Hey. I have an 04 23LSV and I'm just about at the 50hr mark for the year on my 340 Monsoon and am getting close to doing an oil change. This is my first summer with a wakeboat and just want to know if there is anything special I should be doing. I've heard the procedure is easy, but being a rookie I'd like some advice from people with experience. What is the best oil to use? Synthetic? Where is the oil drain? Are there any tricks to prevent getting a bunch of oil spilled in the boat? Do I need to do anything besides changing the oil filter? Any other info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Just did my monsoon last weekend for the first time. I went to West marine and purchased a oil change pump. With this you just suck the oil up through the dipstick hose and it fills into a container. Also as many will tell you place a zip lock bag around the oil filter when you take it off. This will catch most of the oil. I would still recommend putting a towel underneith the filter because the zip lock does not catch 100%. As far as the oil goes I figured I can't go wrong with manufacturers recomendation Pennzoil Marine 15W40
You don't need a pump. There should be a drain hose connected to the bottom of the engine. The hose then runs up to the top of the engine and is clipped on there. Disconnect the clip and run the hose out of the bottom of the boat (through the drain hole)and let it empty itself which shouldn't take to long if the engine is warm like it is supposed to be.
Just did it last night while changing the impeller.
even with hot oil, it seems to take forever to drain oil out of that drain hose. If you got the time to wait, fine. When I'm in a hurry, I run the drain hose out the drain in the back of the boat and then hook my hand pump up to that and pump the oil out. Takes just a couple minutes to pump the oil out that way.
From my experience, the hose on the bottom of the engine is sllloooooow and you can never quite get all of the oil out. With the pump, it takes all of 5 minutes and you are pretty much done.
The secret is to get a good one, and not one of the cheap ones. I went through two of the cheapies, then got a better one. Worked great. This is the one I have now.
One other thing, make sure you put some new oil on the oil filter gasket before you tighten the new filter, also the new oil filter should only be hand tight or it will be very difficult next time around.
I never had any trouble with heating up the oil and opening the drain tube. Its easy and cheap.
I use one very similair to the one Buzz uses and it's awesome. Once the siphon gets going you don't have to do anything. It will suck almost every drop of oil out of the engine. This eliminates the need for a ziplock or a diaper when removing the oil filter. Did mine a few months ago and when I took the filter off it was pretty much dry. The only oil was in the filter itself - no mess in the bilge. I've done the drain hose bit and that takes forever and you never get all of it. Get a good pump - and while you're at it, do your tranny and v-drive fluids as well. You should be able to do all 3 in about 30 minutes or so. Good Luck!
this may be a stupid question but I was wondering if there was another fluid for a direct drive I see that someone posted something about v drive fluid. Is all there is on a direct drive is tranny and oil. I want to change my fluids I am thinking about saving the money and doing it myself.
Packrat - the one I use is the Mityvac 7400. It has been replaced by the MV7400 but you can still find the older version online here and it looks like it's on sale: http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/MIT-7400.html
If you have a direct drive then you will only need to change the engine oil and the transmission fluid.
The engine oil is pretty easy to do...just drain it, change the filter, and fill it up with manufacturer specified oil and amount.
The transmission is also very easy. You will need to get some type of pump to get it out. It will help if you are able to measure how much you pump out so that you can put the same amount back in.
When you are done check both levels and I also prefer to run the boat for about 10 minutes and then check the levels again after the fluids have settled.
That pump that is suggested above is a good tool for changing both fluids in a boat (also no mess)