Motor ran with minimal oil help

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huntinfool

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So my 73, almost 74yo, dad borrowed my boat yesterday. He added 8 gallons of fuel to my 1/2 -3/4 full fuel tank and didn't add any oil. They ran it all day trolling. I'm sure they got on plane, but probably not much more. He then came home and added 10 gallons. He said it was smoking the whole time.
Think I'm OK? What should I watch for in the future?
I've been mixing 50:1, is this too much? He said it was embarrassing at the launch how much it smoked.

I believe I have a 26 gallon tank, so there was still a fair amount of oil in it.

What say y'all?
 
50:1 is the most common ratio, unless you have a really old motor.
If he is embarrassed by the smoke, don't let him use it anymore.
 
Not worried about that part. Just using that as a reference to it still smoking with 8 gallons of fuel without oil. It was still smoking, so I think maybe no damage was done.
 
Curious about what motor you have. That could make a big dif. I know a lot of newer motors will run 100:1 safely. I had a 89 15hp Johnson that ran at 100:1 but the manual said to increase ratio to 50:1 for heavy duty use. My 89 25hp Yamaha has variable oil injection. It runs at 100:1 at idle and the ratio changes as rpms increase. Right now your problem is figuring out what ratio you have in the tank. If you are like most people you probably fudged on the plus side when adding oil so you may have had more oil in it than you thought.
 
oh wow - I did the same thing . . . .

I siphoned out 12 gallons of gas and put it in my big Dodge van that has a 35 gal tank.

I would rather pour the unknown gas in the fire rather than take a chance damaging my motor.

IF IT WERE ME, I would get rid of it as safely as possible and start FRESH.
even put in the lawn mower or something else that does not require mixed fuel.
 
Too late to do anything about it now. You are probably gonna be ok. Add the correct amount of oil to it now (maybe a little more if you have doubts) and use it as normal.
Tim
 
I have a 98 force 90hp.
I always add a little over on my oil and to be safe. Hence why it was still smoking. But that only means it had some oil, but not the correct ratio.
Any damage has already been done. So I'm waiting on my brother and we are fishing today. Guess I'll know more soon.
 
Take a look at the cylinder head, check to see if you can see any discoloration. Also, run a compression check. Most likely you're going to be ok. The VRO motors routinely thin the oil down to 100:1 when trolling. If it spent most of the time trolling, I'm guessing that there won't be any damage.

Good luck!
 

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