mobil synthetic

i know oils have been discussed but i am thinking of putting 15w50 mobil syn in my 95 maristar 275tbi. i usually weight the boat down with 1500-2200lbs. i was wondering due to the engine being under heavy load if it would be better to put a better quality oil in then your average dino oil. i was also thinking this year i put on 50hrs with a one year old son next year i would expect to put on closer to my average 100hrs a season. i was thinking with syn it would be easy in marina to just spin off filter and put new filter on at the 50hr mark rather than dumping oil and filter and having to pull boat out of water. money is no object to me when talking the blood of my engine

(Message edited by canada air on September 22, 2004)

I run Valvoline 20/50 synthetic in my 97 Malibu. Over 700 hours on it. As long as your motor has over 50 (I'm pretty sure it's 50) hours on it, you should be able to switch to synthetic.

Why can't you change your oil while your boat's in the water? You should pump it out into an approved oil dispensing cannister, and make sure you have plenty of paper towels to clean any drops up so it doen't get in the bilge water and eventually in the lake. I would change it every 50 hours including the filter.

I wouldn't change to synthetics at a late stage in the boats life. I would be worried about the seals being thinned or slightly cracked and the synthetic oils seeping through. But then again i'm not a mechanic, so who knows? anyone have any insight?

Be sure the gaskets will handle synthetic. Cork gaskets will seep and leak.

I have been running Mobil 15w50 in my 99 X-Star (LTR engine) since I got it. I'm at 750 some hours now and will continue to use it.

No oil leaks. I won't make any claims that it has made a world of difference...but let me put it this way...there was a recall done to replace this gear due to Indmar making the oil pump drive gear out of soft bronze rather than steel. I hear of a quite a few boats eating these gears at say 100-150 hours.

I finally had my oil pump gear changed out at around 650-700. It was worn more than a gear should be, but still doing its job. Maybe it was the Mobil 1, maybe it was due to the fact that I rarely ever have the boat above 30 MPH (90% I'm at 22-25 MPH), but at least that part showed some evidence that maybe there is something to the syn oil.

What I do know is that Mobil has made claims in their commercials of virtually no wear in car engines with hundreds of thousands of miles on them and that there is some warranty deal with Indmar/MasterCraft/Mobil if you always use the Mobil 1 syn and get it analyzed periodically.

Worth the extra couple bucks a quart for possible added protection.

btw, I would not use synthetic as a means of extending the length of your oil changes in a boat. Its so easy to change oil and filter on a boat that I don't think its worth the effort.

If you want to run synthetic to increase time between oil changes then your should really be running a bypass type oil filtration system and sending a sample of your synthetic oil into say Blackstone Labs for example and they will tell you if it is still good....like I said...for 5 quarts of oil and 1/2 hour of time....easier to just change it.

Now if you had a diesel engine that held say 17 quarts of oil...I might advise differently.

I've been runnning Mobil-1 in my boat since the 100hr mark. I have close to 500 right now in the last 2 years. I've been changing the oil at 100 hour intervals and haven't had a problem yet. To this day the engine doesn't burn or leak any oil. I think synthetic oil is a priority if you put a lot of hours on your boat or weight it heavily. If you put your boat away for the winter with limited hours I would recomend changing the oil at the start of every season (after warming the motor completely).

Anyway, this from a automotive tech that uses exclusively Mobil-1 on the BMW's and Mercedes that I work on daily. These cars, by the way, are running between 10,000 and 16,000 mile oil change intervals per factory recomendations. Oil breakdown, or longevity has yet to be a problem. The new synthetic oils are a great thing...

I have used mobil 1 in all of my vehicles gearboxes/engines for the last 10 plus years. Never a engine problem with either boat or truck. 165000 miles on a 351 V8 bronco-still runs like new. Had a nautique with over 1000 hrs. at trade-still had factory compression specs. I highly recommend 15/50. I believe Mobil was one of the first to make synthetic oil. My 2cents.

Yes they were the first. It was in the late 70's.
I have a 96 Bronco with a 351 with 219k miles on it. I pulled the boat with it with the AC and overdrive on through the mountains of Ga. this week. I use syn blend in it. Full synthetic drips in the driveway on an old motor, can't have that. I use the cheapest syn blend I can find.

Anything made since the mid 80's should be able to handle synthetic after a break in period. 10k in my Mercury Marauder

My boat, a Toyota, specs syn 5w30 after the first oil change at 200 hours. I use Mobil 1 oil and filter. Oil stays clean for 150+ hours. I will hit 600 hours this weekend, which I think is cool. Despite the hurricanes, we had lots of great riding weather and lake levels this year. Hope yall did too.

Psyclone:

Point of contention: I think Amsoil was the first commercial (available to consumers) synthetic. syn had been used in aircraft prior.

I have used various regular name brand oils in all of my gearboxes/engines for the last 10 years. I even let jiffylube do it occasionally! Never an engine problem with either boat or Truck. 175,000 miles on my Durango and 1,700hrs on my last Nautique and 200 on my new one.

My opinion is that changing the oil often (50hrs or 6 months on a boat) and every 3-5k on a car makes the brand and type completly unimportant.
Good quality filter is more important IMO.

I do use Mobil 1 in my race car though, but it runs 2-5 hours at 7,500 RPM at 200+ degrees.

http://www.mobil1-30thanniversary.com/corporate/newsroom/newsreleases/xom_nr_mobil1_130404.asp

I dunno if AMSoil was first, Mobil 1 was the first commercially available synthetic oil, came out in '74 Kinda interesting

Amsoil beat Mobil by two years:
In 1972, after an intense period of research and development, Al Amatuzio introduced the first synthetic motor oil in the world to exceed API automobile service requirements.

http://www.amsoil.com/history.htm