Oil Prices Slide as Summer Looms Closer

Oil Prices Slide as Summer Looms Closer As the Associated Press is reporting, bulk oil prices have slid today to $116 a barrel. The news comes as the spring season enters the home stretch and Americans prepare for the summer – a season that is most popular for vacationing and leisure activities such as fishing and boating.

The decrease in oil prices was due to the end of a refinery strike in Scotland, which adds to the falling demand of oil, though gas prices are still averaging at $3.67 throughout the U.S.

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Take Our Boats Now

Take Our Boats Now Taking a cue from the shaky housing market, now might be a good time to purchase a boat.

With bulk oil prices fluctuating on an hourly basis, you can find people selling their boats on sites like Craigslist and local periodicals for value prices. While a recession collectively looms in the minds of Americans, it may be a good time to invest in your sea legs. Economic stimulus checks are in the mail and if you find yourself a bit more comfortable than most, it might not be such a bad idea to spoil yourself and get something nice to take your family out on.

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Post-Trip Maintenance

Post-Trip Maintenance Purchasing premium boat motor oil isn’t the only important step to having a well running vessel. There are a few things that you can do after a trip that will help your engine running smoothly:

• After every trip, flush out the engine.

• While you’re flushing the motor, check the water pump to make sure it has good water flow. Put your finger through the stream of water; it could be warm, but not hot. If the output isn’t strong, there may be debris stuck in the outflow tube. Shut the engine down to prevent damage.

• Insert a small piece of wire into the flow tube and work it back and forth. Start the engine again and check the output. If that doesn’t help, you may need a new water pump.

• After flushing the engine, disconnect the fuel line and have the engine to burn the fuel in the carburetor.

• Take the engine cowling off and check for fuel or water leaks. If you find leaks talk to a mechanic.

• Wipe everything down and spray with an anti-corrosive like WD-40. Be sure to lubricate all the moving parts such.

• Replace the cowling and wipe it down. Cover the engine between trips.

• Always use fresh fuel.

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The Simple Addition that Keeps Your Engine Running Well

A key element to a smooth running boat is to purchase outboard motor oil that has additives in that will keep your engine clean and prevents wear and corrosion. Additives will also enhance the lubrication of the motor. Several brands such as Evinrude and Mercury sell oil that has said additives in them so as to make your boating experience one with a minimal amount of problems.

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Yamalube is More Than a Brand Name

Recently I found that some of the motor oils I’ve been using have been more a detriment to my boat, often causing more problems eating more gas than anything else. Then someone recommended that I switch to Yamalube. Admittedly I was a bit reluctant, but I hedged on my feelings and tried it.

Let me say that I thought Yamalube would only work well with Yamaha engines. Those ill informed opinions aside, Yamalube made my boat run remarkably well. Riding on the water was a smooth go, which is not an easy feat by any means. It’s also quite affordable as I found a case of it for $83 online.

I thought it would take a huge arm twist to turn me into a convert, but all it really took in the end was a simple test drive and the ability to make my boat run well, as opposed to a gloried gondola.

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Q&A With the US Coast Guard

Stay safe no matter which outboard motor, boat or outboard motor oil you use.

Can I use a bigger motor on my boat than what it’s rated for?

It is not a violation of Coast Guard regulations to install or use an engine larger than specified on the capacity label, but there may be state regulations prohibiting it, and restrictions from your own insurance company regarding this.

There are no Coast Guard regulations against exceeding the safe loading capacity, however, there may be State regulations or restrictions from your insurance company which prohibit this. There is a Coast Guard regulation that gives Coast Guard Boarding Officers the power to terminate the use of a boat (send it back to shore) if, in the judgment of the Boarding Officer, the boat is overloaded. There is no fine for this, unless the operator refuses the Boarding Officer’s order. We certainly hope that you will abide by the rating, as overloading may lead to capsizing or swamping of the boat.

NOTE: The Coast Guard Capacity Information label is required only on monohull boats less than 20′ in length. The label is not required on multi-hull boats, pontoon boats (catamarans), or on any sailboats, canoes, kayaks, or inflatable boats, regardless of length.

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Why a Two Cycle E-Tec?

NO SCHEDULED DEALER MAINTENANCE FOR 3 YEARS.
ZERO BREAK-IN PERIOD
NO COSTLY OIL CHANGES
USES UP TO 30-75% LESS OIL THAN COMPETITIVE TECHNOLOGIES

EASY TO OWN AND OPERATE Evinrude E-TEC outboards require no scheduled dealer maintenance – that’s right, zero – for the first three years or 300 hours of normal recreational use. Not even gearcase lube.

Evinrude E-TEC uses up to 75% less than typical 2-stroke carbureted engines and up to 50% less outboard motor oil than competitive direct injection engines (when run with Evinrude/Johnson XD 100 oil with optional dealer programming of the Engine Management Module, versus normal TCW3 oil). And you’ll use 30% less oil compared to a 4-stroke with a typical maintenance schedule under normal operating conditions.That’s just the start. The Evinrude E-TEC engines use an exclusive low friction design. There are no belts, no chains, no powerhead gears, no cams, and no mechanized oil pumps.* Reprinted from Evinrude website fact sheet!

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Get Your Oil Here!

THROTTLE UP JOINS THE SBIP/APBA OFFSHORE INSPECTION TEAM

Key West, FL, Super Boat International Productions Inc. is happy to announce that Throttle Up will be part of the inspecting team with SBIP/APBA Offshore. Starting with the Key West World Championship for the 2008 season. Throttle Up will be checking all of the propellers to make sure they meet the rule book Requirement. “Throttle Up brings to SBIP/APBA Offshore a great addition to our inspecting team, to take it up another level to have the best inspection team in offshore” said John Carbonell, President of SBIP / APBA Offshore “Throttle Up CNC Propellers would like to take this opportunity to thank the SBIP/APBA UIM for allowing us the opportunity to be the OFFICIAL, Propeller Inspectors for the upcoming Key West World Championship races as well as the upcoming 2008 Offshore Racing Season. We are pleased to be part of the Team of Professional Technical Inspectors of the SBIP/APBA UIM” said Matt Croce of Throttle Up Propellers.

Don’t forget your Evinrude oil!

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Why do we need outboard motor oil?

Evinrude: Because She's Pretty

We put outboard motor oil in our engines to serve several purposes. First, obviously, oil acts as a lubricant. If your engine is operating correctly, there is almost no metal to metal contact – everything is riding on a thin film of oil. However, oil has several other important jobs to do. Oil circulates throughout your engine, and cools parts that cannot get near a water jacket. For example, it’s becoming common in sport bikes to spray oil on the underside of the piston to cool it. There are no water jackets at all in your transmission. Motorcycle transmissions are oil cooled.

Your piston rings do not do a perfect job of sealing. Some combustion by products will slip past the rings into the engine. This can be little particles of carbon. Remember, diamond is carbon that was combined under heat and pressure. These little carbon particles can be quite damaging to your engine. Another job of your oil is to hold these particles in suspension until the oil filter can grab them. Also, if your gasoline has sulpher in it (it does), this sulpher can react with water and oxygen to make sulphuric acid. This is some stuff that is seriously bad for your engine. Your oil has special ingredients in it called buffers to neutralize acids. Finally, your engine can get internal build ups of tars, waxes, and other gunk. Your oil has solvents to try to dissolve this stuff and get and keep your engine clean.

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Question

I have a 99 merc 115 that has been on synthetic blend for as long as i’ve owned it i’m all out of the blend and was wanting to switch over to full synthetic outboard motor oil, my question is do i have to drain the existing blend remaining in the oil reservoir OR can i just start topping off the reservoir as i use up the oil, next i was wondering is if anyone has hooked up their trolling batteries up in parallel if so how did you do it and how does it work for a 12V motor- thanks!

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This Just In

Get Ready for Next Year’s Show with Evinrude Boats, Motors and Evinrude Oil!

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Feb. 20, 2008 – The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) today reported steady sales among exhibitors at the 67th Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sail, despite a decrease in attendance from the prior year.

Attendance at the 2008 show, which completed a five-day run, Feb. 14-18, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the Sea Isle Marina & Yachting Center and Miamarina at Bayside, was 128,018, a seven percent decrease from the 137,175 visitors reported at the 2007 exhibition.

(more…)

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Careful With that Thing!!

Miss Outboard Motor Hey all, I post this to be shot down. Tell me if I’m wrong.

I’ve owned 2 cycle outboards off and on for over 30 years. All Evinrude and Johnson. The few problems I ever had with them were related to the outdrive (once, for age) or were electrical (periodic, for submersion in saltwater). At a marina, most places will put it in last. When refilling a partially full tank, it is hard to know how much Evinrude oil to put in until you know how much gas you put in.

Personally, I’ve added the oil first and last. First for empty tanks, last for partials. The oil is completely soluble in gasoline and will naturally disburse in a short period of time.

This may be a bit dated, but the anecdote is that oil injections systems and their alarms may fail. The downside is your engine will overheat and you will sputter to a stop. The upside, when working properly (which is usual), is that they do accurately apply the correct amout of oil, which reduces smoking, polution and possibly oil usage.

On the occasions where I or someone (the guy at the marina) forgot the oil, we sputtered to a stop, deliberated, divined the error and added the oil. Then we resumed our fun. On the occasions where I or someone (it was me) doubled the oil, we smoked quite a bit until our next tank.

I don’t recommend forgetting the oil or accidently doubling it, but if on rare occasions it happens, it is not catastrophic.
If you, someone else or the oil injector messes up often, it probably could be.

My suggestion is to use the oil injection system and periodically give the oil level a visual inspection during use. It may be hard to tell with light usage, but over time you will be able to tell. If you sputter to a stop and the oil isn’t being used, put oil in the gas.

The absolute here is to always keep a quart or two of the 2 cycle engine oil on the boat.

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Boating | Outboard Motor Oil - Part 38

THROTTLE UP JOINS THE SBIP/APBA OFFSHORE INSPECTION TEAM