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Oil changes


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How often do we have to do them, I always thought it was every 50 hours, my mechanic like friend says that is more often then you need. What do you think? Btw we have a 07 indmar LCR. Thanks!

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I've only ever done mine once a year. Used to do about 85 hours per year but less now.

Maybe an interesting point of comparison: If you did 75 mph in your car for 50 hours you would do 3750 miles...

  • Like 2
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Every 50 and sometimes more frequently if its convenient to do one and I know Ill be putting lots of hours on like during a vacation. Oil and filters are cheap. Its not the place to be trying to save money.

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Once a year. The only time it was more was after I ran up about 75 hours and was heading for a week long vacation where I thought I would add another 25 hours...

So 13 years, 14 oil changes post break in.

Edited by dlb
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Maybe a better yardstick would be fuel burned. If you were doing easy lake cruising you would not be using as much fuel and not need to change oil as often as you would if you were doing a lot of wide open throttle cruising.

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My boat calls for mobile 15-50 synthetic, I change mine at 45 to 50, but I wonder if it's really needed with that expensive heavy duty oil? My farm diesel stuff goes 300 hours without a change, and can go to 350, according to John Deere. With non synthetic plus 50 15-40.

Edited by surfdude
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up to 500hrs with plus 50 according to JD now that were talking farming. Not sure I would do that however, oil is pretty cheap maintenance on whatever you are running. Around 75hrs max for me on the boat.

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Thanks for the correction, you really don't run your tractor or combine that long though I bet, I think the boat change is over kill. But I will follow there recommendations, especially during the warranty period. The ls3 holds 7 quarts of synthetic oil?

Edited by surfdude
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Oil change frequency will vary depending on total oil volume as well. In our off highway commercial trucks we do 200 hr service intervals but they also hold 40 L of oil. The 350 monsoon holds 5.5 for comparison.

Dont know much about synthetic motor oil. Id expect you could change it less frequently though.

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Once a year for my 2006 LCR.

I do it as part of winterizing procedure.

Probably overkill, considering I'm averaging only 30 hours/season, but its really neither expensive nor time-consuming.

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I wouldn't recommend leaving oil in there more than a year even if you do less than 50 hours. I would recommend anyone running a lot of weight or running their boat hard in any way to change at 50 hours. Better to change at 45 than at 55. Oil is way to cheap to potentially shorten the life of a marine engine. Yeah with the Mobil 1 I put in my boat I may be able to make it to 75 or 100 hours on the change but why? An oil change takes all of $35 and 30 minutes with top of the line oil/filter. It would take hundreds of oil changes to cover the cost and time required to put a new long block in your boat.

Edited by robbennett
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I often wondered this myself, Usually I change every 50 Hrs as that was the general consensus. However last year i pushed it to 75 Hrs just to see and I tell ya what, that oil was DIRTY! we run our boat hard (Typical ski boat) and not that much "Cruising" though. I have been using 5W40 Shell Rotella the last few years at $25 for 5L, average 120 Hrs per year, so $75 a year on oil is cheap insurance.

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My yardstick is more on draining "used" oil assuming ~ 50 +/- hours of use just ahead of a long no run or storage time, basically the winter layover. My main objective is to keep the accumulated contaminants from separating out and ending up as film on the bottom of the oil pan.

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It is definitely a good idea to drain it warm because of the film at the bottom Woodski is talking about.

How often do we have to do them, I always thought it was every 50 hours, my mechanic like friend says that is more often then you need. What do you think? Btw we have a 07 indmar LCR. Thanks!

I also want to throw it out there that if your mechanic buddy is an auto mechanic that you can't really translate 50 hours of wear on a car to a boat. On a road vehicle you can go a lot more hours on an oil change.

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