Oils in Volvo Penta MD7A gearbox

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Sarnia

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Can anyone help me with an issue that has come up.
I need to replace the oil from my Volvo Penta MD7A gearbox. The manual from 1981 specifies SAE20W (0.4 of a quart) and the same grade oil for the crankcase.
The chap from the marine engine shop in Aegina supplied me with SAE 20W/50 for my crankcase oil change a year ago. I bought extra and used it again for my end of season oil change last October. I didn't change the gearbox oil at those times.
I still have enough SAE20W/50 to do the gearbox oil change now, but decided to confirm it on the internet which has left me totally confused.
I found the remnants of several other oil grades deep in the locker and each of the cans has enough to do the gearbox oil change. I've got the following other oils on board and was wondering which one of them all that you might recommend for the gearbox, or what is the correct spec oil to use :
Volvo Penta VDS-2 15/W40
Continente 15W40 Super,
Eni 15W-40
Castrol HD30. SAE30,

Thank you.
 
Someone will, I trust, be along shortly to give you specific advice about the oil spec, but I'd use that "0.4 quart" with a little caution. Quarts ares more an American way of expressing volume than an Imperial one, so it could be the difference between 16 and 12.8 fl.oz*. Of course measures were even more jumbled when the manual was printed 36 years ago, which could also explain the strange metrimperial units.

* or 454 and 363cc in a more rational system.
 
macd said:
Someone will, I trust, be along shortly to give you specific advice about the oil spec, but I'd use that "0.4 quart" with a little caution. Quarts ares more an American way of expressing volume than an Imperial one, so it could be the difference between 16 and 12.8 fl.oz*. Of course measures were even more jumbled when the manual was printed 36 years ago, which could also explain the strange metrimperial units.

* or 454 and 363cc in a more rational system.
Click to expand...

The manual available on line says 0.6 dm³, 0.5 imp quarts or 0.6 US quarts!
 
macd said:
Thanks, Vic. It tells us, I think, that the quantity of oil, if not its specification, is not especially critical. Nice round figures clearly beat precision, any day. :ambivalence:
Click to expand...

They are just a guide as to the volume required/ gearbox capacity

The "precise" volume is to between the marks on the dipstick!
 
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