2005 Sanger V210 Oil Change Advice
 

I have a Sanger V210 with the 350 mag engine. The Quicksilver 25w-40 is hard to obtain where I'm at and is very expensive. I was wanting to use Royal Purple in my boat but was not sure the best weight to use for my area. I live on the Texas coast and was thinking of using 20-50w Royal Purple oil because it was one of the weights the manual said I could use. I am having hesitations though because 50w just seems so high for my area.

The important number is the high number. The 25w means the viscosity at startup. You could use 15w-40 or 5w-40 without a problem. Royal Purple makes both of those, as do others, and they make a 20w-40. Use any of those ahead of a 20w-50. Mid summer in Texas you could maybe use a 25w-50 but I think the 40 weight would be fine even then.
I use a pure synthetic 5w-40

I've been using Mobil 1 20w50 for years with no issues. I would guess somewhere close to 700 hrs now on 2 boats and I've never had to get in either motor. I'm outside of Austin and we ride year round. I tried switching to Valvoline VR1 20w50 this summer, but I didn't care for it. Seemed to be a little harder to start and the boat was a little rougher until it warmed up.

With the flat tappet motors, I need the zinc additive ZDDP, the Mobil 1 has been the easy choice because it was cheap in 5 qt jugs at Wally World. They stopped stocking those early in the spring. I've talked to a friend who is a store manager who also used it in his Mastercraft so hopefully he will get some more in his store soon.

The diesel oils usually have closer numbers, but I've always been a little nervous about the additive package they use with a gas motor.

02 V210 owner with the Black Scorpion. I use Rotella 15w-40 every 50 hours or every season if less and haven't had any issues. This subject has been beat to death on this board, do search and you'll find a lot of differing opinions. I run in seasonally hot tempertures on the Colorado River.

I appreciate the advice. I have searched the forums but only find how to change it, and the types of oil to use on the transmission and v-drive. So is the general consensus that I should return what I have? I took a second look at it and it is 25-50w instead of 20-50w. I grabbed the royal purple because the specs were the closest I could find to the recommendations in the manual. What would be the benefit or downside to running the 50w vs. 40w? Is there any chance of damaging the engine?

Running a heavy oil means a longer time to oil at startup. (A problem in Canada and not significant in Texas) It also means more power loss pumping (You won't notice that), and lower volume of oil flowing as the pressure relief comes on earlier at the pump. Overall it's not a huge issue to run a 25w-50 instead of a 25w-40 but it is not as good. The benefit of running heavier oil is when the oil gets very hot it will continue to provide more protection. (Not likely to happen with a 160 thermostat)

My Toyota specifies 0w-20 oil from the factory. That's pretty thin compared to what used to be run.