I have been using regular 80W90 GL5 gear oil in the bottom end of my 87 MerCrusier for years now, because it is far cheaper the the lubes that are branded for Marine use. I asked a Mercury tech guy a boat show what to use, and he told me only Quicksilver gear lube. I presured him a bit, and he admitted "off the record" that it was just plain gear oil. What I am not sure of is whether to use a GL4 or GL5 lublicant. Any ideas?
80W90 GL5 Gear oil
- Thread starter bluestream
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To make life uncomplicated, I just stick with the Quicksilver stuff. I used to use the high performance green stuff, but with a 3.0 liter with Alpha Gen II drive, same one that will also take power from a V8, I got to thinking do I really need that stuff? So I use the premium, brown stuff, plus it's cheaper. Every time I drain it at the end of the year, it is still tacky and holds the moisture up pretty well. If you look at that thread above, I too had wondered about using something else, but I've never heard from friends or internet, about outdrives failing because of the oil. I just decided to stick with it. If it ain't broke, I wasn't going to fix it.
Let me make a little statement here you might want to think about.
You will never see a lubrication failure on equipment but a lack of lubrication failure
That being said, any oil will work. Let me point out though, the reason why many of us are here is we look for the best for our situation. Since Joeee12 isn't going to have time to post this, I'll tell you what he explained to myself and vetteman.
He changed the gear oil out of his lower unit and now is running schaeffers 267 80w90. He then also switched to the 706 tcw3 2stroke, and used some 131 mix in his gas. He took his boat out a min of 3 times I know of, an in all cases he stated he now had no smoke coming out, and that he picked up 2mph by gps reading over his normal speed.
I will state that most likely he got most of the extra speed due to the gear oil where it reduced friction where his gears slide across each other. Anyway, Vetteman is the one that advised him on what combination to use and needless to say, joeee12 was very happy with the results.
Also, by using a better gear oil, you'll find it can extend the life of the lower unit as well keep it performing at top condition.
[ September 22, 2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: BOBISTHEOILGUY ]
You will never see a lubrication failure on equipment but a lack of lubrication failure
That being said, any oil will work. Let me point out though, the reason why many of us are here is we look for the best for our situation. Since Joeee12 isn't going to have time to post this, I'll tell you what he explained to myself and vetteman.
He changed the gear oil out of his lower unit and now is running schaeffers 267 80w90. He then also switched to the 706 tcw3 2stroke, and used some 131 mix in his gas. He took his boat out a min of 3 times I know of, an in all cases he stated he now had no smoke coming out, and that he picked up 2mph by gps reading over his normal speed.
I will state that most likely he got most of the extra speed due to the gear oil where it reduced friction where his gears slide across each other. Anyway, Vetteman is the one that advised him on what combination to use and needless to say, joeee12 was very happy with the results.
Also, by using a better gear oil, you'll find it can extend the life of the lower unit as well keep it performing at top condition.
[ September 22, 2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: BOBISTHEOILGUY ]
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