Rage

It was informative to the degree it flads the fact that one should be aware that the drive oils can get hot with enough hp but is very limited on details as to drive type vs hp vs oil temperature vs drive shower type vs oil cooling performance. Hopefully such info is out there and will show up on this thread or others eventually.

Rookie

iTrader: (4)

I believe that the best thing to take away from that thread and reading gages in general is: You know the temps and pressures that your stuff runs at during your normal operations; Idle, Cruise, and Beating the s#it out of it. If something is all of a sudden different it gives you an opurtunity to shut down before a little issue becomes a serious issue.

eastsideoffshore

We Have run drive temp guages on a fiew boats on stock power 160 to 220 ,on big power 140 to over 300 but it saved drives ,pull out at 270 and they hold up pretty good .livorsy told me they are not made anymore I found one in texas to replace a bad one ,the pick up is veary fradgle and get damaged when the gears break .

Rage

Do the drive oil temperature sensors fit in the Bravo's upper vent/fill plug or is it necessary to drill and tap a seperate hole for the temp sensor?

Rage

I called Gaffrig also. They stopped carrying the drive oil temp sensors that screw into the bravo oil fill/vent plug hole.

Do you know of anyone/anywhere that still has the oil temp sensor for the Bravo drive?

Rookie

iTrader: (4)

Not to over simplify this. ( I might be looking at this all wrong) Couldn't you just get a 340* oil temp gauge and a 1/8 npt sendor, tap the upper vent hole, put the sendor in, run the sendor wire and a ground through the transom to the gauge???

Rage

Absolutely. I inquired about this approach with Livorsi. The potential problem is that of surviveability or lack thereof. The drive oil sensor cable kit was a heavily armored design for the environment at the external drive/transum area. See attached picture of the kit. The engine oil sensor is designed for the protected engine environment including exposed electrical terminations. Life expectancy and reading reliability of the engine oil sensor approach could be a problem over time. One could do their best to seal it up and armor it better.
This approach could still work very well for temporary installations to evaluate drive temperature versus operating conditions and test drive shower performance baselines.

I was first considering re-threading the oil sensor to mate with the drive vent threads and gasket surface if the sensor had sufficient metal available which I had not yet confirmed.

Rage

With a little help from a friend I learned that the fill / vent plug threads for the Bravo Drive are 3/8-16 which are tapped using a 8mm drill or 0.3149" dia. The Livorsi GSOT1/8 oil temp sensor is 0.321" dia. That is 0.006" diameter interference or 0.003" thickness/side so the probe should fit...tight but wit a little emery paper just right. The threaded shank of that sensor (1/8 NPTM) has a 0.25" unthreaded length and a 0.375 hex head height part of which could be machined away to provide the needed thread length. The only problem is that the 3/8-16 external threads root diameter is 0.2983" dia which would cut into the sensor probe by 0.0229" on the diameter or 0.0115" debth /thickness. I do not know what the sensor probe wall thickness is so that remains the question as to if it will work.

Rage

Well as far as Gaffrig and Livorsi is concerned they no longer offer the noted sensor cable system. The individual (a one man operation) that used to make them and supplied both has gone on to his reward. So you have no competition that I can find.

Trippin

It is forthcoming, prototype has come and a revised report has gone back to the manufacturer. A new prototype is due back post haste. Keep watching this post if you're interested in this product.