How Many Gallons of Oil Do You Burn in a Year?

Is burning 15 to 20 gallons of oil a year excessive for a 2014 Mercury 125 OptiMax? 325 hours currently on the motor.

how many gallons of gas did you burn in the same time frame? Guess it would all depend on how hard and how long you run it.

I run through about a gallon every 3rd trip.

My 2 stroke Mercury runs off very little oil I guess, I've made about 30 trips and only had to fill the oil once

Yes Thats a lot. Does it smoke ? But I see its 2015 with 325 hrs. Man that's a lot !! Is it still under warranty ?

The real question is how in the hell do you put 300 hours on a '15 lol?

Opps typo, it is a 2014.

I burn about a gallon for every 40 gallons of fuel.

It seems that I have been burning a gallon of oil for every 27 gallons + or - of gas. It is still under warranty and is currently in a shop.

I was told that the plugs were fouled, the motor needed to be decarbed and that the belt was showing wear! I reminded them the reason of why I brought it in. We will see what happens next.

Do you use it every day ?

I fish every chance I get, 3 to 5 days a week when I get lucky.

Yes it does smoke.

27:1 is running very rich.

I have a 2010 vmax 150, I fish once a week on smaller lakes. I'd say I burn 7 gallons a year

I have a 2006 115 merc... Uses no gas or oil it seems like. Coming from a 1996 225hp Johnson I feel like I'm saving tons of cash!

Yup I get 4-5 bc of the smaller lakes I fish

Hard to say. the newer 2 strokes like the optimax dont run an exact ratio. The computer adjusts the ratio based on what it thinks the motor needs. When i had a 115 optimax, it used very little oil, but that could have been the way that i ran it, too. More time on the trolling motor than the big motor.

I just used 2 1/2 gallons on the red and was running 128 miles a day for 4 days.

Thanks for the reply's. I was just a little POed today when I called the shop to check on the progress and they said they found/described the exact reasons I dropped off the boat with the exception of the excessive oil consumption. I felt like they were more interested in selling me a tune up!

Really sucks being boat less.

About 14 qts a year

You gotta realize you asked a question that really is very open ended. Basically you asked "how many fish do you catch in a year" type of question. Everyone's answer is different and it depends on many things like how often you go, how long you stay, how advanced of a fisherman you are, etc.

Someone telling you they only use 3 gallons of oil doesn't help you out a bit. This same person might only go fishing 3 times a year and only runs for 30 minutes each time. Another guy tells you he uses 30 gallons of oil. This guy lives on Toledo and fishes 5-6 days a week and runs an average of 45 each day. In other words, nether of these guys' answers would help you. You should've asked what ratio of oil to gas do you think your boat uses. Figured someone would've came on here and said that by now.

Telling us the current hours on the motor does little to help understand what's going on. Since you've stated that you have burned 15-20 gallons of oil "in a year" we need to know how many hours you put on the motor during THE SAME PERIOD, not the total hours on it now. (We must assume some of those hours could have been put on the motor prior to the beginning of the period that used 15 to 20 gallons of oil.)

We can, however, do some approximate reverse calculations for a properly working engine. I don't believe any variable oiling system goes richer than the 50:1 ballpark. So, let's use that as a worst case, assuming you run the [censored] out of it. Each gallon of oil would burn along with at least 50 gallons of fuel. That means that 15 gallons of oil would burn along with ~750 gallons of fuel. That is a HUGE annual amount of fuel to burn in a freshwater fishing boat rigged with a modern 125 HP outboard.

How much fuel do you use on each trip? (and how many trips per year?) ....or how many gallons do you typically buy and how often? That's the ballpark way to understand if 15-20 gallons is about right, or if there's something wrong. If you have any accurate data, it can indicate whether there's any chance the motor is over-oiling due to a defect. If you're just guessing, you may need to start keeping good info to back up your complaint.

My 2014 250 Pro XS had a leak at the oil pump that took the dealer 3 trips to find. It would run oil out the cowl and down the midsection. Take the cowl off and check inside the cowl to make sure you have no leaks. Mine went from using a ton to now I'm scared it isn't using enough. LOL And with the price of oil you don't need to be leaking it out.

It has a varible oiling ratio of 400 to one at an idle to 60 to one at WOT so depending on how you run the motor is going to dictate how much oil you use. The oiling is controlled by the PCM (powertrain control module)so the dealer should probably check that also. It was programmed to use more oil during breakin hours so it may still be stuck in that mode. What you need is a good honest Mercury mechanic.

40 to 1

Sounds like it is stuck in breakin mode using twice the normal amount of oil.

My Etec used about 9 gallons a year according to my calculations

LOL..still running an EFI. Oil and gas go through it like a firehose.

Gman

Here's how to use less oil: stop and drop a trolling motor once in a while!!!!

Right here - if you are using 1 gallon of oil to 27 gallons of gas, the plugs should be fouled, and the motor should smoke like a coal fired powerplant. that is an extremely rich mixture. So the question of are your burn rates higher than expected, the answer is yes almost double the rate you would expect a marine 2-stroke to burn oil.

The next question is 'why' and what do you do about it.

i have an old OMC with VRO, on that motor you can simply disconnect the VRO and pre-mix gas:oil at a 50:1 ratio. Not sure on your motor ...

Remember though - it's always better to burn fuel with too much oil in it than to burn fuel with not enough fuel in it. On these new motors I wouldn't be certain that a 1:50 ratio would be good enough. We all know that the computer sends a different ratio of oil:gas depending on RPM.

Pull the plugs and post picture of them. I would like to see them.

A bunch that's all I can say .

8 Qts. - 1 Oil Change per year for my 4 Stroke Honda.

Man, that's a lot of oil. My first boat had a 75 hp Merc that wasn't oil injected and I had a 24 gallon gas tank. When I needed gas I just put 2 or 3 pints of oil in the tank and either 12 or 18 gallons of gas and it ran for a good while....... Pretty simple and no oil injector to go bad.


Now, like and earlier poster said, 13 qts. a year.

Takes me 14 quarts. 7qts each oil change. 30hrs for break in then ill change it again in December. My duck boat can burn threw it. If its summer and we are playing I mix 40:1. Only once have I gotten the motor to 6krpms. Talk about scary on a flatbottom. Willie you wanna go for a ride?

Yeah, that's me. I have a Merc 150 4 stroke and it takes 6.5 to 7 on an oil change. In the months from April to now, I have put right at 100 hours on it. I changed the break in oil at about 15 hours and Mercury says to change it every 100 hours after that so with winter coming, I may not have to change it until next Spring.

im at about 6 trips per, but I don't run my boat to hard

Sounds like an awful lot Kirk, unless you are running WOT a lot. The ECU is supposed to adjust the fuel & oil ratio based on the RPM's. So are you averaging about 125-150 hours a year on the motor?

Yep that is the average Ken. I burned 20 gallons of oil last year and have the 15th gallon of oil in the tank now. I need to look at the print out but, I think 90% of those hours are below 2 or 3 thousand RPM's. I don't use my big motor much, it is used mostly when using my electronics and idling threw the stumps to get to way points.

Long story with this oil issue and it is my fault for not having it corrected sooner. Who wants to have a new motor in the shop all the time when your on fish?

The local Mercury rep drove my boat the week after I purchased the motor and basically said that how the were built! To run like shitt!

I been trying to get it in the shop all year but, a 5 week waiting list just didn't fit my schedule.

I do have it with a reputable dealer now. I have been off the water for a week now and I am about to drive the wife crazy.

Anyways when and if I ever back on the water, give me a call, I owe you several trips I'am sure.

should I be keeping track of this? I have no clue, I just add oil when its needed!

1 gallon for me this year, only fished about 100 days