i am loosing oil from my boats engine , there is none in the bilge would i know if iam burning it?

Answer 1

If you are loosing oil and there is none in the bilge, there are 2 ways you could be loosing it. Yes you could be burning oil due to bad valve seals, piston rings etc and if its bad enough you will see blue smoke. If you have an oil cooler on the engine the bundle in the cooler can go bad and since the oil pressure is higher than the water pressure you will lose oil out the cooler into the exhaust water. If thats the case you will see little dots of oill at the back of the boat if you run it at the dock.

Answer 2

If you have your exhust discharged with coolant exchange water it might be difficult to see blue smoke, particularly if its a diesel.

If you have a common water and exhuast discharge maybe try turning down the water through the coolant exchanger for half a minute ( no more -don't want you coming back here next week asking how to fix a warped cylinder head ! ). Doing this will allow you to rev the engine for a few seconds and see if there is excessive smoke

If you have a seperate exhust try holing your hand over it, if you see black oil specs then you are loosing it via the valve guides.

Generally i find my boat doesn't burn any oil

So long as its not excessive, burning a little oil doesn't matter.

Are you churning over too much to get it fired up ? This might be a sign of lower compression which might indicate you have warn pistons/liners and buring oil that way.

Answer 3

It depends on how big the motor is and how much oil is disappearing. Something like a 900hp MTU or big Cat can use up to 2-3 galls per day and still be well within service limits.
If you got a twin cylinder Lister and it uses 3 galls a day, you have problems.

It helps to keep a log of hours run and oil used, so you can work out an average oil burn / hour. If it is steadily increasing, time for overhaul. You will also know roughly when the engine needs topping up in this way.

Answer 4

If your boat engine is losing a considerable amount of oil and it's not leaking out into the bildge or hull, there aren't very many other places for it to go. I think it's safe to assume it's burning it.

Let the boat sit in neutral and gun the engine a few times. Look for blue, burnt oil smelling smoke and check behind the boat for oil on the water. Oil on the water could mean an internal oil leak, leaking into the water jackets.

Answer 5

Check the choke see if it's opens all the way. 2 much fuel could use oil.Check the blow by out the valve cover is it excessive, or plugged, is the flame arrester clean that also will cause you to use oil, do a compression check.Check timing. Is the engine turning the correct rpm.Tell what engine you have that helps with ideas.Hope this helps

Answer 6

When you start your boat look at the exhaust emissions....if they are a nice blue tinge then you are burning oil . If the engine burns oil when up to operating temp then you would smell it.

A little oil is probably getting past the valve seals into the combustion chamber and this is what is burning off on start up.

Answer 7

Wouldn't it be similar to when a cars engine is burning way too much oil, and the exhaust smoke is very blue, and leaves an especially greasy residue on anything it touches? Just guessing here, I don't have a boat of my own....