SerenityNow
New member
Hi All,
I have two Volvo Penta 5.7GXi-HF engines in my 2007 Doral Intrigue cruiser. I bought the boat new, and the engines now have 315 Hours on them. Since the day I owned the boat both engines have been burning oil.
In the first year, the dealer changed the oil at the 20-hour inspection and only put about 3 litres of oil into each engine and forgot to go back and fill the oil before releasing the boat back to me. Idiots!. The engines then ran another 25 hours before the oil pressure guages started to really bounce to alert me to the problem.
And so the problems began....
I put a total of 7.5 Litres of oil into the engines in that first year, all Synthetic Oil. Dealer/Doral/Volvo Penta said nothing wrong, just break in and we would monitor throughout 2008 season.
Year 2 (2008) using Volvo Synthetic oil, burned 1.5L in Starboard engine and 0.5L in Port engine over 27-engine-hour period. was a slight leak visible under timing chain case on port engine, and Dealer instructed that engines werent buring oil, rather, timing chain case gaskets on both engines needed replacement. (Q: why no oil under stbd timing chain case!!!??) Anyhow, went along with it.
Begining of Year 3 (2009). Engines have 182 hours on them. Volvo Penta declares that engines are not broken in yet, and will revert back to mineral-based break-in oil for the year and monitor closely. Asked me to keep a engine log to monitor gas and oil consumption as they relate to engine hours.
Year 3 burned 3L evenly between both engines over 71 engine hours using 2761L of fuel total. Volvo then indicates that oil consumption is decreasing, so nothing wrong with engines. Asked that I continue using thicker mineral oil 15W-40 or 20W-50 and not to revert to synthetic yet nothing was wrong with the engines, and that it is completely normal to burn oil to the point where it needs to be topped up.
Year 4 (2010) and oil consumption increases to 5L evenly across both engines over 61 engine hours and 2100L of fuel.
Volvo Penta now declares that oil consumption of this scale is very normal and "[FONT="]It would be completely abnormal for an engine to not burn oil."[/FONT]
So I'd like some advice from the community out there. Does all this sound "perfectly normal" to you? How much piston ring leakage is considered "normal" for a marine engine? I don't know too many people who have to top up more than say a half-Litre of oil over the course of a whole season, and most dont add any. And I'm still running the mineral-based oils when the owner's manual and Volvo's recommendation is to use Synthetic only.
How do I get Volvo Pent off their arrogance?
I have two Volvo Penta 5.7GXi-HF engines in my 2007 Doral Intrigue cruiser. I bought the boat new, and the engines now have 315 Hours on them. Since the day I owned the boat both engines have been burning oil.
In the first year, the dealer changed the oil at the 20-hour inspection and only put about 3 litres of oil into each engine and forgot to go back and fill the oil before releasing the boat back to me. Idiots!. The engines then ran another 25 hours before the oil pressure guages started to really bounce to alert me to the problem.
And so the problems began....
I put a total of 7.5 Litres of oil into the engines in that first year, all Synthetic Oil. Dealer/Doral/Volvo Penta said nothing wrong, just break in and we would monitor throughout 2008 season.
Year 2 (2008) using Volvo Synthetic oil, burned 1.5L in Starboard engine and 0.5L in Port engine over 27-engine-hour period. was a slight leak visible under timing chain case on port engine, and Dealer instructed that engines werent buring oil, rather, timing chain case gaskets on both engines needed replacement. (Q: why no oil under stbd timing chain case!!!??) Anyhow, went along with it.
Begining of Year 3 (2009). Engines have 182 hours on them. Volvo Penta declares that engines are not broken in yet, and will revert back to mineral-based break-in oil for the year and monitor closely. Asked me to keep a engine log to monitor gas and oil consumption as they relate to engine hours.
Year 3 burned 3L evenly between both engines over 71 engine hours using 2761L of fuel total. Volvo then indicates that oil consumption is decreasing, so nothing wrong with engines. Asked that I continue using thicker mineral oil 15W-40 or 20W-50 and not to revert to synthetic yet nothing was wrong with the engines, and that it is completely normal to burn oil to the point where it needs to be topped up.
Year 4 (2010) and oil consumption increases to 5L evenly across both engines over 61 engine hours and 2100L of fuel.
Volvo Penta now declares that oil consumption of this scale is very normal and "[FONT="]It would be completely abnormal for an engine to not burn oil."[/FONT]
So I'd like some advice from the community out there. Does all this sound "perfectly normal" to you? How much piston ring leakage is considered "normal" for a marine engine? I don't know too many people who have to top up more than say a half-Litre of oil over the course of a whole season, and most dont add any. And I'm still running the mineral-based oils when the owner's manual and Volvo's recommendation is to use Synthetic only.
How do I get Volvo Pent off their arrogance?