Hey Red: I just have a quick question about outdrives. You may recall that I've been working on a blower motor for my '80, with a target of about 425 HP.
Hi Demo, good to see ya here.
I been out of touch a few days, 'll post a video later on this evening to catch you all up to date with the drag races.
About the outdrives ... I went with the Alpha One - Gen II and had new bearings and 1.47 ratio gears installed in the upper housing. I'm running the stock 1999 lower unit with the high performance Mercruiser lube, just one little difference, I mixed the lube three parts to one part, plain ole STP "motor honey" and I quess you are the first one I've revealed this to, but it seems to be working very well. I have a reservoir inside the boat mounted to the inside of the transom, like the late model boats, to moniter the gear lube.
The Bravo I is a strong unit alright, but it requires a little more HP to get it turning, it's quite a bit heavier than the Aplha, and you must use the complete transom assembly, inner and outter, to install the drive, cost is at least doubled for the Bravo drive and parts for it. The Gen II drive will hold up to 450hp just fine I quess, at least I it will for 68 hours, thats how many I have on mine now, but I know of several folks I've met on-line that state's the Alpha standing up to 600hp as long as ya keep in in the water, and limit your hole shots from a dead stop. Thats what I've heard anyway, but mine may be an exception because I've jumped it out of the water several times, and there's no quessing how many times I've done a dead stop launch. The only thing I feel like I need to add to my drive in a shower, I know it gets pretty warm when I've had it 55/60 mph for about 10 minutes, uncomfortable to the touch anyway. I really think the only thing that will kill the Alpha drives are continus full throttle speeds for the upper bearings, and repeated full power hole shots with a loaded boat, but that may just be my opinion.
Demetrius, i live in sacramento also and have a scimitar, thats good to know there's a fellow owner so close, please call me at your convience. i do recomend a bravo one for the higher horse torquery motor, but better take reds advice. i have a freind here in sacramento that owns a marine yard, maybe you know him? dan the boat man off of sunbeam and richards? he has a couple of used bravo 1. give me a call if you need any help or just wanna run on the river, erik 916-218-9187
BRAVO ONE The Bravo One® drive is designed to excel under the high stress requirements of today's performance boats. Bravo One employs heavy-duty shafts and bearings coupled to near-net-forged gears to withstand the heavy torque and thrust loads. In addition, it comes standard with a dual water pickups gearcase, improving the flow of cooling water to the engine for enhanced reliability and performance. All Bravo® drives include upgraded thrust bearings and a thicker socket floor in the upper gears, which translates to increased durability. The intelligently engineered, sleek hydrodynamic gearcase slices through the water with ease to reduce the effects of drag. The Bravo One drive also comes standard with the MerCruiser® -exclusive Permalube® U-joints that eliminate the need for periodic lubrication.
Bravo 1 XR Drive
The Bravo One XRdrive features the race-proven Bravo One® gear housing packed with heavy-duty components for enhanced reliability and durability up to 575 hp high-performance applications. Aside from larger U-joints, thicker upper gear floors and heavy-duty driveshafts, the Bravo One XR drive is stronger and sturdier because of several key elements, including steel bearing supports to counteract gear-separating forces; and larger, heavy-duty stainless steel propshaft with billet bearing carrier and common prop hub. The heavy-duty propshaft fits all square-bore Mercury propellers, giving the sport boater greater flexibility in propeller options. In addition, the drive is standard with a dual water pickups gearcase, improving the flow of cooling water to the engine for enhanced reliability and performance. The Bravo One XR drive comes standard on the HP525 EFI and HP575 SCi and is optional on the HP500 EFI and 496 MAG High Output (HO).
-- Edited by goofy4glass on Friday 11th of September 2009 11:19:26 PM
-- Edited by goofy4glass on Friday 11th of September 2009 11:45:50 PM
Hey Red: I just have a quick question about outdrives. You may recall that I've been working on a blower motor for my '80, with a target of about 425 HP. Motor's coming along, but I'm starting to think about the outdrive. What did you put in yours? And having been through it all, and hearing about everybody else's, do you have a thought as to what might be best for my project? We've had a great summer here on the Sac river... everybody loves the Scimitar, and a fair number of strangers flag us down just to talk about back when. Thanks, Demetrius
