Mercruiser Alpha one gen 2 outdrive GEAR LUBE

[mike1266]

Hello guys,

So I finished up all my maintenance on the boat today including all my oil changes. HOWEVER I have got one problem.
When I was changing the lower unit oil, as I was pumping in the gear lube from the bottom, something caught my eye. The bottle of gear lube I was using said it was for use on outboards and outdrives below 75hp. OMG!! My engine is a 3.0L mercruiser 135hp engine. Will this gear lube be OK to use as is, or should I drain it all out and use another. The oil I had previously was blueish in color (darker due to use) and the new one is clear yellow. Suggestions??

I've included a picture of the gear lube I used for reference. I have not run the engine on the new gear lube yet because I wanted to make sure it was O.K before I run it and ruin something.

Thanks for any help!

 

[nola mike]

The premium is what was used before they came out with the high-performance stuff. It was originally at least used in the alpha drives, I don't know about the gen 2's. Easy enough to replace it with the correct stuff. You aren't supposed to mix the two, however, so make sure you drain completely before refilling

 

[mike1266]

Hello thanks for your reply. I was never able to drain the old oil completely as there was a little bit residual oil after I drained.
How would I go about draining it completely including the gear lube monitor? It seemed that the monitor as well had some lube that did not drain out the bottom.

 

[Scott06]

Use hi perf lube for the alpha gen ii , the premium was specd for the alpha gen one.

to drain just take the bottom plug out and take cap off reservoir in cold weather this will take a while

 

[Rick Stephens]

There's not enough difference, mechanically, between an Alpha 1 and a Gen 2 to make a razor blade out of. That oil will work fine. It will not hold up under as much high temperature operation, will start to break down earlier if you make long hard runs. Hence the synthetics put in the later high performance oils.

 

[mike1266]

Ended up draining and switching to high performance. I'd rather not risk anything. A little bit of the premium oil was left (a couple drops total) but I don't think that will be a big issue. The boat is finally turn-key ready to go! Thank you all for expert advice

 

[Bondo]

A little bit of the premium oil was left (a couple drops total) but I don't think that will be a big issue.

Ayuh,..... It ain't,.....

Any full-syn oil in 75W-90 is good,.....