What are the advantages / disadvantages of having low water pickups on your drive?

not sure of any advantage but a disadvantage is that the risk of sucking sand, dirt or any small debris in shallow water because trimming it up actually puts the pickup closest to the bottom, had it on my baja and was never an issue flushing was nice not having to use the ears

I have a pair of standard lowers with the the low water pickups i would like to get rid of. send me a PM and i can give details if interested.

Low water pickups such as found on Bravo drives are the three little holes facing forward in the nose of the torpedo. The forth hole (top hole) is the speedometer pitot pickup. At low speeds (idle), these do not flow much water since they are limited in size, but at higher speeds (on plane), the static pressure on the nose of the torpedo is quite high and a large volume of cooling water can be supplied by these small ports.

This is just the opposite of what happens with the side ports as found on a dual water pickup system. These side ports have a large area and allow for a relatively high volume of water to flow at low, non-planing, speeds. Once the boat speed picks up, water flowing past the side of the drive limits the effectiveness of these side ports, hence the use of a dual pickup system. The tradeoff of a dual water pickup system is slightly higher drag in high speed applications, but it is probably not a measurable difference unless you are really moving (as a lot of folks on this site tend to do).

Some manufacturers combine these ports (I have seen this primarly on lower power outboards) by having scalloped ports on the side of the drive to give them a little forward facing area like a scoop.

If you have a low water pickup only, and the engine(s) stay cool at idle, then you are fine, but if you are not after the absolute maximum in top end performance, the dual pickup system is a better all around choice.

Dan

Just wondering, how do you flush the dual pickup system?

Hi have two fitting on the transom with caps that unscrew they have std hose fittings on them which are teed into the pipe that goes to the water pump makes flushing easy .