Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

I have the 350 and I burn about a quart every 30 hours. I have been changing oil at every 50. I too followed the break in to a "T". Dealer said its not a big deal just keep an eye on it. Currently at 220hours

Indmar 350. Break in was a few hours at various rpms ranging between 2500 to 5250. No ballast. Change oil every 20 to 30 hours. Does not burn any oil between changes.

I think I may need to start doing my own oil and filter. Dealer wants $148-193 for it. What's up with that? My car is $25 at Wal-mart, but my boat is 6-8 times the price?

Sorry -- I wouldn't take my $80k car to wally world for anything! Not even in the parking lot.

Anyone working in a specialized trade charges over $100 an hour for labor. Call an electrician to put in a light fixture $50/hr. Call an electrician to setup solar panels and energy management system $150/hr.

Dealers could charge less if the hired people with the same skill set as a Walmart mechanic but do you really want that? It sucks but in The grand scheme of things there are not a ton of these boats around making anyone who works on them a little more valuable of an employee.



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I change mine every 50hrs. I have an ls3 and run 5k of ballast at wakeboard speeds, also cruise for hours unloaded, and idle for long periods of time and I have never burned any oil.

It may well be your cruising seating your rings better. I surfed right off the bat a lot and after 10 hours of easy vary speed break in cruising. never fast cruised the boat ever. They think that may be reason and I think their right. I do have small valve cover gasket leak I just discovered , but it's not big enough for like the guy above a quart every 30 to 50 hours on my 2014 indmar 330hp. Usage was evident on 1st two tanks of gas.

Today I had my 50 hr service on my 16 A20 and was 2 quarts low since the 25 hr service. I hadn't checked it and hadn't got any alarms. I talked to the service manager and the master tech and was told by both that the PCM 350's are consuming oil due to high RPM's and heavy loads. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about burning 2 qts in 25 hrs. I only run around 2500k ballast and wakeboard 99% of the time. Engine runs between 3800 and 4k RPM's. I guess I'll be packing some oil with me on the boat for now on. Over here in AZ my dealer uses Castrol 20w-50. They told me I could switch to straight 40w. What is the exact amount of oil the 5.7 holds, 5 or 5.5 qts?

That'd make sense if my dealer had people walking around in white lab coats who were verterans with a long list of certifications. Fact is that in my neck of the woods boat repair is very very seasonal with a summerization peak in May, strong work in June/July/August, a winterization peak in September, and then dead from October to April. "real" mechanics will go work on cars or big rigs or whatever where the work is steady and plentiful. That leaves basically sub-par mechanics at exorbitant rates.

Honestly I'd trust the oil jockeys at walmart who see 25 cars a day, everyday, more than I'd trust the guys at the boat dealer who see .5 boats a day for most of the year and then see a huge peak where they are slammed with 50 a day for 2-3 weeks.

Not to mention that changing oil on these motors is about the easiest possible mechanical service any person with all his teeth could ever do. You certainly don't need someone with special skills to pump oil out of a drain hose and replace a remote-mounted oil filter.

I loled on that one. haha