How many hours do you change your oil?

[tom_sail]

I have been told that it's recommend to change your oil every 50 hrs of motoring. Is this a little pedantic? Would 100hrs be more reasonable?

I have probably done 30 hours of motoring since the last service and the oil is still a lovely golden colour.

Engine: yanmar 1gm10

 

[Cloven]

Once a year at the end of the season - oil & filter

 

[EuanMcKenzie]

twice a year with filter once in the spring

my engine has a pump out facility

did 60 hours last season but don't like the idea of leaving old oil in the engine all winter

use cheap oil changed frequently so it isn't expensive

old engine MD21A

 

[tom_sail]

Once a year at the end of the season - oil & filter

That's what I have always believed and works well for weekend trips out.

For a 3 month UK circumnavigation would it be recommended to stick to hours or seasons? As I could be motoring 3 times as long as the average weekend sailor?

 

[tom_sail]

twice a year with filter once in the spring

my engine has a pump out facility

did 60 hours last season but don't like the idea of leaving old oil in the engine all winter

use cheap oil changed frequently so it isn't expensive

old engine MD21A

I have already done 6 hrs of motoring since crane in which was yesterday the downside of this high pressure.

 

[lustyd]

What the ??? These engines are almost identical to car engines, why would you change your oil after 50 hours?! Once a season is reasonable but if you motor more often I can't see any benefit to changing oil once a week.

Consider that a car/van engine would have a service interval of 20000 miles these days. At 60mph that's 333 hours. Of course I'm not suggesting that you wait until you've done that many hours but don't go over the top without good reason.

 

[Fire99]

With modern oils, even once a year is probably being over fussy but you can't go wrong with once a year with a filter change.

(Unless you are a ferry owner.. )

 

[MM5AHO]

I agree. Annually unless you're in the water all the time, and motoring a lot.
We did only about 50 hours engine last year (but loads of sailing), and I'm wondering if it even should be changed.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

What the ??? These engines are almost identical to car engines, why would you change your oil after 50 hours?! Once a season is reasonable but if you motor more often I can't see any benefit to changing oil once a week.

Consider that a car/van engine would have a service interval of 20000 miles these days. At 60mph that's 333 hours. Of course I'm not suggesting that you wait until you've done that many hours but don't go over the top without good reason.

+1

 

[Ardenfour]

Mine's has usually all leaked out well before then, so I have continuous oil changes...

 

[VicS]

I have been told that it's recommend to change your oil every 50 hrs of motoring. Is this a little pedantic? Would 100hrs be more reasonable?

I have probably done 30 hours of motoring since the last service and the oil is still a lovely golden colour.

Engine: yanmar 1gm10

The owners manual for the GM series engines recommends an initial oil change after the first 50 hours
thereafter every 250 hours or annually.

The workshop manual for GM and HM engines says every 100 hours with a filter change every 300 hours (after the initial oil changes after 20 hours and a further 30hours)

See the manuals at http://www.motoren.ath.cx/

 

[duncan99210]

I change the oil once a year; we do about 250 hours per year as we cruise. The engine service is done when we stop for the winter, so that the engine has clean oil in it over the winter when it is not being run on a regular basis.

 

[Avocet]

I have a raw water cooled engine that's had an oil change once a year. (It doesn't even have an oil filter)! Being about 30 years old, it's supposed to have straight SAE 30 grade oil in it. I've always used an ordinary cheap mineral multigrade 10W40 in it. The engine has been immersed in seawater once, to my knowledge. Other than that, it's received the ordinary kind of "get-me-off-the-pontoon" abuse that most small boat diesels get.

Being old (and pretty obscure even when new), spares are now nigh-impossible to get. Being raw water cooled, it's only a matter of time before the head casting rusts through and then it will be scrapped. The main bearings are original and still fine. The big end shells were changed about 10 years ago when I took the piston out because the anti-syphon valve had blocked and salt water got on top of it, seizing the rings to the bore, but they didn't look that bad, even then.

Based on the above experience, I really couldn't justify changing the oil more than once a year!

 

[charles_reed]

What the ??? These engines are almost identical to car engines, why would you change your oil after 50 hours?! Once a season is reasonable but if you motor more often I can't see any benefit to changing oil once a week.

Consider that a car/van engine would have a service interval of 20000 miles these days. At 60mph that's 333 hours. Of course I'm not suggesting that you wait until you've done that many hours but don't go over the top without good reason.

Marine engines operate at a lower temperature than vehicle engines, they are certainly not all modified road-vehicle engines.

My Yanmar 3YM schedules a big oil/filter change after 250 hrs, and an oil-only change after 100 hrs. Yanmar also specify a far lower spec oil (which is usually unobtainable) and warn that using a high-detergent synthetic oil will cause premature wear of the valve-seals.

Conversely the common-rail head diesel in my Peugeot is scheduled for a service (oil change included) after 20K miles (say 800hrs).

 

[jordanbasset]

We have a volvo D2-55, the oil change interval is 500 hours, we do it once a year at the beginning of winter. Also change both the oil filters at the same time

 

[cmedsailor]

Does it make sense to change the oil without changing the filter (irrespective of the hours)?

 

[tom_sail]

Thanks for all the comments! As I could be doing a fair amount of motoringthis year I'll stick to the 250 rule.

 

[G12]

Thanks for all the comments! As I could be doing a fair amount of motoringthis year I'll stick to the 250 rule.

What does your engine manufacturer recommend?

Mine's 150 hours, Beta BZ482 with shallow sump option, if it had the deep sump then it'd be 250 hours.

 

[GrumpyOldGit]

Hmmm

What the ??? These engines are almost identical to car engines, why would you change your oil after 50 hours?! Once a season is reasonable but if you motor more often I can't see any benefit to changing oil once a week.

Consider that a car/van engine would have a service interval of 20000 miles these days. At 60mph that's 333 hours. Of course I'm not suggesting that you wait until you've done that many hours but don't go over the top without good reason.

Unlike car/van engines these are in a salt air environment and mostly used infrequently at best. moisture from atmosphere collects inside the engine and obviously ends up in suspension on or in the oil, this does no good at all to the molecular structure of the oil and makes it break dow at a rate exponentially faster than that in a road going vehicle. Furthermore, road engines do not pull constantly against load whereas a boat engine is effectively a car driving in low gear with the handbrake fully on, this will heat the oil quickly and wear it out faster. that said, at least the loading on the engine and heat produced will evaporate the water from within the engine more swiftly than merely leaving the engine to run load free or on tickover.
Best thing in my opinion is to change oil at beginning of season after running up to temperature and every 100 hrs thereafter.

 

[Fire99]

One thing worth considering. How marine engines are often treated, has far more impact on engine wear/failure than the number of hours between oil changes.

Engines are often left long periods of time without running. Others run engines for short periods of time without putting them under any load, which is even worse for a diesel engine.

IMO Marine engines would have far less issues if people used them more and gave them more work to do.