straight 50 valvoline racing
dance with who brung ya... I run 10-30 castrol on a 20 year old engine and didn't use a drop last year... also, a boat motor shouldn't get very hot.. not like you're going up hills...
Actually, it's the opposite. The engine oil gets much hotter in a boat verses a car or truck . Also the engine always has a load on it similar to driving up hill!
The 50 wt racing, Valvoline in our case, has given us good service in the PS motors. We've had our share of engine failures, but none were related to oil. As Rick stated, a boat is harder on everything in an engine than a highway vehicle could ever be, oil included. Always running up hill is a good comparision.......MP
glad I could help and learn at the same time!
Valvoline VR1 40 wt
Tried 20-50 once, when hot it drained like water. :supp: (no oil cooler)
Didn't give me that warm fuzzy feeling.
a more complete comparison for those that need complete comparison...
you can use the link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~memphis3/boatoilsweb.htm
Viscosity vs. Temperature a helpful graph:
http://www.oilfilterstudy.com/viscosity_vs_temp.htm
I've also found that the non racing blends, even the straight weights tend to "foam" up alot more than the racing stuff. I was told it is because of the detergent additives in common oil, that the racing oils don't have.........MP
IMO, the most important thing is to choose a good oil (my 454 ran 26 years on 10w-40 oil, usually Mobil and then Havoline Supreme) and, yes, the lower end bearings were worn out when I opened her up last winter, but no bearing DAMAGE, no damage at all, about 300 hrs total run time. Change the oil regularly.
Dad changed it 2x a year, once at the beginning of the season, once at winterization. The inside of the engine was clean, NO deposts anywhere. There was some rust on pushrods and the like as she had not been driven some years at all, I think at one time sat 4 or 5 without use.
You decide just what "regularly" is.
I think dad may have been overboard a bit for no more than it was driven (about 20 hrs a year on average till 1986, then virtually nil exc '89 and '96). I have been changing once a year, prior to winterizing so the clean oil gets a circulation. If my usage goes up tho (about 30 hrs last year) I may go to 2x a year with the 2nd about mid-season. Last season was her first on synthetic and also motor rebuilt and upgraded last winter so new engine too.
Vavoline racing 40 wt always.
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