That Poker Run boat made it all the way to Bimini from Miami before we had drive trouble. As I recall, the shifter yokes in the upper gearcases weren't wanting to kick back into neutral. That 750 h.p. was rough on 'em, and Robert's right. They were the Dick Simon Gold Tips. Yow!

Discussed this with the customer,heis aware of the potential problem but intend to baby the boat and see what happens.Sounds fair to me,there is always Merc warranty(this e-mail will sellf destruct in 30 seconds in case Mercruiser is listening)

Hell, Robert, just attach the message to the lower unit of one of those Bravos. Merc will never find it!

My buddy has about 20 hours on his upgrade project. Originally it was a 2002 382 with 575's, XR's with extension boxes. Boat is pretty well loaded with goodies no genset. He sold the 575,s purchased Teague 800,s put in Teague exhaust tips and had Teague upgrade the XR's to platinum. So far everything is holding together fine. The top speed 70 degree day, sea level, fresh water, low humidity 100 mph GPS

If he is not going to upgrade the drives I would leave them deep. Less stress on them that way and also they will stay a bit cooler. There are a lot of problems he is going to be dealing with that go WAY beyond just planeing out easy. What about the heat that is going to be generated in the drive from all that HP, and one take off and landing while on the sticks and SEE YA LATER BABY. Just some more food for thought.

Jon

Oh ya with that much hp and those drives I give it 20 hours till something breaks

You know, this thread brings up an interesting point. Merc is the largest marine manufacturer in the world,plenty of money,best engineers, best technology,etc. But their drives won't last in high HP applications. Don't they know that wealthy owners are buying lots of HP?And small companies like B-Max,IMCO,Teague are building the good stuff?What,s wrong with this picture,heck they won't even admit that drive showers are a good idea.It would make good maketing sense to build a great drive,charge a lot for it like they normally do and Bingo,more profit for them and customers are happy.You wonder if their marketing guys are boaters

Aren't they called number 6's

Bob - I have a hard time believing Mercury's lineup as well. (As you well know, I went with the Swedish stuff.) What was AMAZING to me was Fred Kiekhafer himself saying in a Powerboat Magazine that the Bravo was never intended for anything over 300 hp. Pardon me but - What the %&^$?? Mercury themselves attach the thing to 575's!

But, boy-oh-boy, isn't there a BIG hole in the lineup between the 575 and the 900 (soon to be 1050)?

The B-max looks like the best answer so far for a shiftable drive to handle big (~700) horspower. I was intrigued by the Konrad 540 at the Miami show until I found out that it has to have a transmission.

Since torque is the killer, I always thought that putting an overdrive between the engine and drive, and then spinning the he!! out of a shorter prop would be interesting....

Hot water - I think that your friends boat is the one Bob Teague was telling me about last fall. How is it at 100? Sounds like the fastest 382 I've ever heard of.

The project was begun in the fall of last year, the final touches on the paint will be done on Wednesday of this week. This has turned out to be one sweet machine.
Some of the custom work accomplished:

Gutted engine compartment and removed all non essential wiring.

Installed powdered coated aluminum side panels port and starboard for mounting new hardware (sea strainers etc.) all wiring is now routed behind panels.

Installed Teague 800's

Redesign new dash panel for all the new guages

Rerouted battery switches under back seat to custom panel on port side. under back seat is now awesome sound system.

Removed Vacuflush system and installed electrosand system. This is a much smaller unit and is no longer in the engine compartment. Also it does not require pumpout

100 mph has been the peak mph for this boat, this was recorded on two gps's. It handles extremely well at all speeds, at 100 there was no chine walk or any indication that it would and was incredibly solid in feel. I drove it on Sunday in some 3 to 4' chop at 75 to 80 for an extended time and lets just say my 2000 382 will go in for a upgrade in the fall of 2002