There are many brands of oils to use in your boats now days. Has anyone had any bad luck with a brand or never had a problem with another? There is WalMart for $12 a gallon and then Quicksilver for $30 a gallon. Is there that much difference in all of the brands?

There is a great difference. My Evinrude runs perfectly on Evinrude brand, but fouls on less than one tank of Quicksilver,and in just a few minutes on the cheap oil. Stick to the recommended brand. It is worth the difference in cost.

+1

I found over the years to buy the best oil you can afford and buying the motor's mfg. oil is always a good idea. These oils are always formulated to work with the fuel and air delivery system for maximum performance.....I have on occasion used Penzoil outboard oil as well with good result. Cheap oil will cost you in the long run because it doesn't burn as clean and can lead to fouling and in most cases piston gauling which turns into a huge "CHA CHING" at the cash register at you local boat dealer, the reason for that........most of these of cheap oils are missing critical additives.......one of the reasons they are cheap.....

I have used Penzoil before and it worked. had a Johnson and used Evinrude oil and did good. A friend of mine said he used Citgo from Academy and it seemed to work for him and I know it is cheaper. Is there some type of additives you can put in with the mix to help keep the internal parts clean? Little prevention now to save big in the end.

Why buy cheap oil and add expensive additives? Just buy the correct oil in the first place. Penzoil and Citgo were the brands I had trouble with.

DaddyL I don'y know if you can add to these cheap oils or not but if you stick with something like a citgo, penzoil, etc they will probably give you good service.
They have a reputation to uphold where someone making something cheap for the big box stores to sell has a lot less skin in the game and whole lot less to loose if their product inflicts damage on someones outboard. Case in point, several years ago I bought a gallon big store brand name oil and used it in an early omc oil injected motor. I poured the oil in my tank and went to Montecello for a tourney and before the day was over my engine seized up.....
These engines; because of the speeds in which they are rotating, are extremely sensative to having the correct additives present at all times......found that out the hard way.....

I think it would be best to stick with one brand versus changing all the time based on price. When my boat was brand new, 1997, I used Evinrude oil exclusively for about 2 years and bought in bulk from Travis Boating in Lewisville. Stopped making the drive and switched to Pennzoil and have used it the past 12 yrs with no issues.

I've got a gallon of Citgo oil sitting in the garage that was given to me about 3 years ago, never opened.

I have been using Penzoil full synthetic in my XR6 for the last 12 years. I have never had it in the shop and the plugs are clean whenever I change them which isn't very often. It's pricy but I will probably continue to use it when I get my next Bass boat.

I use Yamalube in my 25 horse yamaha simply because they threw in a case of it when I bought the motor. It doesn't seem to burn as clean but I hate to changesince that is all I've run in it. I'm on my forth case and haven't had any problems.

My dad has always run the cheapest oil he can find. He has always had more problems with his equipment than I have.

I've used the cheap oils (walmart,acdemy) for the past 11yrs on my 150 with no problems. There are only 2 companies that make 2 cycle oil. 1st run expenseive oil 2nd mid grade 3rd cheap. They really all come from the same place

Used Penzoil full synthetic in all 3 of my 250xs motors I have owned and never a single failure.

l deal in the oil & gas refining industry and 10w40 is 10w40, no matter who you get it from as long as it meets the SAE requirements for the specfic weight. If you look at a Pennzoil, Mobil, Castrol, West Marine, Walmart, same weight, same SAE rating, the oils should be the same as required for that name brand to bottle and sell that product. This goes for all standard dino or synthetic oils. All manufacturers have to meet the same standards as required by the American Petroleum Institute. It is not unusal to have a large refinery that is formulating oil for many "Name Brand" products, same specs, think of it as "Outsourcing." This is stand practice in the industry.

Now, with this said, some manufacturers may add specials formulas or anti-corrosive materials, especially when used in Saltwater due to salt and moisture, but that will be listed on the label. The are some really good oils, such as Amsoil that exceed miminum requirements, but then again you are paying extra $$$ for that as well.

Lets talk about Gasoline, same as above. Once there was a "Name Brand" gasoline 88icompany that purchase Gasoline from another refinery and before the vessel left port, the captain had to wait til someone showed up from the "Name Brand" company to add a 5 gallon mixture to a 10,000 gallon order, so..... now "IT IS" Brand Name X.

Now, if you talk to a Oil Rep, there going to tell you that their's is the best. I use Walmart oils in all my cars, but a name brand in my truck because it is diesel and walmart doesn't carry one.

My Mercury reccomend Quick Silver but I use Penzoil since day one,no problem and I think Quick Silver normally buy oil from other . Penzoil full synthetic is about half price compare to Quick Silver

I've got a question that falls in line with the original. What is the difference, if any, in the Mercury oil you can go buy in bulk from the local boat dealer, and the Mercury oil (Quicksilver) that you can buy in gallon jugs at WalMart, BPS etc...? Thanks

Should be the exact same oil.....

Yep, I kind of figured that .....when I lived in Greenville I noticed quickly that the same trucks wre providing all the gasoline for diffrent brands of fuel, not to mention there is a huge gasoline storage facility just west of town that fuel transporters work from. I figured if there was any diffrence in the fuels it would be something that was addded later after the fuel was delivered. The oils are probably the same way...... different companies add things to these oils or have the producer do it. I think what it boils down too is certain engines have to have certain addititves to operate correctly and the early OMC(for you young guys Johnson and Evinrude) oil injected motors built in the late 80's and early 90's were extremely sensitive to this......

I don't know about now but there was a time that the only difference between Citgo oil and Quicksilver oil was the color additive. You can look on the bottles and compare the information.

I have always been a Mercury guy and used qucksilver, but had to use the other at times when quicksilver could not be found. I had no problems.

I actually found this out by a friend that used to race boats and he used the Citgo brand oil. Yes he worked for Citgo as well.

Good Post........

I can't back it with science or explain the business end of it, but I can tell you this. I am cheap. In 99 I bought a new 225 Opti. I kept the boat, guiding out of it several years, up until last year. I put a little over 2 thousand hours on the motor running SuperTech oil from Walmart. Never had one mechanical failure, none. Bought a 250 Yami in 04 on my main guide boat. Ran the same oil until sold in 2010. Never had a oil related issue, electrical and a few others, but no oil probs. I was on the water around 300 days a year with these engines. Now I have a 4 stroke and will never ever ever buy another stupid bottle of 2stroke oil again

i have been running pennzoil for years and have had no problems.

As others above, I've run Pennzoil Full Synthetic in my Yamaha V-Max 200 since 2002, no issues.

Anybody remember Dale from Dale's Marine? I asked the same question with my old boat, which had a 1990 Yamaha 115. He told me that all 2 stroke oils have the TCW3 additive. Yamalube has one of the highest amounts of TCW3, as does Evanrude, or Murcury. Penzoil, that Bill Dance used to push ALSO has TCW3, but the bare minimum. Go with the good stuff. Besides, I'd hate to have something go wrong with my VMAX 150 and the repair shop finds I used cheap oil.

I believe TCW3 is a certification not an additive.

Due to the nature of two-stroke marine engines, two-stroke oil lubricates the engine parts as it passes through the engine and is then burned along with the fuel. Two-stroke oil is either physically mixed with the fuel or, in the case of direct fuel injection, is combined with the fuel in the combustion chamber. This is in contrast to four-stroke engines which have oil sumps circulate the oil by pumping it throughout the engines.

The long term objectives of the two-stroke engine industry have been to reduce emissions which contain burned and unburned oil that have passed through the engine, and to develop a quality of oil that reduces the mixture ratio to fuel while extending the life of the engine. That means significantly reduced emissions to satisfy EPA requirements, less warranty problems, and increased customer satisfaction due to engines lasting longer with less maintenance and overhauls.

TC-W3® lubricant, an NMMA-owned trademark, has evolved over the years through much testing and research, and has proven to be the level of quality needed to satisfy the above objectives. And, going a step further, now that two-stroke engines have moved towards higher cylinder temperatures and compressions, this type of lubricant also helps to meet the EPA emissions reductions.

TC-W3® has demonstrated the necessary lubrication performance quality needed for these more demanding cylinder/engine conditions.

The TC-W3® standard is a performance-based qualification program. The requirements include various bench tests for fluidity, miscibility, rust, compatibility, etc., as well as engine tests to evaluate the prevention of ring sticking and carbon buildup on pistons and other engine parts. The engine tests include one Johnson 40 hp, one Johnson 70 hp, and two consecutive Mercury 15 hp tests, all of which are run under severe conditions for 100 hours each. Two additional engine tests are also conducted to ensure a high level of lubricity performance. The testing process is comprehensive and expensive, but worth the outcome for consumers and manufacturers.

Once lubricants have demonstrated the necessary lubrication performance qualities needed for TC-W3® certification testing by NMMA-approved laboratories, NMMA licenses those two-stroke lubricants to be marketed to the public. TC-W3® oils are licensed around the world and are recommended for use by two-stroke engine manufacturers.