Oil Change Help! Urgent

[twentiesforever]

Hello Members,

I write in urgency. I am at my 10 hours and decided to change the oil myself. I ordered all the parts including an extractor. Mistakes have been made though.

1.) I didnt pull the boat out. I wet slip it and since its a calm day, I decided to just extract right there and go.

2.) I didnt measure the oil level before extraction to get a sense where it should be at once i refill it in my situation. The situation being the wet slip with just me on board in a specific spot.

So far I did this though. I extracted all the oil I could. Noted where on the extractor each fill took me to. I emptied the oil properly then went home and filled the extractor with water measuring as I went along. Before leaving the marina, I put 3 quarts in each engine. I measured only 2 quarts that i extracted by calculation. This leaves my 1 quart extra per engine. I need to count the oil filter since when i took them out the were pretty full and some oil spilled too. So my questions:

1.) How much oil should I account for in the oil filters? 1/2 a quart?
2.) How much error do I have in overfilling? 1/2 a quart of error?
3.) What should I do?
4.) How big of an idiot am I?

I'm thinking I should extract half a quart from each or no?

Thank you so much. I am hoping to be all set by 10am tomorrow when we leave the dock.

 

[biglar155]

If it were me, I'd try to extract the extra quart then warm up the engines and check the oil level. The filters on our engines (yours are different from mine but close) aren't automotive filters so I don't think they hold a full quart.

Generally speaking, better to be a little low and need to top off than to be a little high. I don't recall if your engine will foul its own air filters due to overfill but someone will chime in soon.

Even though you're not technically broken down on the water, you have a pretty tight timeline so I'd recommend using [USERGROUP=9]@HELP[/USERGROUP] for things like this to get the attention of members who are part of the help group. (Me having it in my post counts. You should see responses from folks who actually have your motors soon.)

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I believe your boat has the 1800 engines, as stated, run the engines for a few minutes, then check the oil level on the stick, remove any excess oil and you will be fine. I always leave a little out when I do an oil change so I can check the level with it on the water, Then add what is needed being sure to keep the level just below the full mark, removing excess oil is no big problem.

 

[latitudeadjuster]

I believe your boat has the 1800 engines, as stated, run the engines for a few minutes, then check the oil level on the stick, remove any excess oil and you will be fine. I always leave a little out when I do an oil change so I can check the level with it on the water, Then add what is needed being sure to keep the level just below the full mark, removing excess oil is no big problem.

Agree.....I always change my oil in slip. I mean the trailer might be more angled than on the water. Not that big a deal.....do like cobra jet said you will be ok.

 

[Boat Crazy]

Not sure what boat you have. If you have the 1.8 motor you check it just like you do your car. You can have oil to the full mark when cold. As long as your oil level is between the add and full mark cold you can start engine. This Does Not Apply if you do not have the 1.8 motor. If your oil level is over the full mark while in the water just extract till it is at the full mark. A simple process.

 

[Boat Crazy]

It takes approximately 1qt. Of oil to go from the low line to the full line on the dipstick. This may help to know how much you must add or extract.

 

[Glassman]

I would sell the boat.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

To me... Dirt cheap.

 

[jawsf16]

I would sell the boat.

I don't think he wants to shoulder that kind of liability. Better just give it away... To me!

@Murf'n'surf can't believe you tried to get that thing "dirt cheap"!!

 

[txav8r]

@Glassman , gotta give you the award for finding the best deals!

 

[latitudeadjuster]

none of us answered his #4.....lol

 

[Zarrella]

Yeah....you are an idiot!! ....kidding
But you should sell the boat to Glassman

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Wow you guys are brutal, the poor guy will probably never ask a question ever again. Number 4 is not at all he was smart enough to come to the best place on the internet to ask a question about his boat.

 

[itsdgm]

If you think your 1qt extra per engine, I'd start by taking out 1 qt per engine, firing up the engines for 30 seconds and then checking the dipstick. That should give you a more accurate idea of where your at.

@twentiesforever as far as your question #4, we've all made mistakes with varying consequences. IMHO, the fact that you caught it before it caused any issue means "No Harm, No Foul".

One thing that you can do to help avoid this in the future is to mark 1/2 quart increments on your oil extractor with a Sharpie. That way you'll know exactly how much oil you pulled out on the spot and you can put back in the exact amount without having to estimate. At that time, I wouldn't even add any for the filter. But you should have an extra quart with you on board so that you can re-check and adjust the level next time out.

 

[dansshin]

So I take it changing oil on Yamaha engines isn't 'drain and fill x quarts'? I need to figure this out. My boats' previous owner said he changed his oil every 5 to 10 hours but he said he had ~14 hours on the engine and changed oil 3 times so I guess it was more closer to 5 hours. I'm thinking I put 5 hours on the engine just in the two days I took it out after receiving it from previous owner so I may need to change oil soon.

Is there any good videos I could refer for 2013 212x oil change? What other maintenance should I be keeping my eye on?

Thank you.

 

[billyb]

Every 5 hours seems a bit excessive to me...

I am sure someone will correct me, but unless you are putting 100 plus hours in a summer, just change the oil once when you DE winterized the boat.

 

[Bruce]

@twentiesforever, I changed the oil in our boat Sunday evening. I had similar concerns that I might have put too much back in. In my case it turned out that I had put just a little too little or the right amount in. I am still debating whether or not to top them up a little. So please don't feel bad about your experience. No harm has occurred, just adjust them to the correct level.

@dansshin, the issue is that we suck the oil out of the engines and will extract differing amounts. The goal is to put back exactly the amount that you sucked out. From now on I will be checking the level before sucking any out.

 

[dansshin]

Every 5 hours seems a bit excessive to me...

I am sure someone will correct me, but unless you are putting 100 plus hours in a summer, just change the oil once when you DE winterized the boat.

Thanks for the info. I looked at the manual and it states after 10 hours & 100 hours then every 100 hours. I'm guess original owner thought it was every 10 hours (first part). He sent me case of oil, filters and spark plug so he must have been doing them pretty frequently. I noticed that one of the engine was at the lower part of the range and other at middle when I checked today after running the engine for a while. I was planning to fill little bit on the right side when I'm out on the lake tomorrow.

 

[dansshin]

@Bruce How do you "extract" the oil?

 

[GTBRMC]

@Bruce How do you "extract" the oil?

You will need something like this: http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--manual-oil-extractor-6-5l--11047123