boatnt

iTrader: (1)

We boat in shallow water.a friend has a 2000 bravo with the low water pick up,we were told you can split the case and drill holes were the old bravos had to water pick up holes.
has anyone done this?does it work?how do you go about doing it?what to you do with the lower pick up holes?we were told you leave those alone so you can pick up water from the lower and the mid section new holes,is that right??????
Thanks

MOP

I can't answer the drilling question but do have a bit of hands on as to the dual pickups, on my boat I have run an Alpha, Blackhawk and then went to an 06 Bravo dieselX, The Alpha and BH both sucked in tons of weed and other crap in shallow water had to dump the basket atleast once daily, with the Bravo it is rare that I need to dump the intake strainer basket. I feel it is due to the suction being reduced as it is spread between the dual pickups, so anyone running in shallow weedy waters will benefit from the dual pickup lower.

Phil

oldandtired

I'm not sure what you mean by "split the cases" but I think you mean remove the lower. The water passage is is in the same spot regardless of where the pickup is, so it is possible to make a water inlet in the standard location. The only problem that I see with it is that the low water pickup is there for a reason. If the drive is high enough to need the LWP, then it will suck air with holes in the standard location and it will overheat the engine. Also, I don't know how well "holes" would work. I think that they should have a little more shape to them like on a drive that has them from the factory.

Rene

MOP

Think about a transom pickup!

Mr Gadgets

Boatnt,
It stands to reason that it could be done. My .02 would be to drill less holes than the stock one has.. That is if you have a high X dimension. You also need to chamfer the holes so they will accept the water.. a relief on the input side would do it..

But you need to put them exactly where merc has them to work.. I suspect. The cavity is there, so hitting it is easy. But you dont want to upset water flow to the prop.. so by matching what merc did with a standard pickup.. would be the best bet.
I run a standoff box with a high X and blocked off one or two of the top holes on each side.. and it still finds enough water.
The other area of concern would be the low water pickup.. In a DWP the holes on the front of the cone are much smaller than the LWP... so you may need to experiment to find the best of both..
If it were me,, and I had to empty the strainer.. I would give it a try. say 3 or 4 holes on each side starting at the bottom.. See what it does for you.. If worse comes to worse.. you can plug them with small pipe plugs and bondo over them, and go back to were..
Just me .02. I have spare LWP case that I was going to do just that with...

hope this helps.

D*i*c*k