I just bought a 1996 Baja Islander 180 with a 4.3 in it. It's my first boat, just wondering what oil to put in it. I've heard 15-40 diesel oil straight 30W or 40W, 20-50, 25-50. So just wondering. Thanks
.

Without sounding condescending - you really should be looking at the owners manual - if you don't have one I suggest you stop by a marina, get on-line to purchase or call Mercury and get the "official" word. There are a lot of folks out here that have great intentions - but I've read posts of people putting in their engines all types of elixirs from the "sweat of the gods to mouse milk". You don't want to screw up a engine not using the right juice-- these things cost too much!

3pointstar

In MERC engines, I've always ran the MERC (Quicksilver) oil and never had any oil related issues.

Service manual, read it-

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...75558745,d.aWw

You should have roller lifters in that engine so any engine oil 10-40W or better will suffice.

Shell Rotella 15/40 is cheap (especially at Wally World) and will get the job more than done.

Wix or Merc filter will be the choice of many.
Fram - do a search and there has been many oil psi problems from them on just this site alone.

That's it. I'd worry more about the weather and your time available for boating.

rotella is great oil for that engine.

I was told by BobL that I was wasting my money by putting Mobil 1 Synth in my two 496 HOs. He recommended Merc oil for Merc engines. Unless you're running a high HP fire breather (which I'm not), special oil is not necessary. Plus if you're like most of us, you are changing it every season anyway.

Thanks for all the input. Looks like I'll go with the rotella 15-40 I'll be changing it every season. I didn't get an oweners manual with it and thanks for the mercury manual link that will come in handy. I've been lurking on this site for a couple years and it's been really helpfu. I wanted to buy a 30ish footer but my kid is into tubing and wakeboarding right now so the 30 will have to wait a while. I'll apologize in advance for the rookie questions that will come. Thanks again for the help

I even with Merc oil your wasting money as well. As there are other options out there that will work just as well. Oil is something that MANY MANY people are penny wise and pound poor on.

I'd add a couple of pic of it. But I'm not really tech savvy and not sure how to