Synthetic oil for 280

[David - WI]

I've seen a couple articles stating 1qt of synthetic in 5 or 6 qts gives 99% of the high temp advantage of full synthetic in 4-stroke racing engines.

[Michael J Giesler]

Mercury High performance oil never had a issue almost 400 hours on my 2001 280

[d&smach]

The racer told me to try 8 to 1! Possibly this super rich mix increases hp in engines with sloppy tolerances, sealing up piston skirts, reeds and rings. But it did show an increase on my dyno.

[David - WI]

The racer told me to try 8 to 1! Possibly this super rich mix increases hp in engines with sloppy tolerances, sealing up piston skirts, reeds and rings. But it did show an increase on my dyno.

Oil makes hp but 12:1 was the limit McCulloch found, although we have hotter ignitions now, I guess.

[WiseCraft]

Mercury High performance oil never had a issue almost 400 hours on my 2001 280

goddamn that’s a grip of hrs.

[CI STV]

Mercury High performance oil never had a issue almost 400 hours on my 2001 280

Is that the red Merc oil? That’s all I use (in my Drag, mixed 32:1) as well. That’s what Diamond recommended I use. I have Klotz and Red Line as well, but I think I’m going to stick with the Merc oil.

[TraceF3]

Pennzoil XLF. It's derived from a product blended by Specialty Oil Company back in the 80's. They sponsored Jay Smith Racing. I worked for Quaker State when they bought SOC in '93 IIRC. The product is second to none. Jay Smith still recommends it after break-in. Good enough for me.

[Michael J Giesler]

Is that the red Merc oil? That’s all I use (in my Drag, mixed 32:1) as well. That’s what Diamond recommended I use. I have Klotz and Red Line as well, but I think I’m going to stick with the Merc oil.

Yep my motor originally used the old Mercury hyperf than they switched over to the red which is a much much better oil no Ash rev limiter still on as long as you keep two eighties under $8,000 RPMs let them warm up let them idle down you'd be astonished how long they run no one seems to want to do that anymore they just fire them up and tag them to nine grand

[TraceF3]

Yep my motor originally used the old Mercury hyperf than they switched over to the red which is a much much better oil no Ash rev limiter still on as long as you keep two eighties under $8,000 RPMs let them warm up let them idle down you'd be astonished how long they run no one seems to want to do that anymore they just fire them up and tag them to nine grand

I was friendly with one of the lubrication engineers at SOPUS and he emphasized that people do more damage to their internal combustion engines in the first 3 minutes of operation every cold start than the entire remaining life of the motor. "Never rev a cold motor" he'd say. Let them warm up. Seems like common sense but I see people at the ramp fire them up and rap rap rap to the limiter all the time

[WiseCraft]

I was friendly with one of the lubrication engineers at SOPUS and he emphasized that people do more damage to their internal combustion engines in the first 3 minutes of operation every cold start than the entire remaining life of the motor. "Never rev a cold motor" he'd say. Let them warm up. Seems like common sense but I see people at the ramp fire them up and rap rap rap to the limiter all the time

I see this in auto scene as well. Bugs me.

As for the 280, it doesn’t even run right when you don’t let it warm up. What’s the temp you recommend to start ripping on it?

[TraceF3]

I see this in auto scene as well. Bugs me.

As for the 280, it doesn’t even run right when you don’t let it warm up. What’s the temp you recommend to start ripping on it?

I honestly don't know. I bought the boat with a 280 but it never ran. I pulled it and had Dave Driefort build it. And sold it to a friend of his.

I'm running a DD modified 225x powerhead now. The temp gauge I bought sucked. I'm in the process of putting 2 AutoMeter digital gauges in. One for each cylinder head. I hope it runs around 125-130 under normal conditions.

[rjdubiel]

My 280 runs about 110 for water temp. If it was a steel bore motor I would want that temp to be 130-140. As far as warming up on aluminum sleeve motor, a few minutes of idle, then some easy running for a minute or so then let it rip! Steel bore maybe longer but I cant hold off as long as I should!

[d&smach]

I can still (barely) remember when synthetics came out and almost everybody instantly thought they were the best oil ever made. What surprises me is that when a group of marketers sitting around a long conference table decided on the term "synthetics" and it caught on so quickly. The word synthetics is synonomous with artifical, imitation, facsimile, fake, false, subsitute, pseudo and counterfeit. Why it caught on with the name baffles me. How about "scientificly engineered lubrication"? There just had to be at least one person voting on the name that couldn't believe the name they gave it. Just my .02 cents.

[David - WI]

I can still (barely) remember when synthetics came out and almost everybody instantly thought they were the best oil ever made. What surprises me is that when a group of marketers sitting around a long conference table decided on the term "synthetics" and it caught on so quickly. The word synthetics is synonomous with artifical, imitation, facsimile, fake, false, subsitute, pseudo and counterfeit. Why it caught on with the name baffles me. How about "scientificly engineered lubrication"? There just had to be at least one person voting on the name that couldn't believe the name they gave it. Just my .02 cents.

You must be a very old man!

In America, meanwhile, Standard Oil Company of Indiana tried to commercialize synthetic oil in 1929, but lack of demand doomed the attempt.

https://blog.amsoil.com/the-history-...il-and-amsoil/

[d&smach]

It seemed to me that it made it's appearance around the late sixties, oh well!