Originally Posted by Smitty (Post 3412327)

articfriends-

I find it amazing that you don't break uppers, only lowers. For me it is the opposite. I break teeth clean off of the port drive upper gears. And I ease it up on plane and never air it out. I just have a lot of torque !!

Originally Posted by articfriends (Post 3412565)

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

Originally Posted by Fountain4402 (Post 3412601)

good points and I like the experimantation of making things going faster its like cars. But at the same time get sick of hearing it because people push things way past what they should and scratch their heads at why their stuff breaks

Originally Posted by 47EXCALIBUR (Post 3370978)

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

Originally Posted by Dean Ferry (Post 3436528)

What is the name of the Lucas Engine oil treatment?
Thanks,
Dean

Originally Posted by John the Drive Man (Post 3436560)

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.

Originally Posted by Strip Poker 388 (Post 3436919)

no mater what if you over load a drive gear above what it was designed to do it will loose its boundary lubrication.Pushing the oil to mechanical shear, thinning oil to the point of causing metal to metal=brineling.

Thats why the make larger gears.

Yea im sure some gear lubes have more ep molecules than others.


also look a STP oil treatment,the money they made selling a treatment,advertising/promoting a product thats better than all the rest,theres a new oil company selling something new every month.:D

Originally Posted by racer-x6 (Post 3436977)

slick 50

:party-smiley-004:

Originally Posted by John the Drive Man (Post 3436700)

It all depends on what Brand of oil you are selling, in what is the best. It's all an opinion, period.
Never have I had a drive fail because of oil, if I'm using the right product. Mercury has more test time on oil when it comes to out drives and outboard lowers than anyone in the industry. In all my 45 years with the Mercury Outdrives, have I had a drive failure because of oil. And I have 15 World Titles under my belt. It's not about just oil, it's how the gears and bearings are set according to the HP. Gear setting is the most important. No matter what. But everyone out there tends to always blame the oil first. I guess that's the easy way out.

Originally Posted by cprperformance (Post 3443985)

Well, put in the 75/140 severe gear 8 qts. to 1 qt. lucas and so far very happy with the results. Shifts much softer and smoother in and out of gear. Won't know about gear life until tear down, but I think that this is going to be a very benificial formula.

Originally Posted by cprperformance (Post 3443532)

I have read this whole thread and am kind of supprised that nobody has tried amsoil severe gear 75/140. I am just in the process of changing my drive oil and just kind of thought that if the 75/90 severe gear works good than the 75/140 should work even better as far as stopping metal to metal contact. The pourabilty seems to be about the same, not much thicker.
Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by Strip Poker 388 (Post 3436919)

no mater what if you over load a drive gear above what it was designed to do it will loose its boundary lubrication.Pushing the oil to mechanical shear, thinning oil to the point of causing metal to metal=brineling.

Thats why the make larger gears.

Yea im sure some gear lubes have more ep molecules than others.


also look a STP oil treatment,the money they made selling a treatment,advertising/promoting a product thats better than all the rest,theres a new oil company selling something new every month.:D

Originally Posted by HotPursuit (Post 3444213)

Cant keep comparing #6 dry sumps to bravos..
The drysumps have oil pumps that spray the gears!!
This is the reason you can run a lighter weight oil !!
All other drives run a wet sump with the gears spinning in the oil like a prop!!
The reason you need the heaver viscosity!!
I have run over 1000 HP on #4 drives!! The only oil on the market that would keep the drives alive is amsoil!!!
This was not a guess we blew up drives under 25 hrs and fried gears with just about every oil out there.
Mercury mineral oil was the worst!! AS far as I know Mercusier builds drives and does not have a oil refinery.
Royal Purple is a joke!! Very short term protection and does not like water!!
Swepco and torco were pretty good!!
RedLine was close but a shorter life than others..
You dont need to add anything to Amsoil!! The reason most oil works better with The Lucas additives is it holds more oil on the gears longer.. If you run a higher viscosity than you really need your just robbing horse power!!!
The best upgrade you can do to a high HP on a bravo drive is to install the pump and external cooler system which increases the capacity while keeping the oil from boiling!!!
Just My 2 on 30 yrs of breaking anything that cant be broken!!

Originally Posted by kreed (Post 3452635)

Ready to change gear lube in drives, any updates on this stuff?

Originally Posted by kreed (Post 3452635)

Ready to change gear lube in drives, any updates on this stuff?

Originally Posted by kreed (Post 3452635)

Ready to change gear lube in drives, any updates on this stuff?

Originally Posted by JaayTeee (Post 3452739)

mine are still kickin'

Originally Posted by SS930 (Post 3452685)

You better get Nellie started on a 2nd job! :lolhit:

Originally Posted by onesickpantera (Post 3453890)

I run Wal-mart brand 5w-30 motor oil. The thinner oil gives me an additional 500 rpm and 5-6 mph! I just change it more often.

Originally Posted by JasonSmith (Post 3453898)

Awesome choice! :lolhit:
Do you run split-fire spark plugs & Accell wires too? :grinser010:

Originally Posted by John the Drive Man (Post 3436700)

It all depends on what Brand of oil you are selling, in what is the best. It's all an opinion, period.
Never have I had a drive fail because of oil, if I'm using the right product. Mercury has more test time on oil when it comes to out drives and outboard lowers than anyone in the industry. In all my 45 years with the Mercury Outdrives, have I had a drive failure because of oil. And I have 15 World Titles under my belt. It's not about just oil, it's how the gears and bearings are set according to the HP. Gear setting is the most important. No matter what. But everyone out there tends to always blame the oil first. I guess that's the easy way out.

Originally Posted by 07DominatorSS (Post 3453995)

Update on AMSOIL MCF, Motorcycle 10w-40, in 2011 Bravo X drives with new Merc 502's in front of them. So far, about 25 hours, pulled one top cap, and gears are perfect!!! In that duration, one poker run, and some decently longer runs around the lake. Boat will run 91.7 GPS, so....

Originally Posted by cprperformance (Post 3443985)

Well, put in the 75/140 severe gear 8 qts. to 1 qt. lucas and so far very happy with the results. Shifts much softer and smoother in and out of gear. Won't know about gear life until tear down, but I think that this is going to be a very benificial formula.