Optimax oil pump priming

[Outfishing222]

So I like many others have fallen victim to the leaky optimax oil pump.  I am installing the new pump myself but the afterwards the pump must be primed.  There is two ways of doing this, you can do the shift from N to F (5) times or you can have a marine mechanic with the right Mercury meter electronically prime the pump.  The first option you can do easily enough by yourself but will send the motor back into break in mode.  I want to have a mechanic do it but my local shop quoted me $95 for the reset.  The reset at most should take 15-20 minutes, probably less and they want to charge an hour of labor.  Anyone local to Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough or Pinellas counties know of a shop that is more reasonable with what they charge for a small job? 

[wingtime]

I believe break in mode is only two hours.  I'd just do the binnacle trick and be done with it.  Pretty much all shops will charge a minimum of one hour to hook up the diagnostics... especially since Mercury diagnostic computer is so expensive to buy.

[Aswaff400]

i recently reset the "break-in" oil pump priming on my pair of 250xs's since they've been sitting for at least 6 years... take the cowling off(easier to hear the oil pump), turn the key on and shift from N to F between 5 and 10 times, you'll hear the oil and fuel pumps run continuously for a minute or 2. and the break in is set for 2 hours under a certain minimum amount of load; on plane not idling around.

[Outfishing222]

After installing the oil pump myself I decided to go the safe route and have my local mercury dealer do the priming.  I'm glad I did, the tech gave me some tips as he was doing it that I would not have known and could have possibly ended up with a catastrophic failure.  It was $95 well spent in the end and now I'm ready to get back out and enjoy my boat. 

[RickK]

Tips?  Care to share?

[Outfishing222]

Tips?  Care to share?

The most important thing he said is that once the priming sequence has been started the oil cap on the top of the reserve tank needs to be loosened so that the pump will actually take the prime.  If you fail to do this there is a very good chance that although the pump makes the noises like its priming itself it actually does not pull the oil which will lead to a catostrophic failure. 

I also got a print out of the hours at each RPM and was told I need to run this motor harder than its been run before.  I generally cruise at 4000 rpm and rarely run it above 4500.  Of the 360 hours on the motor only about 4 were above 4500 rpm.