Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gear Lube in Engine, what would you do?

Not paying attention, I put 32oz of lower unit oil (80W-90) in my engine. (20hp Merc EFI outboard)

The motor capacity is 1.1 quart of engine oil....so I drained the gear lube out overnight. I also changed the filter beforehand but obviously didn't run the motor so it should be OK.

Any other precautions or is that enough?

MAGA!

Put something like Sea foam in it to flush it out. More than one can. Maybe Berryman's B-12.

That's all I got.

Measure what you drained out ?

drain it and fill it up with the right oil, a little gear oil won't hurt it.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don't do something dumb, like forget to tighten clamps and put on safety strap before starting.

Maybe do the drain and fill thing then run the engine an hour and drain and fill correctly if you're worried

If still worried the small amount of gear oil left in it. Run the engine to operating temp, drain the oil hot.

^ Thats all, if you want a little extra peace of mind. Like STX mentioned dont worry about it after. a little isnt a worry.

I don't know crap about boats or their needs, but if that gear oil stinks (has sulphur)
I'd do as Pat says. If the drained hot oil smell like gear oil, I'd do it again.

Don't know if it would matter, just know oil is a hell of a lot cheaper than engines.
One thing I do know about boats, in a world of crazy prices anymore, boat stuff is
cutting off your own Johnson crazy.

Your oil pump might bog a bit if it gets an undiluted slug of gear oil... You ight refill it with something from the light end of the recommended range.


Any oil is better than no oil.

Yep

It's 1 qt of oil. If I was the least bit worried about it I'd put the right oil in without running it, then drain it out to flush any remaining gear oil. Fill it back up and run it.

Way back in the day, had a big block Plymouth that "used a little oil". Solution to slow the oil consumption was to put in 4 qts of straight 50W racing oil. Then top off with 90W gear grease. Cranked slow in cold weather. Otherwise zero ill effects.

Fill it with the proper oil and run it on Idle for 10 minutes or so, drain it, put the proper oil in it and spend a little time reading the bottles in your garage.........

It probably won't hurt it, but I'd fill it with diesel and let soak for a good bit, then drain it. Let it drip for an hour or more. Then fill it with the right stuff.

Add a few ounces of Diesel fuel or Mineral Spirits to a regular oil fill, run to operating temp, drain and refill. On the sludged-up antique engines I work with, I overfill the crankcase with 3 quarts of Diesel on top of a full fill of cheap oil, and run the engine for 20 minutes at fast idle. It cleans up the sludge like a washing machine.

DO NOT PUT ANY LOAD ON THE ENGINE WITH THE SOLVENT ONBOARD! fast idle only at no load.

Small engine have small delicate moving parts that may not like the added stress of thick oil. I'd just want to be sure I got a high percentage of it out of there before running.

A new 20 HP Merc is about $3600 BTW.

No kidding, if a 20HP tiller handle long shaft Mercury can be had for that I will buy one. My net boat has been without a motor for over a year. It is 18 feet long and about 6 feet wide at the gunwales. Don't need to go fast, 10 or 15 MPH is fine

1 qt, yes, but is it 100% of the oil in the engine? If it holds 4 qt, that's something else entirely.
I wouldn't worry about it either way. Just drain it and refill. Run it a bit to absorb whatever's left, then change it again.