All the way from Mar del Plata, Arg. on to St. Thomas, VI, this problem has
been pestering me and I have not come up with an answer. Before starting out
from St. Thomas in Jan. 2008, I bought a carton of Texaco URSA Super Plus
15W40 engine oil and a few gallon containers of the same. Over a period of
continuous motoring, example: 72 hrs non-stop, I came to a conclusion that my
Perkins M80T diesel engine was burning 180 ml in 24 hours. I prepacked a
couple of empty Evinrude/Johnson 2 cycle outboard engine oil containers which
could hold 14 oz or 450 ml oil and having a measuring scale on the bottle with
180 ml URSA 15W40 engine oil. At 12:00 hr every day, I would add the contents
of one of these containers into the engine. This worked fine until around the
Horn and up to Mar del Plata, Arg. where I ran out on Texaco URSA oil. I was
not able to get any Texaco URSA there, but right in front of the yacht club in
Mar del Plata was a big Shell gas
station which supplied us with enough Shell Rimula 15W40 to get us to Grenada
and beyond.
However, I discovered very quickly, that the engine was burning
more Rimula oil than the previous URSA. As a matter of fact, it burned in 24
hours 360 ml oil. Exactly double the amount. Why? I still haven't found the
answer.
Anybody any idea?
Benno on "Diesel Duck"