2013 SAN 230 343 burning oil

[Ziplock]

I am very concerned.


I was late on my 25hr service, by about 25hrs. 4th of July weekend (boat had 48hrs) on a camping trip I lost oil pressure coming off of plane. Check engine light came on but cleared after the boat leveled off as oil pressure came back to normal. Pulled the stick to find nothing. The engine took all of 4 quarts. I cruised into the dock and put the boat on the trailer for the weekend.


Dealer said I was Ok. I hadn't damaged anything but gave me a firm slap on the wrist.


5 1/2 months 80hrs later (143hrs total) I lost oil pressure on Saturday, and again the boat took another 4 quarts.




8 Quarts burned in 143hrs with a service at 50hrs.


What are your thought's?

[vision]

Your concern is warranted.

Your motor should use nearly no oil between 50 hour oil changes. I am mildly shocked that your dealer would not have immediately wanted to check out your oil drain tube/plug, head gaskets, and cylinder pressures. You are either leaking oil (any in your bilge?) or burning it and neither are any where near normal with a healthy new motor. Some leaks are hard to spot. Assuming you have not experienced persistent power problems, there is no oil burning smell, and no unusual smoke from the motor, I am going to guess an oil drainage tube that leaks.

[scottb7]

IMPORTANT: The following items should be
checked before starting the engine, and each time
the boat is operated:
• Engine and transmission oil levels

[shag]

That is a problem. And it should take closer to 5 quarts with a filter change... at that much use if it was blow by - you almost certainly see some sort of sheen on the water I would think, at sometime or another. I vote leaking drain... Might have been installed incorrectly/not tightened/stripped. Is your bilge pumping water with oil in it?\
The only motor I know that uses a little oil are the pythons. I believe it actually says in the owners manual it is normal for them to use oil.

[shawndoggy]

I'm confused... are you saying that you had not changed the oil at 80 hours? Till you got the low oil cel?

I run my ex343 boat pretty heavy and it will start to burn oil after about 35 hours. The oil breaks down from running heavy. You should be checking your oil level regularly and you should be prepared to change it at more frequent intervals. Indmar recommends 30 hour intervals on boats that run a lot of ballast, and indmar and pcm use the same 5.7l longblock, so don't see why the same would not be true of pcm.

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[nyryan2001]

^ Shawn is dead on. If you went 80hrs on an oil change and you run your boat hard you likely burned right thru your oil. There is proof that conventional oil can break down and burn off as early as 30-35hrs if you push your engine hard. Many folks don't know this, but Indmar did a study and there's proof. << knowing this I would never run anything but synth in a wakeboat but that's another discussion.

any oil in the bilge?

How's the performance if the engine otherwise? Strong?

how hard do you run the boat??? Do you sac out mega heavy?

[shawndoggy]

I will add that I've run syn and I've run dino oil, and they both start to break down at about the same time. There might be a marginal bit of extra protection from running syn, but not to the point that it would mean you don't need to worry about checking the dipstick regularly, especially as you approach that 30 hour mark.

By the way, PCM suggests using Castrol HD40 straight weight on everything but the 550s if you run heavy, and also reducing the oil change interval to 30 hours.

http://www.pleasurecraft.com/Service...ion%20Memo.pdf

[scottb7]

now this thread is starting to get interesting. the hd 40 says it is to be used above 60 degrees, so i can't use it. but they make a hd 30 for above 40 degrees, but at that point i may as well stick with my 15w40 that is generally recommended as it is probably pretty comparable to the hd30.

i suppose the syn 5w30 might be somewhat better then hd30 or 15w40, but if one is going to change every 40 or 50 hours probably not necessary.

[AirTool]

It should be pretty easy (IMO) to figure out where 4 quarts of oil is going.

[TX-Foilhead]

I've heard of quite a few Bu's with similar issues, always wondered why PCM didn't have the same problems. By the way, why isn't there a idiot light for this? Loosing 4qts out of 5 should have set off something, hard to believe the oil pressure was OK at that point.

[vision]

Unless you accidentally used canola oil instead of engine oil, there is no excuse for burning 4 qts of oil over 50 hours then again over 80 hours in a normal new engine. We are not talking "geez I ran 5000lbs of ballast for 80 hrs and my engine used a quart". We are talking 4 qts over 50 hours the first time and it was repeatable during the next 80 hours.

Granted I have limited experience as I have only put about 1000 hours on two previous 5.7 blocks (Indmars) in heavily ballasted boats and 200 hours on current PCM running heavily ballasted, and rarely a drop of oil used between 50 hour changes. But more significantly, of all the practically sunk 210s with 5.7 PCM engines running around our lakes for the last 15 years, I have never spoke to an owner or local mechanic noting any where near that oil consumption unless the engine had some serious issues (gasket/rings).

Sure, missing oil changes is not healthy for your engine. But I would be looking at the compression in each cylinder and having a serious talk with the dealer about the quality of my engine. No way that is even close to normal or acceptable oil usage.

[AirTool]

I've heard of quite a few Bu's with similar issues, always wondered why PCM didn't have the same problems. By the way, why isn't there a idiot light for this? Loosing 4qts out of 5 should have set off something, hard to believe the oil pressure was OK at that point.

The better question would be:

Why would a person go 48 hours without checking their oil? Then, after learning the first time they had lost 4 quarts, top it off (no pun) by going another 93 hours without checking/changing the oil after the 50 hour service.

If I read the latter few statements correctly.

[nyryan2001]

Zip- if you expect folks to help with your issues, you gotta respond....

any other symptoms?.... Engine otherwise runs strong? Smooth idle? No oil in the bilge?

the only other thing that really comes to mind is experience level here...

1. We know the guys some dealers use to do oil changes aren't the 25yr master techs. Usually the youngest kid just hired. What I am getting at is perhaps during the "dealer service" service kid did a quickie oil change, didn't fill the filter, didn't run the engine, oil settled and he started 1-2 qts low to begin with, albeit with a full reading on the dipstick on the trailer.. I know a full reading on my dip stick in my driveway has about a 70% chance of changing after the boat gets in the water and runs for 5 mins...almost always end up adding more after that first run. To ensure oil is filled in all the lines, filter and evenly down in the sump.

2. Not sure of Zip's experience level.. But not checking oil... Especially after knowing you are loosing oil.... Well, you know. When Zip says he added a full 4qts? Any chance of an overfill there?

so.... Perhaps engine burning a little oil.... And a little bit of #1 ^^ and a little bit of #2 ^^^ it may not be as bad as initially reported.

[Ziplock]

Thank you all for this great information. I apologize for just now chiming in. After reading over all of your comments I have come to the conclusion that my problems are solemnly caused by my lack of maintenance. My experience level is definitely high enough to know better. I have zero external leaks, there is nothing in the bilge and I haven't experienced any performance problems.


But bottom line is, I pushed the boat pretty hard this rear. I run heavy often. With it being acceptable for the engine to burn oil in as little as 30hrs it makes sense. I did not know this, I also didn't know that it's now recommended to change your oil every 30hrs. The boat is going to the dealer next week for a full service.


Now then. We know I screwed up. I am not making excuses. BUT, I would like to know WHY it acceptable for a brand new engine to burn this kind of oil, regardless. The oil was changed first of July and we quit using the boat regularly mid October. YES we pushed it hard for those 3 to 4 months but to my understanding oil isn't supposed to disappear. It thins and lubricates less but it isn't supposed to leave the engine.

[vision]

Now then. We know I screwed up. I am not making excuses. BUT, I would like to know WHY it acceptable for a brand new engine to burn this kind of oil, regardless. The oil was changed first of July and we quit using the boat regularly mid October. YES we pushed it hard for those 3 to 4 months but to my understanding oil isn't supposed to disappear. It thins and lubricates less but it isn't supposed to leave the engine.

It is not acceptable IMHO. Oil breaks down faster under heavy work loads and degraded oil is easier to make it to the combustion chamber. But not 4 qts.