Question for E-Tec Owners

[St_Croix_Banks]

I have 2 questions:

1. What's the best oil to use for 2005 200 hp? XD 50 or XD 100? Pro/Cons of each. I've heard XD 100 is more efficient and you burn alot less oil.

2. I recently was changing out my plugs and the tech told me they need to be "indexed" which is to make sure the gap is facing the injector. The problem is 3 of the plugs are threaded in such a way that when I tighten them down, the are facing 180 degrees away from the injector. I've tried playing musical chairs with the plugs but can't get it to work out for all 6 plugs. How do I handle this?

Thanks, Rick

[theoilman]

1. You probably consider my opinion biased, but there are a lot of FMers who agree - Use AMSOIL HP Injector - ashless, no carbon buildup, greatly reduced smoke (smokeless in most), full synthetic. I cannot understand 2 different oem oils having different oil consumption - it requires a specific viscosity oil and the oil use rate should be very nearly the same for all. I am sure others will chime in with their opinions ...

2. I don't understand why go to the trouble to index plugs for a stock engine - it really is a lot of trouble for a very minimal gain. (Is the OEM oil so poor quality that they need this little advantage?) Normally to achieve it you need an extra 'bucket full' of plugs to get enough different tip to thread bottoming angle vs thread starting position in the head to get what you want - and a lot of patient effort to do it. A lot of race cars don't bother with much indexing effort.

[GBPackerNut]

When we used to index the plugs on our drag car, we had a container with spark plug shims, and by matching the plug with the right shim, you could index the plug into the position you desire.

I would assume you do the same for a marine engine.

[JohnMickish]

I believe the oil consumption is different because you set the motor to what oil you are using.

[St_Croix_Banks]

So are you saying I will not notice a perfomance decrease OR a decrease in plug life if I don't index them? One dealer told me to do it and the other said it didn't matter.

[theoilman]

Not that there won't be a difference - fairly small, but I doubt the performance improvement will be worth the effort.