Bravo One oil.
 

Do you have to use the mercruiser drive oil that you get from a dealer? When I winterized my boat I didn't have time to run to the marina so I stopped at an auto parts store and got a high Quality gear oil the same weight as the mercruiser stuff. Do I really need to change it before use or will I be O.K.
I personally don't think there is a difference. Any thoughts. By the way its a bravo one.

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

as long as it is a 75-90 hypoid type oil you should be fine. the merc hpf really is the best though

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

you can not mix hp gear oil with an organic oil, I would not recomend running anything other then merc hp drive oil esp in a bravo !!!!!!! :eek:

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

If you are under warranty you have to use Merc products. Merc HP lube does have additives to help break down any H20 that gets in there.

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

It also has additives for heat dissapation,friction,ect (bravo uses friction to shift)

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

Many folks have had good luck with other synthetic gear lubes in Bravo drives such as Mobil 1, Royal Purple, etc. I use Amsoil's Marine Gear Lube and have had many, many trouble free hours with it in my Bravo drives. if what you got at the auto parts store was a quality 75W-90 synthetic, I wouldn't bother changing it out. Teague supplies his Platinum Bravo drives with Amsoil gear lube.

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

there is a thread from a few months ago on this topic,

you have to be careful as you do not want to use a 0 friction sysnthetic in a bravo drive ( this is highly debated) but the fact of the matter is bravo uses friction to shift...

red line and royal purple are zero friction dont know about the others

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

Not to say Merc will consider policy work if you're out of warranty, but if you are using what they tell you there is some liability on their part.

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

My real world experience with Amsoil shows it works just fine. I haven't toasted a cone clutch. Maybe in a high HP application you could slip the clutch using a pure synthetic, but I don't have that problem with my measly 375 HP!

Re: Bravo One oil.
 

I use Amsoil Syn 80W-90 per Teague and have no problems. Runs great.I use Mobil 1 20W-50 VTwin in the 502 Magnum with good luck as well.