Bravo Outdrive Oil Cooler
 

I know Drive shower efficiency has been discussed over and over. But, you never read much about direct outdrive oil coolers. So, I thought I would post my finding after installing one of Mr. Gadgets systems. His systems pull oil out of the lower, run it through a cooler, a filter and then back into the upper.

For the last few years I have ran a regular top cap shower on my swept back XR drive and never felt it worked very well. For short runs on my small local lake it was never an issue since the drive never had a chance to heat up, but when running at larger lakes with 20 minutes at cruise speeds or longer WOT runs my drive would get hot and always had the white chalky evidence left behind. I didn’t have a drive oil temp sender so I am not sure how hot it got. I know of other Rages with similar power seeing temps as high as 270 after extended WOT runs.

With the oil now routed inside the boat I installed a drive oil temp sender before the cooler. I just spent a week at Lake Powell, water temp was 75 deg, with the oil cooler running my cruise temp was 140-150 and after a long WOT run it never went over 180. The cooler works great! I am hoping that with cooler, filtered oil my XR gears will last a long time.
Is anyone else running a system like this?

I know a couple of guys running coolers like that. I would recommend running a good oil too. John at the Bravo Shop has a specially blended oil he & I sell that really seems to be the key to making a Bravo last.

What power are you running?

Jason, Have the guys you know of seen similar results with drive temps? What brand / weight drive oil do you carry? Sounds interesting!

Around 675hp.

I can't recall what temps anyone ever reported, but I have drive temp sensors in my boat & the Bravo Shop oil. I'll tell you after this weekend what temps I run with that oil.
The oil is a 75/90 oil, specially blended by a oil company, NEO out of California. The oil used is their base 75/90 RHD with a custom add pack John specked out. I sent you a PM too.

75/90 sounds like a great viscosity and I would be really interested is what temps you see at cruise and WOT.

Thanks Jason.

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Do you have a link for Mr Gadget coolers or did I misunderstand?

This thread is over 5 years old. Lol. Hopefully someone will know and chime in.

Don't know about Mr G's kits, but probably similar to Drew Marine's

http://drewmarine.com/products/coolswirl/coolswirl.html

Is it possible that the oil would then be staying too cool? I'd like to know more about these coolers.