What oil do you use

[The Mad Hughesy]

Hey team,

Picked my boat up today from northside marine. Had lots of issues starting the engine, and after a tense 10mins at the measured mile inthe middle of the bay I decided to take it for a service.

Long story short they found nothing majorly wrong, and only made a few adjustments to how it idles. The guy who served me Rick (really friendly bloke) asked me what oil I used and I said valvolene. He told me to not use anymore as he recons they tend to clog engines up. He reccomed ex I use castrol.

Just wondering what oil everyone uses for their outboards? I have a 40hp 2 stroke suzi.

Cheers

Chris

[cookie_7]

Hey dude,

A while back I used all genuine oil/fluid, but did some research and started using Penrite fluid (engine oil 2 & 4 stroke) & (Gear oil). It's cheaper (I buy my oil/fluid in bulk) and Australian owned.

[madmullet]

funny that, my outboard mechanic said use nothing other than castrol and valvoline.

i resently used shell nautalest and it smelt so much differant to the others and found it was a thinner oil and my 200hp used a lot more of it

i have used either castrolor valvoline in my 15hp suzi 2 stroke outboard and my 200hp suzi for over 10yrs now and never had a prob

what reason did he give for it fouling engines

[The Mad Hughesy]

He recons that about 5 years ago they changed the consistency of the oil and now it is alot thicker. He said he noticed how quickly it gunked up his uncles boat engine

[Gad]

what brand and type of oil does the outboard manual recommend

[The Mad Hughesy]

I'd have to search online for the manual, didn't come with the boat when I bought it

[blue water outboards]

Hi Chris

Have a look in your manual and see what they recommend. Make sure the oil is at least tcw3 and keep to the well known brands,castrol,quicksilver. And valvoline are all good oils.

Cheers

[e-fish-n-sea]

i always used valvoline and never had a problem with any of the 2 stroke motors now i have to use the etec oil .

[aussie123]

Ive been using Valvoline for over 30 years and never had an engine failure or need for a rebuild.

[Gad]

He recons that about 5 years ago they changed the consistency of the oil and now it is alot thicker. He said he noticed how quickly it gunked up his uncles boat engine

If that is all his experience with vavoline,I`d say his uncle may be a little heavy handed with his oil to petrol mix

[kmcrosby78]

I'm no mechanic but am pretty sure I remember a thread saying that the oil ratio is based on normal running around, so when you idle the motor requires/uses less oil so it therefore builds up and smothers the spark plugs? If this is correct then this could have been your issue Chris, especially if you have it in idle/low revs a fair bit (cast-netting, slow-trolling, etc). I had this issue and my brother (electrician) said just to give the motor a good rev occasionally whilst in neutral.

I just use the cheap stuff (Nautilus I think?) and haven't had any issues (apart from above). Hope it helps.

[samsteele115]

I had the same problem and the bloke who serviced my Yamaha said not to use vavlolene for the same reason. I'm using caltex outboard oil now and had no problems however it probably isn't the best quality oil out there

[The Mad Hughesy]

Seems to be a huge difference in opinions. I might ring Suzuki today and ask them what they reccomend.

[Gad]

Seems to be a huge difference in opinions. I might ring Suzuki today and ask them what they reccomend.

did you ring Suzuki, and did they have an answer to your question

[dirtridder]

suzuki recomend motul oil. not the cheepest oil geting around. i think it is about $18 1L. the guy at suzuki ashmore recomended jonson oil if you want to use cheeper oil about $9 1L. i run my suzuki dt30 on motul @ 100:1 never had a plug foul up.

[regulated]

motul is a highly regarded oil in a fair few different sports. It is THE oil to use in dirtbikes