mercury is confusing......

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today a certified mercury mechanic (like had merc uniform shirt on and everything) told me " naw, anything that ran straight grade of any weight gets a multi grade now. 20x40 if its got a merc warranty otherwise we put 10w30 in"

i really didnt know what to say, or think... i know my neighbors son is a merc tech, and for our climate he runs 2050 in everything.

thoughts?
 
Originally Posted By: GumbyJarvis
I was for some reason thinking Mercury, division of Ford

15w40, 20w50


i apologize for the mix up... i kinda rushed home and wanted to ask this... hahaha. a lot of people on here said hdeo 1540 would do fine, so i dont think i can go wrong with these
 
Mercury division of Ford is gone.So,no confusion there now.Just like Edsel,the medium price market at Ford is no more.Similar to GM where the only medium price field car is Buick.
 
Full throttle, for hours at a time? 10W30 strikes me as a little crazy, unless it's Amsoil's SAE 30 synthetic or a name brand diesel HDEO. Stick with 15W40 or a heavy multigrade.
 
it was strange, i have a bottle of 1030 in the garage. i thought maybe i could use it if bitog had positive things to say but its not looking like that
 
It's common to switch older motors that originally spec'd straight weight oils to an equivalent multi-weight. i.e.: straight 40 is typically replaced by 15W-40 This is almost always fine as long as the original spec was not non-detergent. Straight 30 replaced by 10W-30 is also common.

However, for an application spec'ing 20W-40, replacing that with 10W-30 is kinda dumb. For light duty applications, that's probably OK but I would be concerned about engines run really hard and/or with a delayed follow-up service (long OCI). In addition to the possibility of physical shearing, there is the issue of fuel dilution thinning the oil even more.

If you are going to use one weight of oil as a one-size-fits-all solution, the no-brainer choice is a 15W-40 HDEO. I don't know how a professional shop could screw this up.

20W-50 might be fine for your marine engine … but then again, the thicker oil may not be helpful and the thicker oil may be a noticeable additional drag/load on the motor. And, more importantly, a 20W-50 PCMO oil lacks the proper additive package to deal with the fuel dilution and high-moisture environment of marine duty.
 
Which motor in specific do you have? I'm not really shocked to hear about 10w30 as a lot of people run it in the outboards with no problems. I believe Mercury sells under their own name and the quicksilver name a 10w30 and a 25w40.
 
On rubber vs the water and we run our two 4.3L Chevy engines with 10W-40, 15W-40 or 5W-40. Legally on the roads around here they are turning 1500-2000 RPM's max. Boats can run at higher RPM's.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: 137_Trenton
Which motor in specific do you have? I'm not really shocked to hear about 10w30 as a lot of people run it in the outboards with no problems. I believe Mercury sells under their own name and the quicksilver name a 10w30 and a 25w40.


i have a 1985 140 hp 3 liter/4 cylinder . valve cover says ( detergent 30 wt ) apparently tge engine was made for industrial applications and for marine applications.

honestly i have a mix of 2050,30,and 1540 it right now... i used up a bunch of jugs on the shelf. i had it written down ( ratios) and did a viscosity calculation, i think im at a 18w46 or something like that. i figure it wouldnt hurt since im just cleaning out for a few trips before i go to a true grade.

if theres a benefit to running a 1030 over a 1540 id do it. other wise ill stick to 1540
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Tuffy1760
without year and motor description, this post is useless...


without general knowledge of mercrusiers universal oil weight in all their applications your statement is useless.
 
Originally Posted By: leroyd92
Originally Posted By: 137_Trenton
Which motor in specific do you have? I'm not really shocked to hear about 10w30 as a lot of people run it in the outboards with no problems. I believe Mercury sells under their own name and the quicksilver name a 10w30 and a 25w40.


i have a 1985 140 hp 3 liter/4 cylinder . valve cover says ( detergent 30 wt ) apparently tge engine was made for industrial applications and for marine applications.

honestly i have a mix of 2050,30,and 1540 it right now... i used up a bunch of jugs on the shelf. i had it written down ( ratios) and did a viscosity calculation, i think im at a 18w46 or something like that. i figure it wouldnt hurt since im just cleaning out for a few trips before i go to a true grade.

if theres a benefit to running a 1030 over a 1540 id do it. other wise ill stick to 1540

Oh ok so you are talking about a Mercruiser... I had thought you were talking about a Mercury outboard at first. I had a 3.0L Mercruiser and always used 15W40 in it. I always thought the 25W40 which they now recommend was just way over priced. 15W40 always worked great for me. I would not use 10W30 in that motor, but that's me.
 
Originally Posted By: 137_Trenton
Originally Posted By: leroyd92
Originally Posted By: 137_Trenton
Which motor in specific do you have? I'm not really shocked to hear about 10w30 as a lot of people run it in the outboards with no problems. I believe Mercury sells under their own name and the quicksilver name a 10w30 and a 25w40.


i have a 1985 140 hp 3 liter/4 cylinder . valve cover says ( detergent 30 wt ) apparently tge engine was made for industrial applications and for marine applications.

honestly i have a mix of 2050,30,and 1540 it right now... i used up a bunch of jugs on the shelf. i had it written down ( ratios) and did a viscosity calculation, i think im at a 18w46 or something like that. i figure it wouldnt hurt since im just cleaning out for a few trips before i go to a true grade.

if theres a benefit to running a 1030 over a 1540 id do it. other wise ill stick to 1540

Oh ok so you are talking about a Mercruiser... I had thought you were talking about a Mercury outboard at first. I had a 3.0L Mercruiser and always used 15W40 in it. I always thought the 25W40 which they now recommend was just way over priced. 15W40 always worked great for me. I would not use 10W30 in that motor, but that's me.


im sorry for forgetting mercury was outboard and meecrusier is molested car engines. i try to not be vague when asking for solutions lol.

i wont bother with changing. just dont see the point. the motor is in really good condition inside and out. tge only thing i was scared of was how black the motor oil was when i got it from the boss who had it sit for 4 FLIPPING YEARS! that oil was drained immediately and it was given a diesel type flush. which came out nearly black i made this batch of oil a tad thicker to mix with the left over diesel. it has perfect oil pressure at idle hot and at 3500 rpm.
 
Mercruiser is adapted truck engines hopefully. My 5.7L has a 4 bolt main like a truck engine would rather than a 2 bolt main that a car would have.

Mercruiser use to say to just use their oil which was 20W50 with no viscosity modifiers. Just a blend of different weights. Now I think they sell synthetic oil also.

Most people I know run 15W40 or HD30. A marine engine is more like an industrial engine in that it may go for an hour or hours at same RPM.
 
Lets not leave out if a syn is wanted Mobil 1 15w-50 is used by lots of performance minded boaters.
 
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