Marine Lubrication Update Thread
 

It's been a few years since I started the first such thread and thought I would weigh in again with an update.

Rumor is that Mercury pulled 25w-40 Full Synthetic off production..excuse if I am wrong.

So if you want full synthetic oil for offshore powerboats (just means with the right additive package) I suggest any of the following...and certainly not limited to this brief list:

M-1 20W-50 V-Twin (Proven by many members here!)
Amsoil Z-Rod 20W-50
Amsoil Dominator Racing 20W-50
Royal Purple XPR 20W-50
25W-40 Mercury Semi Syn
Volvo Syn I think it's 15W-40

The goal is to filter and flow without restriction and we see it all...from mild to wild.

When in doubt go with manufacturer's suggestions especially during warranty.


I know many use 30wt dino
25W-40 Merc ol both syn blend and dino
Various 20W-50 Dino's

Be Very careful not to run a modern day "automobile oil" that has much lower level of the additives than offshore boats need or expect greater than normal wear,

Consider 25 hr changes

Take good care!

Thank you very much for your efforts and knowledge over the years..

How and why is Royal Purple In your list? does it just meet spec's or you tested it to be good? I have lost Race engines from RP! I will never use that again. This is only my opinion, not looking for trouble. Just trying to save someone a lot of money

Out of all the Synthetic Oils listed Royal Purple is known to shear more than others. Plenty of users don't like it for that reason. It's mainly used because it has a ton of moly and gives a few more HP during a race..then drain and refill..

I have heard that of the Syn's listed M-1 V-Twin is one of the one's to beat.

High Performance engines upon head maintenance service at 50 hrs show remarkable results..you can eat off the heads..that clean and nice looking.

Valvoline™ VR1 Racing Oil's high zinc provides race-level protection for high performance engines on the race track and is compatible with passenger vehicles. Additional product benefits include:
•High zinc/phosphorus for anti-wear protection, including push-rod and flat tappet applications
•Formulated to increase horsepower
•Enhanced anti-foam system protects engine during extreme stress
•Recommended for engines burning gasoline and full or partial alcohol fuels

Hydro. What do you think a good bet for a hard working nautique 6 liter 409hp with catalytic converters. Heard may not want to use high ZDDP with the cats. True or False? What do you think of Merc.'s recommendation of Kendall Racing 20 w 50 for my Merc. 700 SCI's?

You can not use very high zinc and phos for cat engines. Mercruiser and Volvo both have gone back and forth with this hopefully for a happy medium - Merc had a 20 w -40 syn oil that they changed because it did not have enough zinc and phos for anti wear protection but was great for NOT poisoning the Cat. Volvo also changed their straight syn 30 w to a 10 w - 40.

The marine cat engines need a good balance here for good anti wear protection but not too much to pollute the cat sub strake. I have more marine CAT training thru 4 major marine engines manu's that most techs all put together .

You can not go wrong for NON CAT engines using the Driven products or the newest VR 1 Racing Valvoline that came out a year or 2 ago.

Forget to say non approved cat motor oil voids your whole warranty point blank. All marine Cat engines have thru the manu and of course EPA mandated - 3 years or 480 hours which ever comes up first. Even spark plugs are warranted thru this period timeframe.

I have used Mobil 1 V-twin 20w-50 on my 496 HO's.
I just send the oil in for analysis, and the results
showed virtually no wear after 400 hours.
I changed the oil every 25 to 40 hours.

We have stayed with the Mobil1 V-Twin and Fram HP6 or the Wix Racing 51060R oil filter. After about 8 seasons wailing on the boat, the engines have just been shipped to be freshened. Won't surprise me if the internals look like new.

This IS NOT a good comparison with a marine engine. However, I have a E320 CDI Mercedes Diesel. I change the oil every 13,000 miles as specified in the owners manual. Since day 1 I have used Mobil 1. I had an analysis conducted and likewise - the oil after 13K was basically new oil - with the exception of a higher soot -- which was totally expected. I've used Mobil 1 in every engine (except the boat 7.4 mpi in which I use Mercury 20W-40 semi Sync. Right now the car has approximately 130,000 miles and has not used one drop of oil.

3pointstar

Hey hydro, been many years since I have seen you post. Welcome back!

Mobil 1 info:

https://mobiloil.com/~/media/amer/us...vel-chart.ashx

Any testing of the Driven (Joe Gibbs) 10w50 marine oil ?

Driven Its a 15w -50 and if you want just call Lake Speed Jr of Driven to get a very good education about oils and not pushed on Driven only. I have talked to him many times and they have tested everything on the market

Ask him about bike oil so he can tell you why not to use it for marine / race car apps. Go to a source that has real testing results and works with the oil additive companies year in and year out.

Also oil is all about balance, too much of one or more additives will over power other additives and stop them from doing their job as well. One oil might work well in one app but not in another.

Too much zinc and phos is not good either.

^^^^^ If you need phone contact info I have it. The guy really knows his stuff and trained very well, plus he will not push you on their products.

Any opinions on Brad Penn 20W / 50 Semi synthetic?

I experimented with case hardening, dlc coating and cryo iso rem of Mercruiser outdrive gears behind 1000+ hp in my Baja, I found that cryo isorem doubled the life of the gears (from piiting/galling, wearing, not teeth snapping), I did extensive testing again, and again. I had a large supply of Royal purple gear oil at time (55 gallon drum) so I used it thru out my testing as a constant. When I ran out I switched to amsoil sever gear, my gear life doubled AGAIN. IN MY OPINION royal purple is garbage, I would buy dino oil before I ever bought that again for anything, fwiw, Smitty

BUP,
I agree with everything you posted and yes it is 15W 50 marine, my bad. I am a dealer for Driven and wanting to know if the OP had done any testing of their oil seeing that Driven makes an oil for the marine HP market.

also curious about Brad Penn 20w-50? Ran BP this past season and will be going in for oil change when i do cam change in my SBC 434 in a few weeks when i can catch a few warm days here in SC. Any thoughts on a filter-mag as well?

I'm also curious about the Brad Penn 20/50. My motor came with BP 10/40 and was going to move to 20/50 but found this little gem of a review on a car forum:

The problem was after the car sat for a month the oil turned to jelly.

How is the newer Merc 25w-50 synthetic blend? It sounds like it has the ant-wear ingredients in it since they say not to use it in catalyst engines.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...t.do?pid=97761

What do all those mean in terms of the oil? .....API,SJ,SM,SN ILSAC. ect

API is the quality level of the oil.

Ken

I've also been running Mobil 1 V Twin for some years now along with the Wix 51060R.

Side note, still remember you guys aired out on the LEOPA run....we were running hard that day!!

Always had good success with Valvoline 20-50 VR1 Conventional. When I had big power and super chargers I changed it every 15 hrs. Now with the 500 EFIs I change it 25hrs. Always looks good. easy to find. I either run WIX or KN Oil Filter. Of course lubrication thread is always the most controversial, especially in the winter. This thread will derail soon. Lol

Have not tried brad penn in marine app, but we use it in race motors with great success, so I think would be great, I am using amsoil lubes now and they seem to be great.

I'm currently running Mobil 1 15w-50 with ~1300 ppm zinc, how do the zinc level compares with the merc synthetic blend 25W-40?

http://www.oilspecifications.org/api_eolcs.php

And this one is really handy: http://www.noln.net/sites/default/fi...il%20guide.pdf


The question I have is which ones really matters?

I also use Brad Penn in my FED and would not use anything else in my race motor. I am currently building a new motor for the boat and was planning on running it after the initial break in with Lucas break in oil.

Was this when we were in the Detroit River? Couldn't have been too hard as the speed limit is 55 MPH.....