Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

sr17

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I have heard good things about Evinrude's HPF-XR synthetic gear oil and was wondering if it would be good in my 1999 Honda 90 hp?

Honda is not offering a synthetic outboard gear oil and I am not sure what the reason for that might be. :confused:

Last time I had the gear oil changed I was hours of driving away from the nearest Honda Marine dealer, so my mechanic put in Mercury synthetic gear oil which has seemed to work well.

Any advice is much appreciated!
 

Sea Rider

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

I have heard good things about Evinrude's HPF-XR synthetic gear oil and was wondering if it would be good in my 1999 Honda 90 hp?

Honda is not offering a synthetic outboard gear oil and I am not sure what the reason for that might be. :confused:

Last time I had the gear oil changed I was hours of driving away from the nearest Honda Marine dealer, so my mechanic put in Mercury synthetic gear oil which has seemed to work well.

Any advice is much appreciated!

As long the oil is gear oil, grade 80/90 or 90 it's ok.
Happy Boating
 

sr17

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

As long the oil is gear oil, grade 80/90 or 90 it's ok.
Happy Boating

Does anyone know if the Evinrude stuff 80/90 grade? I did not see any indication on the bottle.
 

pvanv

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

OK, here goes:

Outboard manufacturers are not oil companies, and do not make oil. They do not make grease, either. Oil companies make oil. So there is no such thing as Evinrude oil, or Honda oil.

Any good SAE 90 EP LU lube is OK. Some synthetics will even run OK with water contamination, up to a point. As far as I am aware, the only exception to that would be the ancient electric-shift LU's which called for Type-C LU lube, which is not appropriate for modern LU's.

The thing is that OB manufacturers relabel lubricants (or the oil companies produce short runs of "house brand labels" for them), add some hype advertising, and charge a premium price... and some of us gullible folk buy into all that stuff.
 

psteurer

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

Agree with pvanv. If you want to save a few bucks, carefully read the owners manual. It usually says, use their oil or equivalent. Using exactly what they recommend as equivalent and you are home free. I have a 2008 Honda and use the Honda oils and lubricants. The motor is under warranty so if anything happens I can always say I used the Honda products to avoid an argument. I also have a 1989 Johnson motor. I use the the generic oil for this motor. The Honda engine oil is very confusing to me. The owner's manual recommends 5w-30 for my motor. The Honda oil is 10w-30. I asked my dealer and he said to use the Honda 10w-30.
 

sr17

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

What happened is that last time I had the gear oil changed, there was a significant amount of water in the oil coming out of the gear case.

Fortunately it was most likely only the o-rings on the drain and fill plugs that leaked as there was no water in the oil this time.

My mechanic told me that using synthetic offers much better protection than regular gear lube in the event of water intrusion.

I found this gear lube test online and that is essentially what lead me to try out the Evinrude stuff. Only problem is, I don't know if it is the correct viscosity as there seems to be no indication on the bottle.

I realize that the engine manufacturers don't make their own lubricants - the Honda marine branded motor oil is made by Idemitsu Lubricants, which I believe is not even a well known manufacturer. The original Honda filter says made by Honeywell, so it is probably just a double priced Fram filter painted blue :confused:
 

psteurer

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

That's a interesting article. The Evinrude oil got a very good rating so I do not think it would hurt giving it a try for 100 hours. When you drain it after 100 hours see what it looks like and also see if there is any type of metal or crude that comes out. The article does mention sticking with the dealer oil when you are under warranty.

Also, those little o-rings behind the drain and fill screws are suppose to be replaced with every oil change. Pick up a bunch of them since they are very cheap.
 

sr17

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

Also, those little o-rings behind the drain and fill screws are suppose to be replaced with every oil change. Pick up a bunch of them since they are very cheap.[/QUOTE]

Very true - I did not replace the o-rings that time which was also the first time I had done the job myself. What upsets me is that I was following advice from the guy at the Honda parts department - he told me, no need to change the o-rings. :mad:

He also told me there is no need to squirt the new oil in from the bottom - just put in the bottom screw and fill it from the top. I did not follow that piece of advice though.
 

psteurer

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Re: Evinrude gear oil in Honda BF 90

I got the same advice from a Honda Marine dealer. He said he never changes the drain fill screw gaskets. The dealer I bought my Honda motor from said to always change them. As I think about this, I now know that they were referring to two different things. The one who said to never change them was referring to the plastic washers. The dealer who said to always change them was referring to the rubber o-rings. The o-rings are used on drain screws that have a little recess near the head of the screw. One can probably use plastic washers there to. I am using o-rings on my motor. They cost less than a dollar so I replace them every time now.
 

Sea Rider

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Gear Oils & Others

Gear Oils & Others

Just some comments:

1-Original manufacturer oils, in order to obtain a higher margin for their products, Companies states that their oils have a special oil component that will still lube right gear pinions in case of water intrussion, standard shelf oils do not have so. In my particular case, these "special" oils are not available down here, so change my 80/90 grade gear oil every 50 hours, just in case :D as I like to cruise at 90% throttlle.

2-The only way to add/replenish oil using the upper oil screw would be using a big syringe without needle, squirting oil untill full, the best gear oil change is using a lower unit oil changer, fast filling with no oil mes, a must have friendly tool.

Happy Boating
 
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