Alpha one VS Alpha SS
 

ThInking seriously about buying an alpha ss, if I can find one, to replace my alpha one. What kind of gains or losses could or should I expect to see. My boat is a 20' concord with a mild SBC. On a good day I can get it running in the lw to mid sixtys. I'm getting ready to start tuning the carb a little to try and gain a few mph and I ave heard that the alpha SS drive is good for 5-8 mph bolt on. Any feed back would be appreciated.

alpha ss changes prop height. raises it by 2 inches, i think. measure where yours is and do some research...

I'm aware of the physical differences but I was more curious about people's experience with actual performance gains when using the SS drive

Performance gains all depend on prop shaft height. How many inches below the hull bottom to the center of your prop shaft with the std Alpha?

If the X-Dimention is agressive, you might not gain much, if anything by going to an Alpha SS. (If I remember correctly the SS is 2.75" shorter from input to propshaft)

I've got an '86 22 Pachanga, installed an Alpha SS and lost speed as the prop shaft was way too high with the SS, The X on my boat was cut very high from the factory.

My last boat was a '88 Baja Sunsport 196. We did a back to back comparison on the same day within a couple hours and saw a 5 MPH increase with the SS drive. The boat had a tame 383, running 74 with the SS.

i dont know what my X dimension is but im gonna say its on the low side, back in the 90's concord built two boats using the black hawk drives and had to raise things up to make it work right. my boat uses the same hull that these boats did but my drive is at the "standard" depth for use without the blackhawk so im hoping that the extra 2.75 inches will allow me some more mph. im thinking that prop shaft height is more important than the actual X dimension as far as this is concerened so i may go do some measuring here after a while and see where im actually at and follow up later to get some more opinions.

was also wondering if anybosy knew about parts availability for the SS. hate to buy one, break it and not be able to fix it

fixx
 

if you can find one you going to pay in excess of 2 k for one.. the parts in the upper is the same as the standard upper gen 1 alphas..the center shaft is nla so that part is out and the lower usaes the same parts as the cle (bridgeport 2.5l outboard) lower case..

I had a Glastron Carlson CVX - 18 with a lot of HP. The drive was mounted TOO low - the cavitation plate was 1/2 inch below the pad bottom when the drive was all the way down. I installed an SS and gained 10 MPH. the next winter I rebuilt the transom and raised the drive another 2 or 3 inches. This brought the prop shaft to 3 inches under the pad. I gained another 10 MPH. This boat had so much HP per weight that with the stock drive I could cat walk the boat with a light gas load and just me on board.
The engine was not even close to stock http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/a...eck/CVX-18.jpg

x dim is measurement from crank center to bottom of hull. that doesn't really matter. what does is prop center to bottom of hull. that is what i meant by do some measuring and do some research. the perf gains/losses are ALL based on where the prop ends up. from the sound of it, at the price for an extinct drive it may be better to change over to Bravo where shorty drives are common and spacers are avail to put the prop at the sweetest spot. do some searching here on x dim. also on screanandfly. they are an outboard oriented forum and with jack plates there is probably a lot of info on prop height. i looked on ebay. no alpha ss drives for sale. means very few anywhere...

A.O. Razor is real big on this subject. and he sounds like he knows what he is talking about. get some measurements and shoot him a PM...

I gained 6mph @ around 500-600rpms with the addition of Alpha SS on my Challenger. From 75GPS to 80.5,

21' Challenger
7.7' beam
2600lbs wet stock with all Merc cast iron, so my aluminum setup is alot lighter.
22* deadrise pad bottom non step
385ci SBC approx 475hp

Before propshaft depth 5" After 2.5" SS shorty = 3.5"

I did not like the shorty the first weekend of testing. Hell I could barely get on plane the first time I tried due to prop blowout with a 3 blade cleaver.

I was running a Merc Racing 23p 14 5/8" Hydromotive race labbed cleaver. I had insane prop slip at anything below 50mph. I'm talking at 3,000rpms I'm barely running 22-24mph... Could hardly plane off and turning was non existent without blowing out the prop. At WOT it ran damn hard though with a decent slip number of around 9%. I knew there was somehting to be had with the right prop so I worked with Todd @ Hydro.

He said there was just not enough blade in the water with the 3 blade cleaver design. We went with a 22p QIV 4 blade cut down to 14 3/4" heat treated and lab finished. Turned out to be the perfect prop for the drive height and this boat. Corrected all planing, turning issues and was 2.5mph faster up top.

When changing something as drastic as the propshaft depth, you must do alot of prop testing to dial in the setup. You are essentially back to square one and must start all over to see what the hull likes.

The whole shorty idea is less drag more speed. Works almost every time on any boat, just needs dialed in and that usually involves alot of time testing and money for either buying or borrowing props. Usually more work than the average individual will go through.

SS drives in good condition are rare and usally in excess of $1500. Most parts are interchangeable with an Alpha 1 as far as gears, bearings, seals. The vertical driveshaft as mentioned before is NLA by Merc and if broken you are done with this drive. Or, if you break gears and bust the case.

I don't have a direct speed comparison because I ran a stern jack with the ss which solved the x dimension issue on my boat.

86 Scarab I, 21 ft, 454 (330hp), alpha I (1.50)
As above with 21p mirage 62 mph
Added stern jack 23p mirage 66 mph
Alpha ss (1.32) and stern jack 21p mirage 71 mph

The stern jack adds 8" of setback and unlike an extension box increases the vertical range the drive moves when trimmed. Result is good planing and top end. Don't know if they still make a stern jack but paid about $1500 at the time.
After it is all said and done I gained about 9mph with no increase in hp which is pretty amazing. Down side is I spent about as much as it would have cost to switch to a bravo. Of course the bravo is a bigger heavier drive which would result in lost speed for the same hp.

Again, I still have the alpha ss drive in running condition and will sell it for exactly what I paid for it $3k.

Looking to buy a alpha ss

Start a thread in the Wanted Forum section instead posting in 5-10 year old threads

Alpha SS
 

Are you still on this site?I also have an 86 Pachanga with an SS...I would love to talk more!

longest of longshots... might you still have the ss?

looking for alpha one ss lower unit...
 

might you still have the ss drive?

I still have my SS Drive but it's on my boat..

nice, thanks for the response... knew it was a longshot, realizing how rare these units are.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...877d39e63.jpeg

just fully rebuilt new hd 1.32 gears, a lot of new and updated parts. Blueprinted case. Awlcraft paint. Less then 2hrs of test time on the hose and at the dock Pm me if interested.. 3k obo

picca00 ss drive
 

hello, I'm still interested in the ss drive. Jimmy 978-337-1663, thank you
not sure if the pm went through last week