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.