Oil questions and general winterizing products?

[ProfitOfDoom]

Well I winterized my boat today and went to my local boat shop to buy my supplies,and had the guy grab my items and I didnt bother to read the oil "I only made sure I had the correct weight" So got home and did everything and poured the 5+ quart big jug of oil in,then took the smaller quart size to top it off and happen to see that the big jug was synthetic mercruiser and the smaller quart was standard mercruiser oil. So I never ran synthetic oil in this engine before,not to mention I have now mixed 1 standard quart in with the 5 quarts. So for right now its just sitting there in my yard for winter and wont be run,so im not changing it now,but come spring should I just drain and fill with my standard oil,Keep whats in there,will it hurt that it is mixed? This is a late 90's Mercruiser 454"I want to say a 1999"

So all that being said,common sense is just telling me to just change it out come spring and dont worry about it,but im just curious to see what the people have to say about it. My next question is what do you use to winterize your boat,Every year for the last 3yrs I do mine and a buddies boat,every year I buy all mercruiser oil,gear lube,oil filter and the highest rated freeze protection fluid -100 made by starbrite. Every year he goes to walmart to get his supplies,he gets standard penzoil,quaker state,vavoline type brand oil,fram filter, that super tech gear lube and just 2 standard gallons of antifreeze.

Im just wondering about what im buying his total for all his stuff was about $50.00 and mine was $130.00,I know my gear lube was $13.00 per quart where his was $4.00,Just makes me wonder every year both boats start up and seem to work fine,Do these expensive brands im buying really have a benefit or am I pouring money down the drain?

 

[Larry]

As far as the oil goes I would not worry about the mixing of the synthetic and non synthetic, you basically made your own "blend" of oil, Mercruiser makes a blend of synthetic as well but you never know there ratio... Yours you know! The one thing I noticed is you don't make mention of running the motor after you change the oil, this is the reason we change it in the Fall so your motor can sit all Winter with clean oil coating all your internal parts, changing it and keeping all the new oil in the pan for the Winter doesn't do you any good.

As far as buying your winterizing stuff, stick with the Merc or Rotella brand oils and use the Merc filters, Fram is cheap crap I wouldn't use in my car... Anti freeze you can buy anywhere, just make sure it is not alcohol (glycol based is the preferred) based and has the corrosion blockers in it. Your marina should be selling the correct one.