Bostonsoxfan

I am the new owner of a Mercury 496MAG and it now has 37 hours on it. I have followed the break in procedures to a "T" and replaced the oil at 20 hours. I am concerned about how much oil it is consuming and would like some advice as to what is considered normal? Mercury says that it will consume more oil during break in and then very little aftewards. I am consuming about 3/4 of a quart per 3-4 hours? Is this too much? Should I be concerned? Thank you all.

cstraub69@comcast

Thats a little excessive to me, thats like 300 to 400 miles in a car. I could see excessive being a qt every 3000 mile or 30 hours. I'd call the dealer and make them aware.

Chris

Reckless32

I would think 3/4 is a lot for every 3-4 hours. I haven't seen that much consumption in my 496ho's and I've opened it up a time or two with heavy throttle action (rough seas)...

Grog

That seems a bit excessive to me also. My 502 Mag drinks about a quart every 10-15 hours depending on how I run it. It has about 150 hrs on it.

If you do a title search in this forum for oil AND consumption, you can read a lot of experiences on this subject.

Raylar

Have the Dealer talk to mercury. Some of the 496 motors had a problem with the intake gasket slipping on install and the intake sucks up oil from the lifter valley. I am not saying this is the problem but this happened on a few 496 engines. The dealer or Merc should also be able to do a compression or leak down test to check for broken rings, etc. This is to much oil, something is wrong.
Good Luck, Mercury is pretty good on warranty issues, sometimes you just have to be firm with them or the dealer.
Ray @ Raylar