jaroot

Thanks for the compliments.

yes my SS hangs off the back of my 1997 16 donzi classic with a healthy 350 in front of it. so indeed it IS a GEN II transom assy on that boat...

IN order to mount a GEN I drive to the transom assembly you have to swap some of the GEN II shift parts for GEN I parts in the bellhousing... remove the bellhousing, do some machining and install a bushing block... make some trim ram spacers, Remove the remote oil resevoir valve and you no longer will have a speedo pickup...

i have about 2 hours in disassembly and reassembly, an hour and a half or so in setup on the mill and lathe and a couple of hours of machining time... nothing drastic...

the SS on the 16 classic is an instant stabilizer for an otherwise insane chinewalking ride at 65+... it's also an instant 5 - 8 mph gain on average on the 16 and 18 classics... in my case with very minor motor modifications vs GEN II config, which didn't add much hp, i picked up an instant 8 mph right out of the box... i am currently up 10 mph over GEN II config and thats only cause i ran out of water and had to shut her down as the GPS was still climbing

my drive is not powdercoated... i stripped her to bare aluminum, primed with it with PPG DPLF epoxy primer and shot it with PPG DCC Concept Acrylic Urethane... tough as nails and a helluva shine.

as far as longevity... there is a guy here in michigan that will put em together and guarantee em to 550 hp... which i am skeptical of.. but i have 410 in front of mine and had zero issues all season. One of the tricks he performs is shotpeening the upper gearset to help stress relieve them. My SS with the ob gearcase was rebuilt by colabella perf before i purchased it. Apparently Randy installed 3.0 Litre Sportmaster gears in the lower and HD gears in the upper... which gives me a bastardized gear ratio of 1.59:1... but it's supposed to be STRONG... For those of you with SS's running outboard CLE cases.. see if you have a blow out ring on the gearcase... if you do, REMOVE it... it was an instant 2 mph gain for me with a hydromotive quad IV. Removing it also took my 16% - 33% (depended on rpm) slip on the quad IV O/T down to 9% across the board... if you have a naturally stable hull (unlike the 16 classic) remove the torque tab on the skeg of the outboard CLE cases too... True SS gearcases have NEITHER of these features

I have a neighbor with an SS on his 18 classic running high 70's with about the same HP as me and he has had ZERO issues with his drive... we both spin em 5500 - 6000 rpm... i turn the 25 quad IV O/T 5700 - 5800 and the 25 quad IV 5500...

you can find SS's on ebay now and again and some of the other boating sites in for sale sections... going rate is 1800 - 2500 bucks... all are right hand rotation.

Escape Velocity

I had an SS behind my 18' Python Vyper (similar hull to an 18' Donzi classic) and it instantly picked up 5 mph and improved handling. It handled a 383 stroker with 445 ft/lbs. of torque with no issues by using gentle starts.

I was advised to modify the cooling system for use on lakes with weeds and to insure adequate cooling for the new engine. I took the impeller out of the outdrive and disconnected the cooling water hose from the drive to the engine. I re-routed the cooling water hose from the drive to a thru-transom fitting. This way, at speed, the water was forced through the drive for drive oil cooling, but when idleing around, the pickup on the drive wasn't sucking up weeds. I installed a Mercruiser transom water pickup and fed the water to an engine driven seawater pump like is used with a Bravo drive.

I too was able to adapt the drive to a Gen II Alpha housing.

pullmytrigger

I have a couple of alphas 1s in my 29 Fountain.....what is the advantage to going to the alpha II transom assy??

Escape Velocity

I'm a little rusty on the differences between the Gen I and Gen II alpha drives. However, if you currently have the Gen I drives, there's no inherent advantage to the Gen II transom assembly. If I were you I wouldn't switch to the Gen II transom assembly because the shift arm/linkage won't line up to the drive. You can make it work with some modifications, just like I did for the Gen I Alpha SS drive, but why go through the trouble.

Also, the Gen II includes the gear lube reservoir passageway to the drive and the Gen I does not. On my Alpha SS, I installed Mercruiser's external gear lube reservoir kit that runs an external line from the transom to the upper vent hole on the drive.

I included all my Mercruiser Alpha drive service manuals with the sale of that boat, so I don't have the reference materials to look this stuff up anymore.

hoghead

I ran the crap out of my old SS. I had about 400-420 HP of big block run through it for about seven years with ZERO problems. Holeshots, airbornes, etc. I then sold it to B-Stubb and he pushed about 600HP through it for a couple of years. Again, Zero problems. This was mounted to a 24' checkmate Enforcer - roughly 3400lbs. I kinda wish I still had that drive....my bravo has already taken a crap with my 500 in front of it

Escape Velocity

Hoghead, I added a SternJack in front of my SS drive too. Man, that was the best of both worlds. I had the higher X dimension of the SS, with the longer lever arm of the SternJack. Fantastic handling compared to without the SternJack. I never got a side by side speed comparison, because I upgraded to a 383 cu in stroker motor at the same time adding the SternJack. I painted the SternJack black and it held the paint well. The anodizing on the SternJack must help prep the surface.

KH0302

mine

220sport

Sure would like to find one

Donzi Z22

2nd that or the guy in Michigan that can build one to 550 hp ? Jaroot you still around for info ?

dereknkathy

send a PM. check adhuntr.com. check ebay. they are becoming extinct. put a bravo on it, buy an imco shortie. be done with it.