Started rigging my hull, and have many open questions about doing things right at first time. Engine is fresh built mk6 bbc 502cid with fresh water cooling, big oil cooler with thermostat, mocal sp16t sandwich. Bravo 1 with dual water pick up. The hull got new transom, stringers, bottom blueprint, no holes so everthing have to be relocated. X-DIMENSION is set to 17.5".

Questions

-Water Pickup style? Bravo dwp/thru transom/thru bottom?

-Pressure relief valve?

-Engine thermostat temperature? Iron heads, 9.5 compression.

-Where to get water for the drive shower? (Latham steering ram bracket)

- Bravo 1 side water pickups partial plugging? (17.5" x-dim)

Cmon guys.

here is my 0.02…

since it’s a new transom and outfitted with bravos. utilize the built in water pick-ups. No sense in drilling more holes for a lower water pick up. crap always seems to get clogged in lower water pick ups too.

thermostat 160F should be good. Pretty sure that’s what the 500/525 blue motors use.

for drive shower I would recommend Imco cavitation pick up…others like simrek. Your decision.

If you are running a closed cooling system you really don’t need to worry about water pressure. Just pick it up from the drive .. I am guessing it’s a half system so it will dump into the manifolds or headers and out the tailpipes. As far as temp , mercury has a 140ish tstat. That will probably be fine. I am closed cooled and running an imco lower. No pressure problems at all. I pick the water up through the drive , it goes trhrough the strainer and into the pump. It then hits the power steering cooler then the oil cooler and lastly the heat exchanger. I think cp has a drive shower for Latham steering

Yes, i hate to drill any holes to the transom that is not needed. Good to know that the bravo pick up will supply enough water 👍 thanks!

Dont know how much pressure the bowman can take, have to check that. Have bean thinking about about 3/4 system and dump the water to risers. I have brand new stainless marine exhaust and hate to put saltwater thru them, not 100% sure if the heat exchanger has enough cooling power, but the big oil cooler should help, i guess.

Looking from bowmans site, max raw water pressure 230psi. Should be enough 🥳

Full systems are nice but require more plumbing and a higher cooling capacity. I have stainless gen 3s and flush with salt away. They will probably outlast the engine.

Mine is with stainless risers so no need for full system. I might try the 3/4, it would make me feel much better.

Just keep an eye out on the WP using the mercury thermostat it’s opening is very small. I had WP problems last year so I changed to a crossover and ran no thermostat to solve that problem but then I ran into not making temp in the engine. This year I’m running the crossover with the 140 Hardin marine hi-flow thermostat with the bypass. Also I tapped the 4 top hole in the drive pick up. I have new xz DWP drives . If I run into temp problem I can remove the set screws to allow more water to flow in but also control the water pressure.