Lube oil appearance in bottle?

[quailrunner]

Hi,

I have been adding 1-2 oz of gear lube to the plastic fill bottle on top of the engine about every 10-15 hours of operation or so. The oil in the bottle is not black, nor is there any "milky" appearance, or white streaks. If there is a seal leak, will the bottle necessarily show a change, or does the oil in the drive tend to stay there? That is, do I need to worry about this now, or can it wait two-three more weekends before it goes to the mechanic for the fall service (including gear lube change)? There's no noise or other indication of a problem.

Thanks!

 

[Lazy Daze]

The bottle may or may not show anything - especially if the bottle hasn't been cleaned out recently as it begins to build up sludge in the bottom.

Pull the lower fill plug on the drive and see what the lube looks like - just back out the screw enough to let some oil seep out. If that looks fine, too, I wouldn't worry too much and you should be fine until you take the boat to your mechanic.

A couple thoughts as to why you may be losing oil...

1) Do you run at high rev's a lot? This is not really a bad thing, just a possible explanation.
2) When the oil was changed last, were the fill/vent screw washers replaced with a new one? Are the fill/vent screws tight?

 

[my3sons]

Do what Dennis said, and here is also another possibility. My '95 330 had twin BIII drives, and I took care of those for nine years. I also would add 1 or 2 ounces of oil periodically for the first few seasons. In the fall, I would pull them off and put them in my basement for the winter so I could service them at my convienience, and when I drained them, I always took out the top vent plug first, and they were always overfull.
After a couple seasons, I just stopped adding the oil, BUT KEPT A WATCH ON IT, and the oil level stabilized at about an inch under the full line in the reservoir bottle. The drives were still slightly over full at the end of the season, but not as much as when I was adding oil everytime it would drop below the line. The drives never showed any sign of leakage or had any discoloration (water) in the oil. I think the oil was seeking it's level in the drive, and the more oil I added, the more it would overfill the drive. Maybe my bottles were mounted to high? Just a thought.
If it is something you want to look further into..your mechanic can pressure test the drive when you take it in for service.
Good luck

 

[quailrunner]

Thanks! Yes, I run at high revs a lot. I'll drain a little oil next weekend - I'm pulling the boat at the end of the weekend anyway. It did not need any oil this week. I've only owned the boat one season, so I don't know about previous appearance on changes. I'm not seeing/ hearing anything different in the drive, so I think I'll risk it for one more week or so.

 

[quailrunner]

Nothing looks odd about the lube oil from the fill screw; I'm going to wait for the usual pull-out to do the change. Thanks for the help!

 

[Lazy Daze]

Good to hear. I've actually got the same thing happening to my drive, right now. If I figure it out, I'll let you know - but I'm not too concerned about it.