Question about Gearcase Oil

[eavega]

Hey folks

The weather here in GA has turned pleasant, and I am getting the Plantain ready for a full boating season. At the end of last season I had cause to re-power my boat with a 1976 Johnson 70 HP. I ran it last weekend, and afterwards found a TINY bit of water in the LU oil (Literally, there was a couple of streaks of discolored oil in the entire 23ish ounces of oil drained). I didn't change the LU oil when I bought the motor, as it looked like it was in good condition when I did my pre-purchase checks. Anyway, I pressure tested the gearcase and found no leaks, so I will attribute this to a bad oil drain/vent gasket. I am now going to replace the LU oil, and hence my question:

The Service Manual calls for "OMC Premium Blend" gearcase lubricant. Having owned a hydro-electric shift model, I recall that the Premium blend is the thinner oil that the electric shift system needed. This motor is a manual shift, so I was confused as to which gear lube to use here. Can someone point me in the right direction? I'll use the Type C oil if its required, but otherwise I'd rather use LU oil that I can more easily purchase from either a marine supply store or from Wally-World.

Words of advice would be appreciated.

Rgds

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Question about Gearcase Oil

That motor should use regular outboard lower unit gear lube. Wal-Mart's Super Tech is fine.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Question about Gearcase Oil

Marine Gear oil for manual shift motors is most common. Wallyworld has it in the SuperTech brand name as well as some others like pennzoil. The lable will say "For use in manual Shift Outboard motors"

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: Question about Gearcase Oil

Yes, you need a different oil than the Premium Blend oil-thats just for electric shift lowers, which ended at the end of the 1972 model year. The service manual for a 76 should call for the Hi-Vis oil. The Hi-Vis is still available today, though it is now the mid-grade of gear oil from Bombardier. It will be a good oil for your engine. Today's gearsets require an upgraded oil, which Bombardier calls the XPFR. Likely any outboard gear oil that is widely sold today will work in your 1976 mechanical shift lower. Check the label.

 

[F_R]

Re: Question about Gearcase Oil

To clear up some confusion, in past years OMC Type C was the only oil that OMC sold, and was specified for all their motors. Then, OMC Type C was discontinued and replaced by OMC Premium Blend, again specified for all their motors. Again, OMC Premium Blend was replaced by OMC Hi-Vis and specified for all their motors EXCEPT the electric shift ones, which must continue to use Premium Blend.

Since your motor is not electric shift, Hi-Vis is the one. Or Wal Mart. But I swear by Hi-Vis being a better choice. Do a scientific test of putting some on your fingers and see how much better it "feels". Yeah, I know, it is for lubricating gears, not fingers.

Little known fact---one of those old OMC oils was discontinued because it had a whale oil additive, and whale hunting was outlawed.

 

[jrs_diesel]

Re: Question about Gearcase Oil

I've read that the latest offering from Evinrude, HPF XR, is a great oil to use.

In this article, they (Bass and Walleye Boats magazine) tested various gear oils both with and without water mixed in (to simulate water intrusion into a gear case). Theys used several different ASTM testing methods to get the results. It's a pretty good article:

http://bwbmag.com/output.cfm?id=1891729&sectionid=308