Mercury Oil or other Brand?

[frillici]

I run a 1997 200 HP Merc Saltwater - Carburated motor and have been using Merc oil. This oil now costs me $25/gallon when buying from a dealer who sells it out of a 55 gallon drum. My friend runs Penzoil in his motor for a lower cost.

Is it worth the extra bucks to continue to run Merc Oil or what premium oil would you suggest I buy?

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

I have the same question for my Johnson Ocean Pro. Should I be using the Evinrude oils or is there a similar quality oil cheaper? I use their semi synthentic blend but in Canada it's almost $40 gallon.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

The engines belong to you fellows so you can run what ever you want in them, were they mine I would use the recommended oil. I believe there would be a lot less money spent on differant de carb products if the owners ran OEM oil of some type. I do not tear down the number of engines a year that I use to but when I did you could tell by the amount of carbon if they used OEM oil or not.

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

Thanks Laddies. To be honest, the extra $10 per gallon a few times year still works out cheap than the $$ to repair one of these.

I guess on a similar thought, is a fully synthetic better? I understand it is smokeless/ashless and most likely runs even cleaner. Is this something you need to have the motor tuned to use or can you simply switch to it.

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

You can run any TC-W3 certified oil. I use WalMart SuperTech.

However, for more bux you will get less smoke and carbon buildup over time with a TC-W3 semi- or full synthetic. Whether that benefit is worth the extra cost to you is up to you. Your engine does not care.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

I'm siding with JB. I use the Pennzoil Semi oil in the summer cause the smoke doesn't seem to stick to your clothes or body. I use the Supertech Dino oil in the winter, when it doesn't matter.

Penzoil Semi is $12.50/gal, Dino oil is $8/gal at the neighborhood Wallyworld.

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

Thanks guys. Information is very helpful.

 

[ThumbPkr]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

I agree with Laddies.I attribute that partially to why my old 650 could sit for so many years outside on the boat and still start like I ran it last week.
I have owned it since 1978 and it still has the same surface gap plugs in it that came with it and for all I know maybe left the factory with them.
I pull them for inspection occasionally and they meet the criteria that Mercury sets forth in their shop manual so that is what I am running.
It was last ran in '91 and I started it last year with the hope to maybe get my old Glastron JetFlite back in the water again.I had to rewire the engine side of the wiring harness and aside from that the electric choke button was froze and the starter solenoid just clicked which are both small problems easily overcome.
I actually made a video of the engine running after the initial start which involved me handchoking it and it fired after a couple of turns as I jumped it.
Now I need to replace the transom and flooring and she will be good to go.
The vid is on youtube if anyone wants to see it.Search for 650 Merc and Jetflite.The boat is so dirty and I apologize for it but it is what it is.She is cleaner now).I will post the link on request.Ron G

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

None of the makers refine their own oil. They all buy it from major refiners and put their name on the bottle. So does Wal Mart.

The reason OEM branded oils are more expensive and SuperTech is less expensive is marketing, advertising and merchandizing costs (overhead).

NMMA instituted the TC-W specs to establish what oils are good for water cooled 2 strokes. Being TC-W3 certified guarantees that that particular oil meets or exceeds all NMMA requirements.

That leaves the main difference being whether the oil is petroleum based or synthetic, or a blend. That does make a difference.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

TCW-3 oil is a minimum standard for outboard engines, much like the API rating in automotive oils. Although I am not as learned as some of the members of this forum and would wager that I have seen the insides and rebuilt many more engines than most of them. Trying to represent any oil that meets a minimum standard as a equal of oils that go beyond it is ridicules at best. In the 80s a PCW and outboard manufacturer marketed a TCW rated oil that was much less expensive that that of the American manufacturers, but if you read the info on it they recommend adding their additives to prevent carbon and another to prevent rust. At that time we sold and rented their products, as well as Mercury products and tried to use the recommended lubricants. Because of the difference in price we thought about using their oil in all of the rental units but after reading their literature and adding the cost of the additives need to bring it to a equal standard of the more expensive lubricants. Not having read the specs on the chain store oils I can't say thats the case here but beleive that the difference is much more that marketing and advertising cost. I repeat my origin statement, It's your engine run what ever you want in it, if it were mine I would run OEM recommended oil. I am not a scholar, educator or writer, just am old mechanic. If you choose to buy a cheap oil I will not belittle your intelligence and don't really care which oil you use, you best know what your engine is worth to you. Bob

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

The notion that one TC-W3 oil "meets minimum standards" and another "exceeds minimum standards" is marketing poppycock. Read the labels and see who actually "makes" the stuff and what they admit to or not.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

The fact remains that TCW-3 is a minimum standard and there are oils manufactured that exceed minimum standards. To say there are not oils that exceed minimun statands is ridicules.

 

[109jb]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

I ran Supertech in my 1976 Johnson 70 for years and it doesn't smoke any worse than than any other non-synthetic oil I tried. Also never had a problem. Here is everthing you ever wanted to know about TC-W3 certification. I have switched to full synthetic for my 115 hp Mariner and use the penzoil synthetic for it.

 

[109jb]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

Oh yeah. Forgot to ask. How do you guys know that one oil exceeds the standards and another only just meets it???? Just because it says Mercury, or Johnson on the bottle doesn't mean it exceeds anything. Even if it says "Exceeds TC-W3 standards" that alone doesn't say by how much. I'm sure every oil that meets certification exceeds some parameter or another of the requirements.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

For the cost of Mercury minimum oil, I can run PenZoil full synthetic. It smokes a lot less, and is a better lubricant.

One caveat. The synthetic is so slippery it won't allow parts to wear enough to break in. You have to run the OEM oil so it'll wear enough to take the rough edges off. Then you can switch to the synthetic.

I run a nicely tuned XR4. I pretty much ignore max rpm specs. It likes to go about 6300 rpm. Doesn't seem very happy at anything under 4000 rpm.

If wal-mart had a synthetic 2 cycle oil, I'd run that.

hope it helps
John

 

[skillman]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

Iv'e been using the tcw-3 from west marine, it's like $12 a gallon, i have a pair of 250 saltwater series and iv'e been running that stuff for the past 3yrs, and my motors run flawlessly, the outboard mechanic who does my service work said your just wasting your money on the quicksilver premium plus or the premium ,the cheap stuff has the same lubricating properties as the expensive stuff!!

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

The fact remains that TCW-3 is a minimum standard and there are oils manufactured that exceed minimum standards. To say there are not oils that exceed minimun statands is ridicules.

Nobody said that, Laddies. Nobody even said that no oils exceed minimum standards. All TC-W3 oils probably exceed the standard in several ways.

There is no basis for claiming that OEM branded oil exceeds the standard by more than any other.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

The original Question was. Is OEM oil worth the differance in price, I responded use what ever oil you want but I would use the engine manufacturers recommended oil. JUST MY OPINION, IF I AM ALLOWED ONE.
JB, responded that he uses WalMart SuperTech oil. His opinion, everyone has a differant one when oil is involed. There was another brand recommened by another member, Then ThumbPkr said he thought that the longevity of his older Mercury was in part to the use of Mercury oil. That is the first mention of Mercury oil and JB responded

None of the makers refine their own oil. They all buy it from major refiners and put their name on the bottle. So does Wal Mart.

The reason OEM branded oils are more expensive and SuperTech is less expensive is marketing, advertising and merchandizing costs (overhead).

Which I responded to with

The fact remains that TCW-3 is a minimum standard and there are oils manufactured that exceed minimum standards. To say there are not oils that exceed minimun statands is ridicules.

The response was

The notion that one TC-W3 oil "meets minimum standards" and another "exceeds minimum standards" is marketing poppycock.

Now I see this

Nobody said that, Laddies. Nobody even said that no oils exceed minimum standards. All TC-W3 oils probably exceed the standard in several ways.

There is no basis for claiming that OEM branded oil exceeds the standard by more than any other.

Enough of he said, I said and enough of this tread. Thought that this site was about opinions but lately it seems that some MODS don't allow anyone to have one of their own. Bob

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

LOL, wanna see an argument, go to a motorcycle forum and search 'oil'. LOL it's even more diverse there as they have wet clutches to worry about.

My thoughts, there are only a few oil refiners out there, far fewer then brands of oil. Quite likely your merc oil is refined by Esso, Shell, Mobil whatever. Today's grades of oil are far better then they were 30 years ago as well. So use whatever works for you, I do notice that some oils have different characteristics then others (penzoil makes the valves a bit louder in my old truck) but they all do one thing very very well now, lubricate your engine. The debate over dino vs synthetic seems over at least. The common consensus is that synth is bad for new engines, but great for older or broken in engines. That said, I typically use semi-synth (or blended) from Canadian Tire, I think Esso supplies their oil if I remember right (from my years working at Esso, Imperial Oil)....so there!!


Ian

 

[lots of boats]

Re: Mercury Oil or other Brand?

Hi

My 2 bits:

I agree, there are only a few base oils, and marketing costs money, not all TCW3 NNMA rated oils are equal and so on...

I've taken apart a few engines with fully rated inexpensive oil, and they didn't look too good, scoring on the exaust port side etc. I've also spent piles of money on semisynthetic oil and had a melt down. There are too many variables in this equation, and not really enough information.

I would like to see this discussion move on to answer questions we can all use. I'll post a new thread. For instance, what is a base oil, where do they come from and what are the additives called and how are those additives made, and what do those additives do and who makes the additives and how much of what is in which oil. I don't think we can make good choices either for cost, or product quality, etc. until we can list off the basic information, and then shop for these things based on the type of application and how much we are willing to pay. I don't find that either the information on product labels, or the information from vendors is very helpful, and I would like to be able to make better informed choices.