Keeping a bravo drive cool or cooler
 

If you are running through hull pickups and have stopped the water coming in through the drives what is the best way to keep them cool. I have a drive shower and have not plugged off the water pickup holes on the drives. Do I need to create a path for the water to be able to circulate through the drive? Drilling and tapping and adding that line to the drive shower. I did the through hull fitting because I like the way it picks up vs coming through the drive.

I can only say. Why?

On our Parasail boats , we remove a section of the hose and secure it in order to maintain full water flow through the drive. This is in addition to a 1500gph dedicated drive sh
ower ( commercial baitwell pump w/ 1.25" discharge). This has added to the life of our drives x5 , plus keeps us from burning the paint off the upper .Good luck!!! We have to use a dedicated pump because sometimes we are getting pulled backwards even though we are in forward gear.

one of the supercat lights I built used thru hull pickups so we took the drive hose and ran it up to a thru hull above the drive with a hose to the top of the cooler plate and just let the drive water run thru the drive and dump on top of the drive. we also tee'd off it with a valve to fill the ballast tank with the drive water.

I remember seeing a race boat that had a thru-hull pickup mounted on the tabs to fill ballast tanks....thought it would be a wicked drive shower to just divert it over and on top to the outdrive :)

Leaning towards this option and routing the drive hose to top and let it do two things for me. I don't see it doing any good closed off completely.

Did this about 6 months ago to a Checkmate with a Bravo XR. Installed an adjustable transom mount water pick up - then in the engine compartment - unhooked the inlet water hose - cut it to fit - mounted on a outlet thru transom fitting so all of that water can dump on top of the drive.

IMO this is the best drive shower to fab and even cheap to do.

My AT and Pantera both had/have through hull pick ups for engine cooling water.
Both boats dump the water going through the drive out a water dump.
On my Pantera, I also tapped the upper drive water jacket to feed the drive shower as well.
Even with feeding the drive shower, quite a bit of water still came out the side water dump at speed.

+1 We use all the water from the drive and dump it back on the drive top cap thru a 3/4" hose.

[QUOTE=Griff;4410118]My AT and Pantera both had/have through hull pick ups for engine cooling water.
Both boats dump the water going through the drive out a water dump.
On my Pantera, I also tapped the upper drive water jacket to feed the drive shower as well.
Even with feeding the drive shower, quite a bit of water still came out the side water dump at speed.[/Q

I am not opposed to drilling and tapping. Where is the issue. I might go to my mechanics shop and do some locking at the upper drive to see for myself and take some measurements before drilling. I know he has wasted drives in a pile. How large of pipe threads? 1/4, 3/8"?