Offshoreonly.com - Drive recommendation

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Panther (Post 4507046)

Had a customer two years ago with 700 hp in a 27' Fever. It had an SC drive on it. SC didn't hold up. Blew the upper and wasted the transom assembly at the same time.

I re-rigged him for a BMax 1.50 ratio. Boat didn't loose any speed and it's been two years since I did the job and no failures.

At the 700 hp level, you'll need to refresh the lowers every 3 seasons or so, depending how you drive it. Just change the oil every 10-15 hours and monitor the fluid. If you ever see a metal flake in the oil, keep a closer eye on it. If at the next 10-15 hour sevice there's more metal flake then the first time, it's time to tear the lower down and put a new gearset in.

I run 965HP on BMax HT's. My uppers were freshened after 300 hours with new pinion gears. The lowers I replace every other season. You gotta pay to play.... but I don't have any failures (knock on wood).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]562455[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]562456[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]562457[/ATTACH]

how many hours did the imco sc drive have on it behind that 700hp motor?
i have a 540 being built right now for a 27 ft boat with a fresh imco sc upper from imco all new gears ect. ect.
the -2imco lower i have with it, is said to be good to go but with unknown amount of hours...
will no hear in a few more weeks what the 540 goes on the dyno....

im actually second guessing my purchase of the imco sc....

About 40hrs. I also had Imco SC's on my Apache years ago and would get about 20 hrs before one popped. That's why I went with BMax's and that was in 2007.

My brother replaced the SC with the SCX on his 26 DCB, he lost 20 mph and the boat handles like crap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panther (Post 4509479)

About 40hrs. I also had Imco SC's on my Apache years ago and would get about 20 hrs before one popped. That's why I went with BMax's and that was in 2007.

in 2007 that was the BMax out of Florida - correct ? So what changed currently for the BMax ? and the current offerings compared to the Florida based BMax ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GPM (Post 4515337)

My brother replaced the SC with the SCX on his 26 DCB, he lost 20 mph and the boat handles like crap.

Probably too deep and wrong prop - and really he lost 20 mph ? if so that is a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUP (Post 4515357)

in 2007 that was the BMax out of Florida - correct ? So what changed currently for the BMax ? and the current offerings compared to the Florida based BMax ?

A good summary here.
http://midwestboatparty.com/forum/sh...ght=bravo+shop

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUP (Post 4515358)

Probably too deep and wrong prop - and really he lost 20 mph ? if so that is a lot.

-2 less than SC, same prop, -20 mph GPS verified.

There is always All American Drive Service, they will upgrade your Bravo and warranty it for 2 years and for half the price of an SCX or BMAX. Don't know of anyone else that does that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThisIsLivin (Post 4515463)

There is always All American Drive Service, they will upgrade your Bravo and warranty it for 2 years and for half the price of an SCX or BMAX. Don't know of anyone else that does that.

here is their "warranty" :(

Quote:

** Two year Warranty is applicable on all stock horsepower applications and on selected custom build units up to 650 horsepower.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GPM (Post 4515337)

My brother replaced the SC with the SCX on his 26 DCB, he lost 20 mph and the boat handles like crap.

I worked on a 28' Pantera this summer who had an SCX conversion done before I started working on it. The boat lost 11 mph.

The only was I was able to recover the lost speed was two part;
1. Swap out the SCX lower for a standard bravo lower and got back 8mph. I actually built and tested an SC lower and was still 5-6mph short. The standard Bravo lower was the only thing that worked on that boat.

2. Refreshed the engine and put a larger camshaft in it. That was good for getting him all his speed back plus an additional 2-3 mph.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUP (Post 4515357)

in 2007 that was the BMax out of Florida - correct ? So what changed currently for the BMax ? and the current offerings compared to the Florida based BMax ?

Yes, that was the old Bravo shop.

There have been a lot of updates done by the new Bravo Shop which includes upgraded bearings, shiming proceedures, clutch stack height modifications etc. They also came out with a 1.50 ratio upper gearset which is probably the single biggest difference because the BMax drives I have only came with a 1.30 ratio back then. That change alone helped a lot with people no longer losing speed when making the change. The Fountain I did the conversion on had a 1.50 and he told me that he only lost 1 mph with the change. My Apache, even with the 1.30 only lost 1-2mph but gained 2-3 mph in cruise speed over the IMCO SC's.