Where is my oil going?

[Baddog]

I went to change the oil today, and noticed a problem. I could only get 3 quarts out of the engine. This after I topped it off about 6 engine hours earlier. At this point I knew that even this engine couldn't be burning oil at that rate, so I tore apart the back of the boat and found a small oil leak around the rear seal of the engine (which is actually the front of the engine in this boat, because it is in backwards). I also found a small area of oil pooling in the bilge, so needless to say, I will have the boat sent up to the dealer for repair next Tuesday. What is weird is that the oil leak is small, and I wonder where the rest of the oil actually went? Guess we will find out next week.

Small leak can easily become a BIG leak at say 4,000 r.p.m.s.

[lib135]

exactly, thats why I was on the phone immediately. Fortunately its small enough that I can get by the weekend, drop it off Tuesday, and have it back by the weekend.

[Green_Giant]

Rear seal on the oil pan or rear crank seal? Would think that would have a pretty big difference in repair time.

[lib135]

Not sure, I had my engine expert engine friend look at it, but I am thinking crank seal, I will post back after dealer tears it apart next week.

[68Slalom]

Good luck, but I agree with johnsvt. Once the oil leak is fixed you'll know if you have an oil burning issue, but as I stated before I have 32hurs on my last oil change and the oil is exactly where is was when I filled it. I only have 43 hrs on mine, I hope the dealer gets you back up and running soon.

[WakeGirl]

I agree as well, but you guys have to realize that oil consumption in these engines within the first 100 (more commonly the first 50) hours is very common & it isn't specific to any model. So whether or not it should be different is somewhat irrelevant. As long as the majority of oil burning issues go away within that time period, the problem solves itself & you're going to be at best hard pressed to get Indmar to make any adjustments to what they're doing because they won't feel the need to. My comments about how break-in is related to this issue were specific to these engines.