Best Drive Oil
 

I currently run royal purple in my engine, and i know it some real good oil. Of course they claim they have the best load carrying of any oil out there. And its time to service my outdrive. It's a Bravo One. What ya'll experience using the royal purple or other synthetics in the drives as compared to the mercury racing.

Give John a call about his gear oil.
http://www.bravoshop.net/index.php?m...ndex&cPath=182

He has info regarding the difference between theirs & Mercs
http://www.bravoshop.net/forums/blog.php

i like the amsoil marine grade gear oil,i use it in my cat with a pair of 950s, and xr drives. i change it every 15 hrs,some will disagree,but it is working for me.

fixx
 

i got some top secret stuff that will make a bravo one with stand 1200 hp for 50 hrs straight!!! sorry its top secret so i cant share it with you..:lolhit:

I have been using RP since the mid 90's. I still like it. I tore down my drive after 300hrs and could reuse the bearings and will be reusing the upper XR gears. They are 02 vintage, I believe that is the reason for their long life.

I've been using amsoil for years great stuff imo.

I saw the used Neo gear lube that came out of John's Bmax's on his 46 Black Thunder with trip 850's. I think he said he had 65hrs on it and the lube looked like new.

FIXX,i need some of that chit:lolhit:

I'll bet that chit is made from snake oil , could ya hook a brother up ???....:lolhit::lolhit:...:evilb::evilb:

Mike, put me down for a 5 gallon pail of that chit. I'll come by this week sometime to pick it up and give you that Gaffrig Tach.

50&snakeoil 50&bullchit :lolhit:

And just a scoach of trannydust n headlight fluid.....:lolhit:

I use the Merc Hi Performance drive oil although i believe Amsoil and Royal purple are good products .

+1 on the bravo shop oil.

+2 on the Bravo Shop Oil

Chris

Amsoil is recommending their motorcycle oil for drives. I am trying it in my NXT's

im curious about the bravo shop oil....any real world results?

Be careful what you're saying. AMSOIL is NOT recommending their MCF for the outdrives, however, it has been used in some drives in racing applications, and has worked quite well! My buddy has been using it in his 2011 bravo X's, about 45 hours now, and so far so good.

I did alot of Bravo gear life testing with heat treating, cryo treatment and different things. I used Royal Purple for majority of my testing, when I switched to Amsoil synthetic gear oil the life of the gears I was testing DOUBLED. Royal purple is about the worst garbage gear oil I have ever used (in a extreme application) Now I'm sure with mediocre power any oil will work fine. I am currently running the Bravo shop Neo oil, haven't made a judgement yet as to weather it is better than amsoil, Smitty

have to agree with you on royal purple...doesn't do the job in extreme situations (drag racing,mostly)

What about torco anybody ever use that?

No......Sorry....I talked to the tech center at AMSOIL..they are recommending motorcycle in hi perf merc drives

so who makes the Bravo shop lube? im sure they don't! looks like they just put their own label on it and put it out there.

I can answer that for you, Neo Synthetic oil makes it for us. It was a joint effort to come up with a product that would take the abuse that is required to stand up to the over horse powered drives today.

I give it a BIG thumbs up..... No problems to date. I'm running Bravo Shop oil in my drives and P40 Neo in my engines.

Spectro Platinum Synthetic Differential Gear Oil 75w90 GL-5.



Ken

I believe Torco is the recommended product for #6's.

Torco MTL I think.

Ken

I got 140 hours out of a Bravo running Redline Severe Gear 75-250 before I chunked a tooth. There was also small pitting starting.
Rebuilt drives and switched to Amsoil Marine Gear oil(75-90?) after 50 hours and chunked a gear at 100 hours. No pitting but less hours.
I doubt any oil will keep the upper gears from chunking out. What I did notice was that the Redline shifted smoother, and with the Amsoil, fresh tune up and ethanol free fuel I still did 102.5 at 1000' above sea level. Before the tune and fuel, with Redline at 1500' I'd do 100MPH.
Sea level has always been 102.5
FWIW

Has anyone tried Allison 85-140?

is it the amsoil 80w90 gear oil?

AMSOIL Synthetic Marine Gear Lube SAE 75W/80W-90 is what I just put in a rebuilt Bmax HT for break-in. Going with NEO from the Bravo shop after a few hours. A buddy had a 5 gal bucket of the Amsoil and gave me a free gallon of it for the first fill.
Ordered the NEO from John at the Bravo Shop and it was shipped out the same day. Can't beat that for fast service. Drive shifts very smooth with the Amsoil, will water test this coming weekend.

If you have a rebuild drive with new gears any drive, you should not use a full syn oil to break it in. As this is not going to let the gears and bearings burnish together the way they need to, you should use the Merc gear lube for break in for the first 5-8 hrs of the drives life and than switch over.

Waconda,

I have done that with all my other drives but have researched many articles on the subject. All the new car manufactures add the synthetic oil right out of the box but also have a better manufacturing process and surface finishes on the gears then Mercury does (forged XR’s and lower gears). I have also seen a report that compared merc hp oil against some other drive oils including synthetics. The merc oil in many cases did as good if not better than some synthetics.
As you know the most critical part of breaking in new gears is to get a good pattern and yes burnishing them in. In the tests that I have seen and have had done myself, the merc oil has about the same slip as a synthetic but all of the oils are pretty close (independent lab).
One big advantage of a synthetic is the ability to take and dissipate heat without thermal runaway. The biggest problem with the break-in of new gears is the friction of the new gears due to the rougher surface that produces heat and puts it into the surface of the material and could cause scuffing and or so much heat it could affect the case hardness of the gear itself that would greatly reduce the life of the gear.
Typically, good cheap oil for break-in is fine as you are only going to run it for only a few hours and take it easy. But with a single engine 6,000 pound boat just to get on plane puts a lot of stress/friction on the gears causing the heat and scuffing so every precaution to avoid this I think would be in our best interest.
I’m not an expert on anything, just try to investigate all the opportunities to improve the things that we all struggle with and share that information.
I got the Amsoil marine lube for free for helping a buddy on his boat and that is why I put it in rather than spending close to $20 per quart to the merc hp stuff. Next in will be the NEO I purchased from you last week.
I think this could be a good discussion so I would like to hear any other opinions from Mr. Gagets, Artic…

It is interesting to see what results others have had trying to break in gears. I did not see good results going with synthetic oil right out of the gate, it actually made the gears pit out on a couple teeth with in 10 hrs. There are high spots on the gears and they need to wear off before pressure causes damage to the gear and the Bravo Shop oil did not let the gears burnish. We have had the best luck with Merc lube for break in and then switch. I also think it has a lot to do with the type of break in you do also, I'm sure everyone has their method they use.