Re: Oil fual ratio 1958 35 super sea horse
Yes, it originally called for 24:1. That was 1958. Before something called BIA certified oils (now TCW). In the 1960s they started making dedicated outboard motor oil. Before that you dumped a quart of regular automotive motor oil in a six gallon tank of gas and smoked-out everybody on the lake, not to mention the sheen of unburned oil in your wake and piles of fouled sparkplugs in your tool box. But once the new outboard oil was introduced, OMC put out a bulletin proclaiming that 50:1 was perfectly acceptable for outboards that had all needle bearings in the powerhead, retroactive to the earliest such models. Your 1958 is the first in that line. The 1959 was virtually identical except for the hood design which frankly was a significant improvement. (Sorry, but the 1958 hood was a design only the engineer's mother could love.
) In 1959 they started calling them Super Quiet instead of Super Sea Horse, and in 1960 the bore increased and they became 40Hp.
But putting all that aside, let's consider it's age. A little extra oil can't hurt. That's why I say 32:1 is just fine. But I definately feel that 24:1 is not only overkill, I say it's downright harmful. IMHO.
Whatever you decide to mix at, I strongly advise an annual decarboning treatment, two treatments the first year. There is a procedure in the FAQs, or you can buy Power Tune from a Johnson/Evinrude dealer. The carbon that's already packed in your ring grooves from all the years it ran on leaded gas and gobs of oil is a ticking time bomb.
