Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

[MSC]

So I decided to change my lower unit oil, bought the oil ( Quicksilver Gear lube) it says on the bottle that it is for mercury outboard lower units. The problem is this stuff is light blue in color & kind of thin (you can see thru it ) for a gear lube. I ask you what is this stuff? Was i wrong to use it?

 

[Black as]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

So I decided to change my lower unit oil, bought the oil ( Quicksilver Gear lube) it says on the bottle that it is for mercury outboard lower units. The problem is this stuff is light blue in color & kind of thin (you can see thru it ) for a gear lube. I ask you what is this stuff? Was i wrong to use it?

Quick silver would have to be the best, but most important what does it say on the container, should be around 75w90, but check your manual first

 

[huntin dawg]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?


Sounds more like you got 2-cycle engine oil. Gear lube should be honey colored and thick.

HD

 

[achris]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

Quicksilver High Performance Gear oil is light blue and 'thin', and about the best protection you can get for a lower unit... Good to 600 hp and more water resistant than any other gear oil. The honey cloured (are we still allowed to say 'Coloured'?) oil is the standard stuff....

Chris.......

 

[MSC]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

on the bottle it does say " high performance" gear lube. It dosen't say what weight it is, but it does say not to mix with ouicksilver premium gear lube or any other type of gear lube.

I think that i made a mistake putting this oil in my LU. I mixed it with the regular lube, which it say's not to do. the oil that came out of my LU was black & thick. I hope that it dosen't destroy all the seals & rubber

 

[achris]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

The reason they say not to mix them is because standard oil is mineral based and the High Performance is synthetic... They don't mix.

Thick black oil out of the LU shows that it's been in there way too long. If you have mixed them, just drain the mix out and refill with the High Performance. You won't have done any damage....

The High Performance oil doesn't have a weight as such...

Chris...........

 

[MSC]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

when i bought my truck i went from regular oil to 100% synthetic ( mobil 1 ) and never had a problem.. I kind of suspected that this was a synthetic.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

I run an XR4 (small) gearcase at about 17 Hp, surfacing, and doing all kinds of things that's supposed to tear it up in minutes. With that Merc Hi-PO gear lube in it, it just keeps on running and running.

I wouldn't run anything else in a V6 LU.

On Yours, I'd run it a few minutes in gear on the muffs to mix up the gear lube real good, and then with the engine down, pull the drain plug and let it drain overnight, then refill it with the HI-PO gear lube.

John

 

[gunner1]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

The reason they say not to mix them is because standard oil is mineral based and the High Performance is synthetic... They don't mix.



Chris...........

Are you sure? On the back of a bottle of synthetic motor oil for cars, it'll say it will blend with conventional oils- they even sell semi-synthetic blends. Maybe gear lube is different?

 

[achris]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

The reason they say not to mix them is because standard oil is mineral based and the High Performance is synthetic... They don't mix.

Chris...........

Are you sure? On the back of a bottle of synthetic motor oil for cars, it'll say it will blend with conventional oils- they even sell semi-synthetic blends. Maybe gear lube is different?

Mercury tells us not to mix them... I don't know about you, but I'm not a chemist. They tell, I do.

Chris.......

 

[MSC]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

I called mercury, the service guy told me that there would be no problem, say's he's done it many times, he also told me that this is not synethic oil. I'm going to do as j martin suggested & flush it a couple of times.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

I called mercury, the service guy told me that there would be no problem, say's he's done it many times, he also told me that this is not synethic oil. I'm going to do as j martin suggested & flush it a couple of times.

I don't think you need to flush it. The drain is at the exact bottom of the cavity when the motor is vertical. Any of the gear lubes are tacky, so they take some time to drain down off the parts. If you let it drain well it should be good enough. A few drops left in would be better than some fuel oil residue or something left over from flushing.

I got my XR4 pretty cheap because a "Mercury mechanic" had made about 9 mistakes in maintaining it, causing it to be a real dog.

What makes the oils not mixable is not whether it's synthetic or not, but the additive packages.

I play around with things, and I have found out that I can add a tackifier to used hydraulic oil and make a very good bar and chain oil out of it. One day I got a barrel of used synthetic screw compressor oil. I filtered 5 gallons of it, put it in the mixer set up to slowly blend in 2% tackifier. It started making some racket, so I went back to see what was going on. The tackifier had formed a hard plastic disk on top of the oil that was banging around on the mixer blade. It had reacted with an additive in the compressor oil.

That's why if the manufacturer says don't mix them, I don't.

hope it helps
john

 

[MSC]

Re: Gear Lube Oil--what is this stuff?

I bought a 32oz. bottle & still have 16oz. left. I'm going fishing monday & will be running the boat, when I get back I'll drain & refill the LU. I already have the oil & it dosen't take that long, but most of all I will feel better!