I have TRS's that have less than 350 hours on them and have run behind 454/330's. Recently I built some pretty stout 496's and plan to run them with the same drives. What are the do's and dont's to make these last respectively. I plan to purchase some Konrads down the road however are not in the budget right now. I am always pretty careful on the re-entry however outside of that what other precautions should I take.

Any suggestions or advice would be helpful.

Thanks,
John

Try to stay away from re-entry, meaning don't do what's in your Avatar pic.
Avoid hole shots. Ease into the throttles, gradually to full rpm.
Avoid hitting bottom ! Change / check fluid in drives more often. Take it easy until you go with the Konrads.
The LH drive blew up more often for us (2 LH for every rH) it could have just been weight balance of boat and that side touching down first.
The truth is The damage is subtle, it may seem that you are getting away with abuse, all with alot of thrills adrenaline and excitement almost like a junkie on drugs. Hole shots wake jumping, etc . Might just as well be amphetamines, lines, base hits, etc .
What is happening is the gears especially in the lower are getting tiny stress cracks from deformation, strain and impact loads. The bearings are also suffering from brinelling, bearing damage makes bearings as well as gears heat up due to tolerances being closed up from expansion. The gear oil will also carburize (ever see gears that look black)
Everything will seem happy and you'll be elated until just Idling across the bay a drive locks up because a gear decided to go through the case out of no where for no seemingly logical reason (other than previous abuse)
Then a Transmission gets tweaked bad when drive locks up. (Usually the planetaries planet) Hopefully U-joints don't break and destroy Bellhousing etc. which has sank boats.
It's just too risky to not baby it. The speedmaster lowers are better mainly because they have alot of torrington style roller bearings lined up and keep propshaft from deflecting alowing gears to handle loads better.
The props that you run can also get you in trouble. 4 Bladers may not give you enough prop slip and may torque load the lowers . I'd stay with the 3 Bladers .
We had 2 454 330's in the boat with stock Trs and tried to make a go of it with 572's .
I hate to sound harsh and tell people to spend money they aint got. I just wouldn't wish all the problems we had, on even someone that I hate !
In the middle of the summer what does anyone do, they pop a drive ? Get another and go break it again !
After a few times it gets really costly.
I really get sick and disgusted with those that think it's cool to blow up a drive because" my motor is so powerful" that kind of thinking is bunch of mental masturbation. The truth is your asking a "boy" drive to do a man's job. More than 550 Hp is alot to feed a 20 year old weak drive. Take it easy or expect the worse. Otherwise fun turns into grief Quick , Fast, and in a Hurry ! BBB

I'm ready to do the switch. Some one need the TRS's both with everything they need. You can even help take them out so you can get what you need. Some one offer me some money.

looking for merc trans 2

How many and for what engine skipster ? Chevy or Ford ?

lookimg for trs empty lower case mike 708 308 9584

Mike, we have 2 new ones in stock. I'll check the price when I get to the office in a few

how did that Mercruise III work out. Mine threw a tooth and i'm looking for options. Would a TR or TRS bolt to my gimble? What lowers would bolt to my upper?

Thanks for advise. This was a very informative post

Well no answer here so I going on a 10 hour trip to find out if a TR\TRS upper will bolt to a mercruise III gimble.

Cheers

Save your gas, will not