Mercury Optimax 90 DFI........Oil Usage

[GeoFisher]

Guys.......

How much Oil should my Mercury Optimax 90 burn.......I'm thinking I'm using WAY, WAY too much oil. I was at Dale this weekend, and Patoka Last weekend. Between the two, I Used about 16 gallons of gas.

For that 16 gallons of gas, I burned about 80 ounces of oil. S0, 16 gallons of gas = 2048 ounces of Gas.

So, 80 ounces of oil to 2048 ounces of gas.......This comes out to 25 to 1, which ####......especially at the cost of this OIL.

Any ideas, or is this RIGHT.

Thanks,

Geo

[CA]

I have a 200hp Optimax and your figures are correct. 25 to 1 is what they mix. I buy from a dealer who sells it to me in bulk. Going rate at the moment is 21.95 a gallon.

[bluesbrother]

ca what dealer are you buying from? ijust got a 135 optimax my dealer charging 27.95 for bulk.

[CA]

Kaylors Marine in Richmond,Ky.

[Dave Stewart]

George: I checked this out and just like I told you on the Indiana Board...you are using too much oil.

Optimax's oil usage varies depending on thottle position..ie: at idle an Optimax will use about a 400:1 ratio and at wide open throttle about 44:1 ratio.

25:1 is way too much oil to be using except maybe during breakin.

[CA]

Dave I'm not saying your wrong, and that I'm right. I'm just going by what I was told by the service tech. at a boat boat dealership here in my town. I have a 1999 Optimax, and I went to them when I first got it and was concerned because it was using twice as much oil as my older Mercury Black Max. I was also concerned because the Opti wasn't smoking hardly any at all. Both of which they explained to me was normal.

[Dave Stewart]

Colby: I have been running an Opti since 99 also and I use no where near that much oil..if I did I would have to raise my guide prices considerably. Now during break in they are programmed to use twice as much as normal but after that it should use less oil than a conventional two stroke. Now when the Opti's first came out Mercury was touting that they would get twice as good oil consumption of the conventional engines but fact is they aren't quite that good but definitely use less than conventional engines. With the variable oil injection system a lot of how much oil you use is dependent on how hard you run your boat..ie...if you run wot most of the time you are definitely going to use more than if you run at lower speeds. Anyway, I am not a mechanic for sure...but if my Opti started using oil at a rate of 25:1 I would have it sitting at Jetta Marina tomorrow getting worked on.

[CA]

I for the most part do run my Opti @ wot. I'll take your word on this, because you spend a lot more time on the water than I do. I do use a lot more oil than I did with the black max, but on the flip side I get much better fuel economy. Like I said before I was concerned when I first started running the Opti about the oil consumption, so I asked a service tech at dealer in my aera. I thought 25:1 was a little rich, but with these hpdi engines i'm clueless. I'm just glad I caught onto buying bulk oil early on. On another note Dave how's the brown fishing on Ky.

[Dave Stewart]

Colby: My boat rarely ever sees wot...I find my best fuel consumption is at 5000 rpm with full tilt (when the wind allows...lol). I have not been out since last week but last week we had some good brown fish. I have not gotten my reports in for this week yet from my network guys that fished this week but I suspect the bite has not changed much. We have been having good current and that is always a plus for the brownies. I will be putting up a new report this week on Thursday evening after I talk to some folks. I have put my boat up for the winter (this week) so that I can get a little break for this ol body before I go on the road to do the seminar thing and then come back to start a new season.

[GeoFisher]

I checked with Mercury............they said the motor was still in breakin, which is possible, since I bought the boat from someone who ONLY used it 6 times and said he didn't have more than 1-2 hours on it.

So, with my 5-6 hours, I can understand where it is still using a LOT of oil. The dealership (clarksville BPS) said they could put it on the computer and tell EXACTLY how many hours, but I figured I'd go at least 5-10 more hours before I really worry.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Geo

[Dave Stewart]

George...why not just have them hook up the boat to the computer and have it checked? If it is still in break in...and it probably is then no problem..but if not and you continue to run it using that much oil then it can't be a good thing.

[GeoFisher]

I was going to..........but they told me it would cost $200.00 just to hook it up, and then regular hourly rate.......so it could cost me $275.00 just to find out........TOTAL BS if you ask me, but that is the cost.......

I figured I'd run another tank or so through it, and if it is still burning that much..........then I'd take it in.........

Later,

Geo