gear lube
05-25-2011 | 12:30 PM
#121
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From: frankenmuth michigan
Read my other post, I am running FULL steel towers that extend completely thru my drive/ massive billet caps w/ 7/16 studs and I bought the gears in my current drive and my spare drive at a time that the quality control is claimed to have been better (03-05). My motor makes over 1000 ft lbs of tq and I still beat on it pretty hard at times taking off, but my boat is also much lighter than yours. I guess I am one of the lucky ones, Smitty
05-25-2011 | 01:26 PM
#122
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From: New York
On the surface what your saying would appear to be true BUT in actuality you are wrong. I have ran 750hp, then 950 hp and currently 1050 to 1100 hp (depending on my blower pulley) thru my max worx drive, I currently have the same upper gears I bought 8 or 9 years ago approaching 400 hours. Lower gears have always been a different story, when I had 750 hp they would last a whole season before failing (50-100 hours), When I increased my power to 950 they would last closer to 20-25 hours, when I went to 1050 plus hp they would last closer to 10 hours. I always ran Royal purple oil on the advice of "experts". I tried having additional heat treating done to my gears, diamond like coating and Cryo/iso finishing. I found that a set of Cryo/iso'd gears would last 20-30 hours-about a half of a season, I switched to a mix of Amsoil/lucas addittive and instantly my gears were lasting 40-60 hours before failing, a big improvement. If the Neo oil does give me a longer life span on my gears it WOULD be worth 200$ a gallon (although its actually only around 90$ a gallon). You could tell me I should have bought a imco scx or a B-max but when I started running this kind of power years ago the scx did not exist nor did any of the other current offerings and the B-max suffered from quality control problems and still used stock mercruiser bravo lower gears anyways and upper failure has never been a problem for me anyways. Necessity is the mother of invention and If the new owner of B-max has formulated a specially blended oil that increases gear life then that is a great thing, I have a serious investment in my current drive so I am not switching any time soon , my boat is getting old and I'm not going to dump another 15 or 20 K in a better drive. Now, will this new oil keep a Bravo based drive from shearing off a shaft or blowing up any of the other stock, non-upgraded parts, of course not but I am way past that, Smitty
05-25-2011 | 01:56 PM
#123
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From: frankenmuth michigan
I agree completely, guys try to build high hp motors and buy a off the shelf xr and then never perform internal inspections and wonder why they self destruct, I tear my drive down at least twice a season and just look over everything, I am running it past double its limit, I have found small parts/bearings that were on the verge of failure and fixed drive for next to nothing and lived to run another day, Smitty
06-10-2011 | 03:43 PM
#124
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The 10W40 on the viscosity table looks same as 75W90, but a engine oil will not have EP additives to protect to protect in a gear unit. I spoke with guys who use it and others who use Torco RTF but there changing evey 10hours or less. John at the Bravo shop has a light weight gear oil also that can be used if you want less drag in the unit and still get longer life out the oil. MLW18 , i think he said a guy in Texas has be running now along with some other with great luck. I would call him and pic his mind great guy.
06-10-2011 | 03:49 PM
#125
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Torco stuff
I spoke with a guy at Desert Storm and he said with Torco stuff they have to change every 10 hours . Then spoke to a guy who has a commercial boat uses the NEO 75W90 and runs 1000hspwr diesal eng and gets 120 hrs with not wear and prior to that was using the amsoil/lucas mix and only getting 40-50 hours seeing some wear. John at The Bravo Shop is going to do some service on a Crown line with Bravo 1 for me and I'm putting in the NEO 75W90MRHD for me.
06-23-2011 | 06:30 AM
#128
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Joined: Nov 2000
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From: Merritt Is. Fl. USA
if you want the drive gears to last longer ie,,, pitting and cracks to stop... we run Amsoil 75/90 severe gear with a blend of Lucas engine treatment,,,this will stop the premature failures of gears especialy XR gears... i ran one drive with Merc HP gear lube and the other with Amsoil/Lucas mix to test and see the results. both Bravos with new gears, fresh rebuilds,, at the end of the season 50hrs about,,, i took both drives apart.... the drive with the Merc gear oil needed new gears (pitting wear marks) the Amsoil/Lucas drive did not need new gears ,, no sign of wear..... most of the outdrive shops/vendors repackage this combination and resell it as their own "special" blend....... mix one quart of Lucas with 4 quarts of Amsoil 75/90 severe gear
Thanks,
Dean
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06-23-2011 | 06:37 AM
#129
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From: At the office.
06-23-2011 | 07:33 AM
#130
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Everyone has their opion when it comes to oil.
Especially when they are selling a brand.
No company has done more testing of gear oils than Mercury.
Been associated with them for over 45 some years, I can speak for that. Have never had a drive of any type fail because of oil. It's all on how you set your gears in relation to HP. After over 15 world championships of Drives that I have personally built, I can justify to that. It's the first thing people put the blame to when a drive fails.
Especially when they are selling a brand.
No company has done more testing of gear oils than Mercury.
Been associated with them for over 45 some years, I can speak for that. Have never had a drive of any type fail because of oil. It's all on how you set your gears in relation to HP. After over 15 world championships of Drives that I have personally built, I can justify to that. It's the first thing people put the blame to when a drive fails.
