Oil Analysis

[booter]

Since this section of the forum is dead, I'll post the results of an oil analysis that I had done on my 250SS and see what your thoughts are. As some of you may know, this boat boat use to belong to an elite pro and I'm the 3rd owner of this boat and the engine only had roughly 90 hours on it. One of my biggest issues I had with this boat was the poor hole shot and it cranked hard and would reset my graphs and live well control panel, even though the graphs were tied to a 6 gauge wire harness from the factory and powered by an Ionic 125ah lithium cranking battery. Obviously the elite pro had the same issue since he put wired manual rocker switches for the live well pumps under the dash to bypass the factory switches.

This spring, I changed my oil and used a combination of 6 qts Royal Purple Marine 10w-40 and 2.5 wts of RP 10W-40 HPS & used a Suzuki oil filter. **Note, RP Marine is not made anymore and RP recommends their HPS series for marine applications**. Additionally, I changed out my low pressure fuel filter on the engine and the fuel water separator in my bilge. The low pressure fuel filter seemed okay, but the fuel water separator was full of fine aluminum shavings that I assume were due to not properly cleaning out the aluminum fuel tanks from the factory.

After my maintenance is all complete, I took it out and the hole shot was dramatically improved and the graphs/live well pumps no longer resetting whenever I cranked up the big motor. I put only 45 hours on it this season, but did notice at around the 30 hour mark, my oil was pretty dark and I assumed it was due to the RP having an aggressive detergent package. Before I put it up for the winter, I changed the oil to Amsoil 10W-40 Marine and had an oil analysis done on the RP and the oil had 5% fuel dilution. I do idle my boat a lot when graphing or before tournament launches so it's fully warmed up. However, I do open it up and will run it hard for at least 15 minutes each time I take the boat out. Not sure if the excessive idle time would cause this, possible clogged fuel injectors, or the piston rings not broken in enough. I'll probably change the oil again around 45 hours next year, run some fuel injector cleaner through it, and reduce my morning idle time. Just sharing and seeing what your thoughts are.

Blackstone Report.jpg

[06 SB]

I doubt that any boat manufacturers clean out fuel tanks. They throw them in and install the components needed. It is interesting that an elite pro went through all that and did not check the fuel/water filter.

[booter]

I doubt that any boat manufacturers clean out fuel tanks. They throw them in and install the components needed. It is interesting that an elite pro went through all that and did not check the fuel/water filter.

Yeah, it's hard to say unless they never saw any debris in the bowl and assumed it was good. I never saw the shavings until I poured out the fuel in the filter into a plastic bottle.

[Tim Kelly]

I'm not sure lithium batteries are ideal for a cranking battery. They don't usually handle short high loads as well as lead based batteries. No idea why that would improve with an engine service though!

[booter]

I'm not sure lithium batteries are ideal for a cranking battery. They don't usually handle short high loads as well as lead based batteries. No idea why that would improve with an engine service though!

The boat when I purchased it had a Pro Guide AGM that just wasn't holding a charge and the voltage would drop to 11.5 volts after a few hours. The 125 ah Ionic lithium battery can be used as a starting battery, and I've used it before on my older boat with a 250SS with zero issues. Before I changed the fuel water separator, I also put in lithium trolling motor batteries and the lithium starting battery and was still having poor hole shot issues and voltage drop was not as bad for my graphs but was still randomly cutting the power to my live well pump panel.

As part of the boat's performance improving after service, I think a lot of it had to do with the fuel water separator filter being clogged and it was possibly starving the engine of fuel whenever I throttled up to get on plane. Once I changed those fuel filters, my boat came back to life and no more hole shot issues. My power issues quietly disappeared as well, but I also did clean up some of my wiring in my bilge amongst other things. I doubt the synthetic oil helped making it crank easier.

[fat sack]

Lead acid battery is recommended by suzuki for cranking. Not saying that is your issue but what I was told when I repowered

[booter]

June Oil Report.jpg


I decided to update this thread to show a recent oil analysis that I had done when I switched over to Amsoil Marine 10W-40 this spring because I was worried about having high fuel dilution numbers and not sure if it would be a piston ring issue or a bad fuel injector. For the most part, my fuel dilution symptoms seem to be gone for the most part since I minimized my idle time and I also discovered that a rubber thermostat seal wasn't on properly and water might've been leaking by.

[billnorman1]

Your first analysis was done in December. Around here December is a pretty cold month and that may have contributed to your fuel/oil ratio. Of course a fuel injection system regulates the amount of fuel to the engine due to temperature and load among other things. Also, gasoline is volatile and will change from a liquid to a gas in high temperatures.
I changed my oil (200 DF) and after I had made a couple of runs/tournaments I happened to check it last month, it was clear and clean to the eye. Didn't do an analysis.