Questions about Bravo 1 outdrives - 500-700 horsepower boats

[riverRN]

I am wondering about how many hours you get on your outdrives?
Our boat had a small ticking noise, so took it in for service only to find out that..... the hardening had gone away in the teeth and started pitting. Was told these only last about 100 hours with this type of horsepower! Very avid mechanic but green on outdrives! any advise or information welcome! Sat and actually watched the teardown of my outdrive! No question to the pitting of the gears!!!!

 

[McRib]

sound like ur gonna need to by an X drive or imco or teague may be worth the investment in the long run

 

[riverRN]

Was told that it is an XR drive with 135 gears

 

[Boat Tech]

Was told that it is an XR drive with 135 gears

Do you have a drive serial number?

 

[McRib]

does the back of the drive say xr in red on it??

 

[McRib]

its prob just a reg B1 and the guy lied to you run ur serial number if the sticker is still there

 

[riverRN]

I am just interested in how many hours other people are getting on their outdrives....regardless of which outdrive it is! If XR drive are you getting 300-500 hours or what? Is 100-200 hours a real number?

 

[Donnie]

I have 900hp +(25 daytona) and have got 150 hours on a stock bravo 1...about 30 hours on an XZ and currently have about 25 hours on an XR.
Both drive failures were due to flying the boat...keep it in the water and be easy on them, but with 700 hp you are not going to get 400 hrs out of them...IMHO

 

[riverRN]

thanks Donnie, we have the 500 hp blue motor...with a whipple and we got about 120 hours give or take, but the shop is telling me that we probably will get only 100 hours max on the new gears! we drive it easy, don't get on it too much but occassionally we hammer down! but even hammering it we get about 80mph at 4800rpm....
was hoping to get more hours for the cost of repairs/rebuild!

 

[DaveC]

FYI. Those drives shed metal that shows up in the oil. Thats normal. Not alot just a very small amount ends up on the magnet. Not sure why

Im not sure what your issue is but thought i would point that out.

Did you have a failure?

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

I am just interested in how many hours other people are getting on their outdrives....regardless of which outdrive it is! If XR drive are you getting 300-500 hours or what? Is 100-200 hours a real number?

a b-1 might last 300+ hours a XR might last 10 mins?depends on how you drive it,hammer the fock out of anything (and no service) its gona shit out

 

[riverRN]

Thanks but that isnt what happened, we did not have a failure but we did have a new noise that was not normal after 3 summers of use...so we took it to get checked out. the end result was that the hardening on the gears was gone and the gears had pitting.

 

[riverRN]

we baby this boat and motor... we roll into and out of the throttle! the most load we put on the motor is wake boarding behind it!

 

[DaveC]

Dayum. That sux

Call max machine works. They are the B1 gurus.

As i was told the gear hardening is what sheds from the XR gears. But that never amounted to much

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

whens the last time you changed the drive oil? should be done every 20-25 hours,i always did mine at motor oil change,ALWAYS! service is cheaper that total failure in my bookspend the $ and go XR/tg with your hp

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

Dayum.

Call max machine works. They are the B1 gurus.

As i was told the gear hardening is what sheds from the XR gears. But that never amounted to much

do you mean B-1? I BELIEVE THE XR has straight cut gears?

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

DO YOU have a drive shower?

 

[Outdrive1]

Straight cut gears wear faster yet they are stronger than regular Bravo gears.

All XR uppers are the same ratio. The gear change is in the lower.

I think if you get 200 hours out of an XR you are on borrowed time after that no matter the hp. I've seen 500hps with blown uppers for no apparent reason except that the gears wore and failed. You'll be lucky if you don't break the case or a gimbal ring if the drive locks up.

Here's another industry secret. Nobody but Mercruiser makes upper gear sets. Not Imco, not Max Machine, not Teague. Every one of them puts XR gear sets in their drives in their Bravo style drives. Some have better towers, better bearings and other "innovations", but all the gear sets are Mercruiser. At least for now. There has been a lot talk on OSO for years about people trying to develop a billet gear set, or experimenting with different levels of hardening. Imco does make a different drive with bigger gears, and B-Max does also if they are still in business.

I believe 800hp is the magic number. At 800hp you can pretty much break a drive at will, or by accident. 7 ish is border line and if you drive it nice it should give you a couple of years and a couple of hundred hours of service. Unless you air it out or you have a boat that has trouble getting on plane.

I also recommend changing the gear oil every 10 hours and pulling the top cap to inspect the gears in higher hp applications. I also recommend the Amsoil Severe Gear 75W-110 gear oil. Not the marine Amsoil 75/90, it's too thin IMO. It's what Teague recommends also. Imco recommends Torco, I don't have any experience with Torco myself.

 

[Miss Venomous]

I replaced the lower gear set in my Imco shorty at 100hrs for pitting that I found during service with a 525

 

[76 Hondo]

And you guys say JET BOATS SUX, I don't think I could survive rebulding every 100 or so hours.:bash:

 

[sean]

great info od-1:thumbsup
my last boat had 980hp and a b-1 drive with over 300hours on it. the way you drive it is everything imo. i also wasnt the best at servicing that drive but, never a failure.
the current boat imco extreme sc's with 780hp each have over 150 hours and no issues. like was said before, drive easy and your drive will last.

 

[Outdrive1]

great info od-1:thumbsup
my last boat had 980hp and a b-1 drive with over 300hours on it. the way you drive it is everything imo. i also wasnt the best at servicing that drive but, never a failure. .

I would also say the biggest tangent besides you driving it easy with your first drive surviving is the size and style of your boat. If it was a regular Bravo you wouldn't have to worry about the straight cut gears wearing out either.

A 25 Daytona is no where near the stress of a big v or large cat with the same setup.

Driver style does has a lot to do with it, I agree. Still there is no way to assure that you are never going to have a failure.

the current boat imco extreme sc's with 780hp each have over 150 hours and no issues. like was said before, drive easy and your drive will last.

I respectfully disagree. XR's only last until they wear out, or a tooth breaks and destroys the entire gear. I think it's easy to identify hard driving if you break a prop shaft, vertical shaft or input shaft. If the gear set fails because the face of the gear wore off, than it's just another typical Mercruiser pos gear set.


BTW, your padding those numbers big time. How many hours do you have with 780hp? What did you figure it was 200 more hp per side?

 

[riverRN]

whens the last time you changed the drive oil? should be done every 20-25 hours,i always did mine at motor oil change,ALWAYS! service is cheaper that total failure in my bookspend the $ and go XR/tg with your hp

Probably changing oil at 30 hours or so...could be sooner! Not at total failure, caught it with just a small noise!

 

[riverRN]

We have a driver shower, using sever gear amsoil every time, this was originally a max machine straight cut gears done 120 hours ago for $8K....now a rebuild at Max machines again for a nice chunk again!!

So it seems that 100-150 hours is the number and anything over that is purely borrowed time!! We treat this motor very well, it's in a 26 Carerra partyeffects! Thanks for the insight from all of you! Cant wait to get it back and play!!!!

Jetboats rock....just pay the fuel and play!!

 

[svlperry]

where in the high desert r u from

 

[Racey]

This is why i always say real boats have rudders , 1500hp and we barely even change the oil in a Casale box :skull


I'd say outdrive1 is pretty spot on though, and wakeboarding (plowing the water) is a pretty heavy constant load for the drive to handle over extended periods.

 

[Havaduner]

This is why i always say real boats have rudders , 1500hp and we barely even change the oil in a Casale box :skull


I'd say outdrive1 is pretty spot on though, and wakeboarding (plowing the water) is a pretty heavy constant load for the drive to handle over extended periods.

You beat me to it! I agree with OD 1, but also the above statement. Wakeboarding at slow speeds, boat pushing a lot of water, and the motor just getting into the meat of it's torque is gonna be tough on a drive, much more than 4800-5000 rpms at higher speeds (as long as you keep the drive in the water)

 

[sean]

I respectfully disagree. XR's only last until they wear out, or a tooth breaks and destroys the entire gear. I think it's easy to identify hard driving if you break a prop shaft, vertical shaft or input shaft. If the gear set fails because the face of the gear wore off, than it's just another typical Mercruiser pos gear set.


BTW, your padding those numbers big time. How many hours do you have with 780hp? What did you figure it was 200 more hp per side?

catching wore gears should be part of a routine maint schedule hence avoiding failures... i dont know call me crazy.

padding numbers?? well my hour meters both are over 180hrs. and yes only 12 of those are with the new power (dyno proven numbers) the remainder of those were with the engines at ??? hp. after the teardown and measurement of pistons,bores,worn cams etc i find it hard to believe these made 600+hp so, ya 180+hp per side is reasonable.

the info i gave was from experience of my own and others. guess i dont know much though having never broke a drive

 

[Donnie]

YET:moon:

 

[sean]

YET:moon:

lol charlie at octane wont let me

rvrrat sorry to hear of your carnage it sux

 

[squirtnmyload]

speaking of charlie from octane, it was nice spending some of the afternoon with him and his wife today at the lake.

 

[squirtnmyload]

oh and no broken drives to report from the 3 team dcb boats that were there today too. 1250 hp, 1600hp and 2400hp

 

[Outdrive1]

speaking of charlie from octane, it was nice spending some of the afternoon with him and his wife today at the lake.

Yes it was. Good day all around. :thumbsup Too bad we didn't make the after party at McDuffy's. I was spent.

 

[Outdrive1]

catching wore gears should be part of a routine maint schedule hence avoiding failures... i dont know call me crazy.

i also wasnt the best at servicing that drive
.

So which is it? More maintanence? Or poor maintanance? Which one will help keep the drive alive?

padding numbers?? well my hour meters both are over 180hrs. and yes only 12 of those are with the new power (dyno proven numbers) the remainder of those were with the engines at ??? hp. after the teardown and measurement of pistons,bores,worn cams etc i find it hard to believe these made 600+hp so, ya 180+hp per side is reasonable. :

the current boat imco extreme sc's with 780hp each have over 150 hours and no issues. like was said before, drive easy and your drive will last.

Padding the numbers, because if you read your first post you made it sound like you've have 780hp for 150 hours. When in reality you had somewhere in the 500's or high 500's for all but 10 hours or so. So yes, I'd call the omission padding the numbers.

150 hours now 180 hours. Not that I care anyhow. But if you gonna debate with facts at least keep the facts consistant thoughout the discussion.

the info i gave was from experience of my own and others. guess i dont know much though having never broke a drive

What info that you gave was relavant to the prevention of breaking a drive? Not doing maintanance or doing maintanance? Letting you drive it because you're able to run any hp through any drive? Did I miss the tips or secrets on how to operate and maintain a boat and keep the drive alive alive? What's the secret, because 90% of us that have had decent power in a boat have broken drives before. Or do the rest of us not know how to drive a boat? I guess if you idle through the channel all day you can run 1500hp through an Alpha drive.

 

[sean]

lol too funny..
i was pointing out that with the old boat ease of driving kept it alive and with the new one im taking more of a maintenance/easy driving approach.
use what works for you and good luck:thumbsup

 

[BLOWN HOWARD]

650HP and on my 6th season