has anyone heard of an scx upper failure yet?
 

wondering how they are holding up to big power

I recently sold my old scx drives and apparently 1 of the uppers had a problem with the shifting shortly after the new buyer received them, the problem was to do with parts of the shifting being broken so the buyer sent that upper back to imco and they fixed it for 1900 dollars, I had no problems with them the entire time i was using them so i ended up working something out with the buyer so it didn't cost him much. The problem wasn't with the gears tho, I believe that the upper gears are extremely strong.

Also I spoke with Dave at imco several times on this subject and he said that he has many customers running as much power as i do thru the scx uppers with no failures. I sure hope the scx 4 lowers end up being as reliable as the scx uppers have been for everybody!

how much power were you putting to them? im having a toss up between the scx and new bmax uppers. thx

1300hp per drive. Do yourself a favour and go with the scx. Imco recommends not to have idle speed any higher then 800rpm, my idle may have been slightly higher and caused the shifting problem. I have not heard of anybody having gear failure with the scx uppers, they are an extremely strong drive and now with the addition of the scx4 surface drive it can be used in many different applications.

Jsut curious, but what kind of speed are you seeing on your 28 with that kind of power, 170+?

btw, 1300hp what lower were you using?
you sold them. what are you replacing them with?
thx

i was using the scx upper with a -2sc lower, and my new drives I'm replacing them with are the new scx-4 drives, the main problem i had with the sc lowers was i kept breaking propshafts.

Just received my scx-4s today man those lowers are BIG , had the scx uppers before with sportmaster lowers and these are quite a bit bigger , looks like a sc lowers on steroids .

I'm sure the boat would be able to see those speeds but me having the balls to try going that fast is a different story, i had it a little over 160mph a couple years back and there was more left but i backed off, the thought of a drive breaking at that speed scares the poop out of me lol, so i usually just cruise in the 110-140mph range, I love the acceleration of my boat more then anything. I have not lost a race yet :-)

Mine did great through the first year. SCX/SCX with 6 props 1.35 with 40 pitch 16.5" diameter. Gobs of HP.

one engine failing at those speeds would be very bad. i think thats what killed the owner of htm when they were testing there new 30ft boat. from my understandering reading stuff there boat yawed when the engine froze up and rolled the boat. dont quote me one that. thanks for the info. i just bought a 2001 htm ss24 and going to replace the stock 650hp engine with a twin turbo 572 thats why i been asking the questions about the drives, 98 on gps just isnt cutting it.

Your absolutely on track to be concerned by this. Mechanical failures to a great extent are within our control.

Skidoc,
How many hrs that summer?

I probably only put 15-20 hrs. but so far so good. I need to get out more....... What's the latest on yours Dick?

I put about 7hrs on it last Oct in a weekend heat wave.. Shifts smooth and with a small prop it had no problem going as fast as I used to go, when I got to the point where I had to work to get more speed. I had a belt problem so I was just taking it easy.. but at 75% throttle it got to 78mph before I could play with the trim.. Then the belt would fly off. It would pull so hard, I didnt have much time to get to the tabs and trim much. That is where it used to stop pulling at wot and I had to work trim to get more out of it.. Just got my Hering prop.. looking very sweet!
My friend had about 500hrs on his when the gears pitted.. but he was not running the right lube and runs it very hard.. He has since bumped up the motors for more power so it will be a true test of the SCX.. although he does not have as much power as you are running..
I am looking forward to summer, have to retune the fuel map.. I ended up with 4 bad injectors, so I am confident there is more power in my combination.. :) This is a whole new world to me!! :) :)

500 hrs is impressive

Sounds like it's going to be a fun summer. I'm glad you can enjoy it now. Post some pictures when you get a chance. Id like to see your engine and drive.

Mine have worked flawless for 2 hours:lolhit:

:lolhit:

"Mine have worked flawless for 2 hours "
Still breaking them in, Rob?? :)

Here is a shot of my drive.. still working on install.. Needs some clean up work on the mufflers!! Oh yeah, and my B-day present on the propshaft!! :)

Now there's an idea. Stern drive off the back of the engine and V drive off the front. Does that help get on plane? Why didn't I think of that?

Once they're broken in I'll run 100+ for 45minute stints. Right now I'm taking it easy.
I told my engine builder I leave the sticks at 5350RPM for extended periods and he said, "you do what?"
Isn't that why the sticks go there and stay without holding them? Cruise control right. I have a bungy chord that holds the wheel when I get another cold beverage.

You must be speaking of that piece of pipe screwed into the drain??? I guess the V drive could go under the back seat?? But yeah, that could work.. LOL!!

now thats funny i dont care who you are

Looks good Dick. When are you going to get to try the prop out? It's been crazy good weather here.

Dick!

Looks amazing! Really excited to hear the good results!

Also glad to hear of no major SCX failures

Kinda waiting on the gas to switch to summer blend. Have to retune, so I perfer to use what will be available for the summer. I do have few things to finish up before I can run it again. Steam holes in the manifold is one item. Add the J&S box to the Megasquirt.. to name a few. So it will be alittle bit yet.
And I have work that needs to be finished before I play!!

only problem w that is if a steering hose blows.. I often wondered what it would be like to hit the bathroom at over 100 though :lolhit:

I've been reading up on the Megasquirt, and I have to ask what version are you running and how do you like it?

I quartered a tug boat wake at 95+ once.
I went to the bathroom!

both SCX's need upper gears at 59 Hrs. One drive blown front seel, other leaks through casting flaws in lower case. One drive shifts great other i need a pry bar. Just got them back a couple weeks ago. I used torco RTF. I'm not impressed with them. $3,500 in repairs

ThisIsLivin.. pm sent.

Advantage,
Have you run them since the repairs?? What did they find with the shifting problem? And any explanation for upper gear life??

Dick

Wow, can you elaborate on what you think happened here. Looking to buy a set very soon, this is a bit worrisome.

Probably 1000SCI

True :lolhit:

Honestly sorry to hear about your SCX problems. Another example of Imco's poor customer service. Anything can break though, lets hope they took care of it this time.

Good luck

Not sure you can call that poor customer service. It seems they did fix them and there is always two sides to a story. Why were they woren out is the question. Without taking them apart and looking at what is there, you can't speculate on why they needed the repair. The SC motor does make tons of power down low, that may have been a factor. I dont know. And you are correct, you can break just about anything that is out there.. Hopefully the drives will last longer this time around.
I spoke with Imco today and there have only been two sets of drives with gears that pitted. One set with 500hrs and one with 59hrs. Seems strange..

Hope he has better luck this time out..

not yet Dick. Here's the full long story. First drive I bought for my single engine 28' in April 2010. First installed had a monumental time trying to shift drive in and out gear. Immediately called IMCO. They sent crate so I could send drive back to them. They told me nothing was wrong but use Torcal RTF oil. Installed drive ran the summer total 27Hrs. Boat was a bastard to shift and dock. Sold boat, bought a 34' twin engine, so I bought a matching drive. The new drive shifted like a dream. Old one still was a bear. Called IMCO, possible bad cables. I swapped drives around (port to start etc). New drive shifted great on other side. Old drive still a bear. Ran boat last summer total 32 Hrs. So old drive has 59 Hrs new one 32. Old drive had reoccurring oil consumption. When parked in the garage, a puddle of oil was under the drive. Pulled boat outside and found casting leak in the lower unit. Two pin holes were leaking oil middle of the bullet area. JB weld fixed the leak. Called IMCO, they stated send the drive back to fix the leak. Pulled the drive to ship. Pulled the newer drive to add boxes. Found bellow full of oil. Blown front seal. Sent both drives back. Received a call, upper gears on both drives bad (pitted). IMCO stated drives look like 400 Hrs. No 59 Hrs. I didn't run the boat hard at all. I had a major chine walk issue so I never ran the boat above 4200 RPM. And I bring it to plane slowly. Not sure what caused it. Possible 32 5-blade props? Doubt it.

Can't complain about the service at all. They said they send a crate they did. Dave and Fred Jr. responded, re-built and shipped them back very quickly. Just cost me $3,500. Service was great.

The way I see it, if you are the ONLY drive that has ever needed those repairs with such low hours, then its a manufacture defect. Should have cost you ZERO dollars.

Glad to hear that you feel the customer service was good. Imagine how much money IMCO might lose over this thread alone? They easily could profit more then the $3500 if your situation was handled as a Wrnty. You prob would not have even spoke anything bad, only good.

Anyways, I have personally seen that boat run SUPER hard with over 400hrs on a pair. I do believe the SCX is a good drive. Again, sorry to hear about your bad luck.