Best time to do an oil and spark plug change ..Spring or Fall?

[rcguy]

I live and boat on the west central coast of Florida, usually called the "The Nature Coast", about 40 miles north of Tampa. We boat to about Thanksgiving and start the spring season about mid February. Sometimes I may use the boat during December and January because it is not unusual to have a day or or two in the low 80s. So I have never winterized my Challenger. We never really get a hard freeze during the winter months and it may only last about 1 to 2 hours below 32 degrees, so I usually start the engine about once a week during the winter months for about 30 seconds with no fresh water hooked-up and maintain the batteries at full charge at all times. I also use ethanol free gasoline and add fuel stabilizer during this time. I have been averaging about 30/35 hours a year on the Challenger.

Now for the million dollar question....should I change the oil and plugs in the Fall or Spring? Since I may not use the boat in the winter season is it best to change the oil and plugs in the Fall? Also, another possibility is to change the oil in the Fall and the spark plugs in the Spring. Please share your educated opinion. Thank you.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Do it before it is stored this way the contaminated oil is out of the ski and it will be ready to go for spring.


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[JPass]

I second what coastiejoe said. Oil becomes more acidic and dirty as it breaks down during use. Better to remove this prior to letting the boat sit for the short Fl winter. It's also one less thing to worry about come spring when all you want to do is head out and enjoy the boat.

 

[Eclipse1701d]

I agree with the above posters, change the oil now. However, if you plan on fogging the engine, I would wait until Spring, use it a coupe of times to burn off the fogging oil, and then change the plugs... Less risk of fouling. If you do fog, consider using a product called Fluid Film. It is the only one that I have found that doesn't break down rubber, plastic and wiring. You will have to order from Amazon, I have not found it at a retailer near either you or me... It was recommended to me by an engineer from Boeing. I also use it on the steering linkage and forward/reverse bolts, in the back, after every wash.

 

[rcguy]

I don't fog the engine because I may use the boat during December/January. So as I understand, I'll do the oil change around Thanksgiving time (add some gasoline stabilizer) and the spark plug change in mid February.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Yep, getting the contaminated oil out of the engine and refill with fresh is better than leaving that acidic watery oil in for months.

As far as plugs go, change those in spring after the first startup, no need fouling new plugs with fogging oil right off the bat.

 

[rcguy]

I decided to change the oil, filter and o-rings yesterday after we came back from a day of boating. It was a lot easier to change hot oil and only took about 5 minutes to extract the oil from the engine. The oil came out faster than it did with only 30 seconds warm up in the driveway on 2/22/2015. Only put 20 hours on the engine since last oil change and it was dirty. Glad I didn't wait till the spring to do this job and followed your advice. So in the spring I will change my spark plugs and do the mandatory spring wax and other duties.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Some oils, depending on the additive detergent package will tend to trun dark rather quickly but this might not be a real indicator of contamination. It kind of depends more on operating conditions, engine design (is it overloaded for the purpose?) and oil detergent package.

For instance, diesel oils tend to have high detergent levels and turn dark rather quickly.

A big clue for a gasoline engine is oil contamination, you can detect this by a milky appearance which indicates moisture contamination or a smell of gasoline in the oil is an indicator the oil is becoming contaminated and should be changed.

If you change brands of oil often, the clarity of the oil might not be a reliable indicator (due to detergents package).

1st impulse of mine when I see dark oil in gasoline engine is always oil needs changing, clean oil hurts nothing and these engines do tend to work hard (hard to know truth if boat belongs to someone else). I see folks running down the length of the lake running WOT and can't help but shake my head, lol, wondering why they feel compelled to do that.

It's no wonder Mercruiser wants us to prop their stern drives so they won't turn more than 4,800RPM.. A guy I know kept going smaller on his prop trying to get to 6,000RPM thinking his high performance cam was supposed to reach that speed (as advertised by Crane), he spun that thing up so far he finally blew oil up out of the valve covers into the carb breather and had a nice blue exhaust smoke, lol....

I asked him why he wanted to blow up his motor, why are you doing that?

 

[Eclipse1701d]

Where I live, there are not that many Jet Boats, on the water. Whenever I am around other boaters, they are curious. However, the discussion usually turns to, the other Jet Boats. Because, every time I see one, or they see one, its the same... WOT. I understand that it is fun to open it up, every once in a while, but its like the other jets I see have two speeds, STOP and WOT. How long do people expect them to last running at 7600 RPM or higher? I hope they don't drive their cars like that?!

 

[rcguy]

Where I live, there are not that many Jet Boats, on the water. Whenever I am around other boaters, they are curious. However, the discussion usually turns to, the other Jet Boats. Because, every time I see one, or they see one, its the same... WOT. I understand that it is fun to open it up, every once in a while, but its like the other jets I see have two speeds, STOP and WOT. How long do people expect them to last running at 7600 RPM or higher? I hope they don't drive their cars like that?!

Same thing but I see it more in jet ski's than boats on WOT. I bring my on plane and run her 6000/6200 rpm's and according to the GPS 28/32 mph. I'll open her up once in a while but mostly in the lower 6000's. That's fast enough for me.

 

[Eclipse1701d]

Agreed. I usually stay at 5300 RPM, which is 35 mph. Sometimes I'll kick it up to 6000, which is around 40 mph, but only for a minute. A few months back, on a smooth day, I did try WOT, and she hit 56 mph. But, you could literally watch the gas gauge move to the left! Which make me realize that I COULDN'T AFFORD to run it WOT! :facepalm: