Oops...two stroke oil in diesel engine & gearbox

[pmcdermott]

Oops..I tried to do the right thing, and topped up my oil in both my diesel engine and the gearbox...but I picked up the wrong bottle, and put 2-stroke in by mistake. It wasn't too much, perhaps < 300 ml in the engine, and < 100ml in the gearbox, before I realised.

Is this a big problem, or can I ignore it? I don't really want to pump it all out and waste all that good oil: I only recently did an oil change.

Engine is Volvo 2003, with MB2 gearbox

 

[sarabande]

What's the normal capacity of the engine sump, and gearbox. I am trying to get an idea of the %, for the potential problem.

 

[pmcdermott]

4 litres for the engine, and 0.8 litres for the gearbox

 

[No Regrets]

Don't worry.

2 stroke oil is a great lubricant, and usually SAE 30 grade.

I would drain the gearbox when easy to do so, unless it's an Automatic, in which case drain it ASAP, but not worry about the engine until you next need to change it.

 

[VicS]

I would not worry. TCW3 oil has a viscosity equivalent to SAE20 to SAE 30 when hot, although its not a multigrade AFAIK (approx 9.2 cSt at 100C)

Older manuals give 20W/30 as the recommended oil, later manuals give 15W/40

 

[oldharry]

I had a mechanical gearbox dump all its oil while at sea some years ago. Managed to repair the leak, but the only oil aboard was 2stroke. It ran fine until we could get ashore and replace it.

Should I then have used it in the outboard? I did - and that worked fine too!

A gearbox using hydraulic fluid is another matter though and you may have problems with seals damaged by mineral oil.

Engine should not matter at that ratio.