Yes the motors came up approx. 1 inch if I remember correctly. Our boat had Max Machine uppers with Imco lower 2" shorties on it before.They lasted a total of 20 hours with two failures.

How heavy is your boat and how much tq/hp do your motors make?,Smitty

Same here! That seems to be ther service life of a beefed up bravo in a boat like ours.

Panther,
Glad to hear your boat is holding up.

Smitty,
The boat is a 2005 Sonic 386sts which is approx 9000 lbs. with twin Innovation 800's. Aaron at Max Machine said they would last.I spoke to him about a year before the boat was built. I told him about the weight and horsepower of the boat.He said they would work and they would cover the drive agaisnt "normal" breakage not abuse.
We had the first failure at 17 hours-the clutch shaft splines ripped off. Max Machine did the repair.They said the shaft was incorrectly hardened. Then three hours later the same drive blew. The upper gearset, destroyed the case,the "u" joint, bearings and snapped the input shaft in my coupler.This happened at 3700rpm. My peak torque is at 4700rpm. Max Machine didn't want to cover anything! They were just in that drive. Aaron said you think a 9000 doller drive is going to hold up to that weight and horsepower.He said it was abuse!

I was curious,seems like these 5000 lb hotrod boats can get away with upgraded xr style drives,even upwards of 1000 hp but the heavier boats (although yours is lighter than I thought it was) just absolutely need something heavier duty pure and simple. I assemble and rebuild my own drives so I'm always real interested to hear what people are breaking and whats holding up. The bigger,heavier boats seem to break different parts too,I have heard of guys with 38 and 42 ft boats shearing off prop shafts with 525 mercs and xr's,where several people with boats similar to mine (5000lbs w/800-1000hp)can get some life out of them but have lower gears chip away like mine do. I had a set of lower gears re-heat treated deeper this spring and am experimenting with them,so far they are holding up real well. If my blower pulleys weren't almost touching the rear seat and my motor almost touching the top of the hatch on my boat I would have probably installed a konrad years ago,Smitty

Is a B-Max a direct bolt on replacement for a Bravo1?
How about with Imco hydraulic steering?

Yes, it's a direct bolt-up.

Check with Dean on your steering.

Imco Steering works just fine. I have it on my Bmax. You may want new rubber spacers. IMCO has them for a few bucks.

Artic,
Have you ever considered a drive temp guage? Gaffrig makes one that I am going to install. I think with the limited capacity, that heat could be a contributing factor. Drew Marine makes a drive oil circulation cooler. http://www.drewmarine.com/products/c...coolswirl.html Any thoughts on if this would help with the added capacity, circulation? I applaud the testing on the hardened gear sets. I hope that you find some positive results with hardening techniques.

Ty