same at the end of the year as it did the previous year.

1995 2100BR/1995 225 Promax 2.5 EFI/10.5" RapidJack setback/23" Tempest<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[Chris]

Just a little side note fellas.

I used to own a couple of gas stations, so I have a little insight into the synthetic oil in used engines debate.

When synthetic engine oils first hit the market, one of the things they discovered was that if you switched to synthetic oil after using regular oil after a given period of time you risked the seals in your engine shrinking in size. Apparantly there was some ingredients that did not exist in the synthetic oils that did exist in conventional oils, and their absence actually caused engine seals to shrink in size, so that is where that recommendation came from, to not switch to synthetic after given period of time.

They now have additives in synthetic oils which have eliminated the seal shrinking problem, so it's not supposed to be an issue any longer from what I was told.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Webmaster
Checkmate-Boats.com-The Fanatics Home!

 

[JW]

What would scare me the most about the Amsoil is a chunk clogging something up and starving the engine of oil or fuel at high rpms.................

1995 Pulsare 2100BR/1995 Mercury Promax 225 2.5 EFI/ 1.87:1 Torquemaster/ RapidJack Heavy-Duty manual 10.5" setback/ 23" Tempest (worked for hole-shot)

 

[Chris]

Blowin' chunks is never good....and lake pizzas are just bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Webmaster
Checkmate-Boats.com-The Fanatics Home!

 

[Shameless]

The reason I was told is because the synthetic is too "slick" for older motors that could be starting to loose compression. I never asked too much about it, he was an awesome engine builder with OMC when OMC had their reace division, si I figured he new what he was talking about. So, I guess you could say it was hear say, but Chris has heard the same thing but what sounds to be for a little different reason. Kind of like the chicken or the egg debate. I will say where I bought my oil for the last outboard I had, the owner of the place sold both Amsoil and OMC synthetic, he told me the OMC was better stuff. So... I bought the OMC and really liked it. When I was racing, outboard synthetic was kind of rare, but we used to test differnt oils for performance specs and the Yamalube beat them all. we did test against amsoil at the time.

 

[JW]

I found the same thing you describe with a car I had with about 80,000 miles. I switched it to synthetic, and it started burning oil because it's so slippery. I don't think there was any harm in it, I just didn't like the blue smoke coming from my sports car when it was cold, so after about 10,000 miles I switched back to regular Valvoline 5W-30.

1995 Pulsare 2100BR/1995 Mercury Promax 225 2.5 EFI/ 1.87:1 Torquemaster/ RapidJack Heavy-Duty manual 10.5" setback/ 23" Tempest (worked for hole-shot)

 

[PistolP]

Bill:

Would that include motors like mine which is older but has relatively recently been rebuilt (+/- 20 hours on rebuild)?

Originally posted by Bill:
The reason I was told is because the synthetic is too "slick" for older motors that could be starting to loose compression."

 

[175checkmate]

Had my 2.4 rebuilt last year by a guy that builds racing engine's. I broke it it per his recomendations and switched to Pennzoil syn. Ran about 3 gal. of the stuff last year. Same comp. No loss. Ran the stuff in my buddies boat and he picked up 400 rpm. This is great stuff.

1975 Checkmate Tri-mate 2, 2.4 200+

 

[Shameless]

Sorry, PistolP, I missed you ahd a rebuild, I would run synthetic, JW swers by Penoil, Chris and I used the new OMC synthetic, I would not run Amsoil because od the price when the other are as good, if not better. I would say the OMC or Penzoil, Yes I said Yamalube was good, but that is expensive too.