Gen 1 or gen 2 alpha
 

Just wonder out of the 2 drives witch one is stronger, can handle more power.. Thanks

John

They are the same strength wise as far as I know. Merc rates them both at 300hp. I've seen the internals of both and can't see an advantage to either. The Gen 2 has a nicer case design, similar to a Bravo in style and function. I've ran my Gen 1 with 400hp small blocks with no problems. I recently added a set of Merc HD upper gears to my primary and spare to make them even stronger.

Just asking because I just put a healthy 350 in place of the v-6 and have a gen 2 drive, the upper case is bigger, just assumed that it could be stronger, if thats the case I will just run the gen 1.. The boat is light so i will just have to see

Thanks John

As long as you don't do any power starts or wave jumping, Alpha drives should give pretty long service life. Make sure you change the oil and water pump every year, seals every 4 years and you should be good!