Oil pan size question

[Rich]

Maybe I missed it. What size, and how old, is your oil cooler? It just may be oil temp which can be caused by a multitude of things.

Orig merc equipment..

[PatriYacht]

It's either high oil temps or airation of the oil or both. Get that oil temp gauge on there as soon as you can and don't let the temp go above 280. The pan is at most 6 qts. If you have the room, Napa sells a 2 qt. filter made by Wix. Easy way to get another qt. of capacity. Merc recommends 40 wt. oil in most climates, don't use 30wt. unless you boat in freezing temps.

[TomZ]

I'll second the 40 wt. comment. On my small block, Rotella 15W40 isn't cutting it at high rpm, so I'm going back to 20W50. I still hold a minimum of 50 PSI at extended WOT with the Rotella, but the 20W50 (Penzoil at the time) held over 60 PSI.

I hold about 10 quarts.

Tom

[ROGUE]

My oil pressures never, ever, go below 60 due to my insanely critical bearing clearances and I run rotella 15-40. however, I use a 3" by 18" cooler and hold around 250 wot now. I would not just add a quart of oil until you have had a chance to do the wot test while watching the pressure gauge and hopefully while watching the temp. Unless of course you add the big filter as suggested by Patriyacht. You can drill and tap the top of the stock filter body for a sender or if you have the older ones there was an unused port you could use. SSComp has very nice inexpensive gauges ive used for years now.