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Hey folks,

I ran my 2001 Mercury 2 stroke 40 HP this last weekend and noticed that it used what I thought was very little oil. The motor has about 35 hours on it since new in 2001. In other words, it hasn't been used much and I've only had it on the water four times.

I filled the reservoir completely yesterday and ran it one hour at between idle and 2,000 to 3,000 RPM on the lake. After the hour I had to put about 2 gallons of gas in the tank. The oil reservoir hadn't emptied below the filler neck. Does that seem normal?

I don't have much experience with these motors and they don't seem to need much oil if this is normal. Is there something to look for and/or does the oil injection go bad on these (especially if they haven't been used much).