150 Yahama 4s small oil leak jus before and after firing up.

[greatcir]

As I raise (or lower) my boat into the water from my lift, a small sheen from an oil leak comes out from around the motor skeg. It stops afer a bit. Had a talk with Yamaha today and they suggested a number of oil leak sources. When I asked if I could trade my 2007 150 in on a 350 he let me know the 350 weighs 805 pounds and was designed for 26-28 footers - not for my 2120 transom!

Oil leak sources could be:
1. Not tipping the engine up slightly in the lift as a small amount of oil could flow out of the horizontal pistons. Can also cause some smoking at startup. I always have my motor tipped up about 1/4 way so this is not my problem and I have not had any smoking at startup.
2. Fishing line behind the prop - actually behind the slide on piece behind the prop. Will have to remove the prop to see.
3. Oil pump.
4. Somewhere around the engine under the cowling. Will look tomorrow.
5. Oil level too high. I changed oil 50 hours ago & have checked it a number of times since so doubt it will be high when I check it tomorrow.

Just wondered if any others had such an oil leak? I am a fair distance from a Yamaha service shop and have no dealer in this state, so I try to see if things are really troublesome before pulling the boat out of the marina and running it to a ramp to my trailer.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pete

 

[Porkchunker]

How many hours on the motor? Is it broken in? If not, then you might be getting a bit of oil past the rings.

805 lbs is not a problem on the MV hull. I have twin F-115s and collectively the put about 840 lbs on the bracket. It may be more of a HP issue. My 2002 2510 MV hull data plate indicates max HP is 325.

 

[Outta Here]

You check oil often, and it's not losing oil, if not that pretty much eliminates oil leak. Pull off the plastic side plates and look for oil stains. I'll bet it's oil drippping from motor pan, result of last filter change. It could be a poorly sealed filter, again you would see that when checking oil.

 

[greatcir]

I pulled the engine cover today (101 degrees out) and the oil level is about a half inch below the full mark. No oil around the filter and could find none in the base around the engine. So looks like a drop by drop issue is between the engine and the prop.

I have 65 hours on the engine & did the break in as prescribed. Got too hot to fool around any more today so may wait till I'm near the 100 hour mark and then go to the troublesome exercise to get it on my trailer. Trailer is on blocks in storage & ramp is mile from marina & then good haul to Yamaha engine warranty place.

River water temp was 86 degrees and I've lost 2-3 MPH top end and over 200 RPM top end with the combined warm river water and hot air.

In meantime I will just use a pole & paper towel to swab the skeg before I launch & right after I put it on the lift to avoid the minor sheen caused by the few drops. No drips between trips.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pete

 

[grouperjim]

Usually you will see some residual oil for a while from a sloppy oil change where they don't properly catch the oil lost during the oil filter removal process. Pete, I think I've seen where you change your own oil, so I don't think that is the problem.

Is it me, or is has anyone else noticed that the F150 is taking a lot of hits on CP?

jim

 

[Porkchunker]

65 hours...it is time to romp on that motor. Run that sucker at WOT for a few minutes each time you take it out.

I had the dreaded F-115 "Making Oil" problem on one of my motors. At 100 hours, the tech told me that the problem was that I was too easy on that motor during break-in...that the rings were not seated. Apparently they put too cool of a thermostat in them at the factory. He change the thermostats per the tech-bulletin and told me to to romp on it a while. I did that and the problem went away. To this day, at the end of each trip, I romp on the motors a couple of minutes to ensure they come up to a WOT rpm of 5,600--5,800 rpm. I now have 575 hours on them and they purr like kittens.

All of the oil analysis since that time have come beck negative for fuel dilution. I changed the oil on Sat, took samples, and will send that in for analysis too.

If you are not doing regular oil analysis on these expensive motors you should.

I do mine through Herguth...but there are other labs out there.

 

[greatcir]

Porkchunker I do most of my running at the highest RPM's I can do without porpoising - usually above 5,200 RPM. That's why I am so interested in the new Yamaha Reliance 14 1/2 X 15 prop performance on a 2120 - to stop the porpoising and run true WOT most of the time.

I bought the engine and boat to run and run I will - even if it takes some trim or lower engine setting to hold it steady.

I very slowly raised the engine out of the water with the lift afer my last trip and with the engine trim up about 15 degrees the drips off the aft end of the skeg seemed to be coming out of the engine shaft area above the prop so looks to me that there is a very slow oil leak below the engine and above the prop.

I am trying to get all my stuff together to have Yamaha service the oil leak, change props (or cup and take some pitch out of my ss 14 1/4 X 16) and install my new Lenco 12 X 18 tabs. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pete

 

[greatcir]

Well I hit the 100 hour mark so put the boat on the trailer to do a number of odds & ends. Looks like the oil drip may have been a pin hole leak on the backside of the oil filter. There was just a thin film of oil behind the filter when I removed it. No sheen on the water since I changed the filter.

I changed the oil and lower lube and flushed the engine innards till I had no sheen. Used Simple Green to degrease the innards (flushed just behind and just ahead of the oil filter).

So far so good. Thanks for input.......................Pete