2006 196 burning through oil

[Jack_Haase]

Hello,
I have a 2006 196 with a refurbished engine in it. The boat runs and drives great but every so often I check the oil before a ski set the dip stick reads empty. I find myself having to add oil often to keep up with this issue. The boat itself has not presented any leaking gaskets or oil in the bulge and no engine noise. I am curious to see if anyone else has had this issue. Am I not putting the dipstick back in correctly? I always find it hard to place it back in once I take it out. I would really like to hope that this is just myself being an idiot and not this new engine burning 5qts of oil in one 15min slalom set.

[Rednucleus]

How many hours on the new motor? Have you changed oil/filter recently to verify how many qts are actually in the pan? Our club 2014 200 has a dipstick that sliips out of position sometimes making it read a qt low, but has never had a dry tip. I would suggest do an oil change, add correct number quarts, and play with dip stick positioning several times before you run it again until you are comfortable with how it reads. Then start running it and recheck readings

[beamons]

The fact that you can add that much oil and not destroy your engine proves that you are burning oil. It has to go somewhere. Overall how much oil have you put in since the last oil change or specific period of time? Changing the oil will get you to a good starting point.

[Skihart]

Is there any oil in the bilge? 2006 and 2007 had oil pan rust through issues. My neighbor lost all his oil overnight last year. Luckily I caught the low oil pressure bwfore we took him for a run. Shut it down in time to save the engine. Had to lift the motor to change out the pan. All good now.

[SilentSeven]

Pull your plugs and take a picture. If you're burning oil at the rate you suggest, the plugs will show it. If the plugs are the correct color for a non-heavy oil burning engine, the oil is going somewhere else.