Canuckjetboater
Jet Boat Junkie
- Messages
- 895
- Reaction score
- 751
- Points
- 127
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2020
- Boat Model
- SX195
- Boat Length
- 19
I am new to jet boating and this forum. I have learned so much from your wise comments. Comments that have gotten me off on the right "jet boating" foot.
I am also an older guy who may know a thing or two about marine engines. I would like to give something back, if I may.
When I was 19/20 years of age I ran some exotic race boats/engines in Florida, where my parents lived, for example 38' Cigarette Top Gun with twin 900HP Hawks. We changed the oil and filters after EVERY run to preserve our engines. Of course this was extreme but I learned, early on, the role oil played in the health of marine engines.
Later, when my friends and I started to build our own less exotic engines - 383s, 454s, 502s - naturally aspirated and supercharged - we learned the absolutely necessary role played by oil and filter changes. This happened as the result of several sources of information. From my earlier super high performance days oil was sent for analysis. This process got more refined every year until analysed oil could tell all aspects of an engine's health. These analyses clearly showed how fast damaging combustion by products built-up in oils and the life-shortening role they played in marine engines.
At this time, as I advanced through university, my uncle, a PhD chemical engineer, was V.P. of chemical research in a big oil company at the start of synthetic oil experimentation. I read with great interest the lengthy, detailed and comprehensive examinations of every major brand of oil, what made it fail and how fast it failed as defined by no longer safely lubricating an engine without causing wear or outright damage. Contaminants and viscosity failure due to repeated heatings were two main culprits.
For this discussion let's stick to what we face as Yamaha Jet Boaters.
All internal engines produce combustion related by products that can harm them. The main being acids, water and chemical vapor, carbons (long and short chain) and small particulates, including molecular metal degradation from internal engine parts. These are normal and while certainly wear-inducing, are part of the use of this type of engine. IF the owner changes the oil and oil filter (as needed *****more later) and heats the oil to operating temperature first to burn water vapor and acids and suspend them and other contaminants in the hot oil - the engine is as protect as it can be.
Marine engines face tremendous loads that would destroy an automotive engine in short order. Yes, they aren't subject to as much dirt as most automotive engines but they are often run near the top of their maximum RPM limits, under constant load and often subject to rapid on-off loading (think bouncing through waves or pulling a wake boarder). This is severe duty.
Different rules of lubrication apply. So, how frequently should you change your marine oil? It depends on how it is used and how long you plan to keep your boat. A boat being weighed-down with ballast tanks pulling wakeboarders is in a severe duty situation. A boat being operated near it's WOT (wide open throttle) a lot is being operated in a severe duty situation, A boat being used to jump wakes a lot is being used in a severe duty situation. A boat (jet boat) spending most of its time in the 5000 to 6000 RPM band cruising around lakes/rivers and anchoring at sand bars is NOT a boat with severe duty use. *****BTW.....severe duty is NOT a BAD thing. It is just an indication that you are working the engine hard and you should take that into account for maintenance.
What should we do?
Respectfully.
I am also an older guy who may know a thing or two about marine engines. I would like to give something back, if I may.
When I was 19/20 years of age I ran some exotic race boats/engines in Florida, where my parents lived, for example 38' Cigarette Top Gun with twin 900HP Hawks. We changed the oil and filters after EVERY run to preserve our engines. Of course this was extreme but I learned, early on, the role oil played in the health of marine engines.
Later, when my friends and I started to build our own less exotic engines - 383s, 454s, 502s - naturally aspirated and supercharged - we learned the absolutely necessary role played by oil and filter changes. This happened as the result of several sources of information. From my earlier super high performance days oil was sent for analysis. This process got more refined every year until analysed oil could tell all aspects of an engine's health. These analyses clearly showed how fast damaging combustion by products built-up in oils and the life-shortening role they played in marine engines.
At this time, as I advanced through university, my uncle, a PhD chemical engineer, was V.P. of chemical research in a big oil company at the start of synthetic oil experimentation. I read with great interest the lengthy, detailed and comprehensive examinations of every major brand of oil, what made it fail and how fast it failed as defined by no longer safely lubricating an engine without causing wear or outright damage. Contaminants and viscosity failure due to repeated heatings were two main culprits.
For this discussion let's stick to what we face as Yamaha Jet Boaters.
All internal engines produce combustion related by products that can harm them. The main being acids, water and chemical vapor, carbons (long and short chain) and small particulates, including molecular metal degradation from internal engine parts. These are normal and while certainly wear-inducing, are part of the use of this type of engine. IF the owner changes the oil and oil filter (as needed *****more later) and heats the oil to operating temperature first to burn water vapor and acids and suspend them and other contaminants in the hot oil - the engine is as protect as it can be.
Marine engines face tremendous loads that would destroy an automotive engine in short order. Yes, they aren't subject to as much dirt as most automotive engines but they are often run near the top of their maximum RPM limits, under constant load and often subject to rapid on-off loading (think bouncing through waves or pulling a wake boarder). This is severe duty.
Different rules of lubrication apply. So, how frequently should you change your marine oil? It depends on how it is used and how long you plan to keep your boat. A boat being weighed-down with ballast tanks pulling wakeboarders is in a severe duty situation. A boat being operated near it's WOT (wide open throttle) a lot is being operated in a severe duty situation, A boat being used to jump wakes a lot is being used in a severe duty situation. A boat (jet boat) spending most of its time in the 5000 to 6000 RPM band cruising around lakes/rivers and anchoring at sand bars is NOT a boat with severe duty use. *****BTW.....severe duty is NOT a BAD thing. It is just an indication that you are working the engine hard and you should take that into account for maintenance.
What should we do?
- Always heat our oil to normal operating temperature before changing it - anything else is a waste of time and money.
- Always change our oil filter when we change our oil.
- Always change our oil and filter before storage.
- If we are working our engines hard, change the oil more frequently, for example half way through your summer or we could remove the oil filter and top-up the oil (say every four weeks) which guarantees the removal of a lot of contaminants and oil that is regularly freshened.
- If we are not working our engines hard we could put 50-60 hours on it before an oil change.
Respectfully.
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