Speedmaster Two Drives
 

Anyone know anything about the speedmaster two drives? How do they hold up? What kind of horsepower can they reliably take?

Thanks- Bryan

Parts for the Speedy II are pretty much non existant..

Does you new boat have TRS drives?

I have seen them take 550 reliably. They take a higher X dimension than the TRS. They were scarce 10 years ago.

ouch...

I just bought a 1984 Fountain 10 meter. It has no. 2's that were rebuilt by speedmasters in Fla. about a year ago. I have no reason to get rid of them, I'm just looking ahead.

If they are fresh you should be ok as long as you don't put too much power through them and don't hit anything.

Last year I found a fantastic deal on a pair of Speedy II's (my TG has TRS drives) but I passed because you could not even get a propshaft or gear set for them.

What are you going to run for power? Did the boat come without motors or were they just in need of replacement.

I had a 10M ICBM several years ago and repowered it with a pair of 454HO crate motors from 1800RUNSNEW. They worked out great, and the boat ran 72 on the Nordscog speedo.

Your Speedy II's would hold up real well with similar power.

Post some pics, Love the project boats!

Kurt

You can have gears made up for just about any drive---it's just that it will cost you some $$$. Chris Merrill of Merrill Marine in Southbend, IN had to have some made up for his #4SSM's.

Merrill Marine 574-272-1697

Thanks guys.

How do I post a photo?

Ok I have a question about the speedmaster IIs. What makes them better than a TRS drive? I know that it uses the TRS upper, but what is the difference between the TRS lower and the Speedmaster II lower ( other than the shape and prop)

T.R.S. vs Speedmaster ll...
 

Believe it or not...The TRS lower unit can take more horsepower than the Speedmaster lower unit. The upper halfs of the TRS/Speedmaster ll are the same. The hydrodynamics limit of the TRS is in the high seventies, at best, before blowout(excessive air entering the slipstream). Of course, you won't notice this on a twin application and therefore you can continue on past that speed range, no problem...you simply will need an excess amount of horsepower & prop-pitch(to compensate for the cavitation)to achieve this. Nose-cones can help, but then you are supplying a larger volume of water to the exsisting propeller size, which calls for a lower pitch propeller(s) to compensate. What you are approaching is the Speedmaster effect & efficiency(and therefore a higher volume of water flow), which is the reason a Speedmaster spins a much lower pitch size than a non-Speedmaster gearcase shape. The Speedy ll is superior, hydrodynamically, but is weaker & is never taken full advantage of properly, X-dimension-wise, as most people simply bolt them up to their exsisting TRS drive with it's low X. A Speedmaster & Speedmaster propeller that is completely submerged is very inefficient. All Speedmasters are designed for much higher X-dimensions(surfacing) which is the reason that Speedmaster propellers are also a much larger diameter as well. The only "Touch With Realty" in a properly set up Speedmaster boat is its skegs & its large diameter propeller blades that are in the water. This is the reason all Speedmaster skegs are so large & should never be cut down or cut off. This goes for outboard installations as well. If you want a gauranteed 10 m.p.h. speed/efficiency(minimum) increase...swap everything out for Bravos. Then, if you want more speed, install the newest Bravo One XR's(that have the low-water pick-ups like Speedmasters) at a higher X-dimension(a minimum of 18 1/2"), combined with the Bravo One four-blade propellers, & go another 4-6 m.p.h faster...I could go on & on...Hope this helps. Ed

Ok, I have to admit that i am still new to being able to understand how the X dimension works and how it affect speed and handeling. Is there a book that I can get that explaines some of these things. The other thing I wanted to know was what makes the TRS lower stronger than the speedmaster II lower, is it because to speedmaster lower has less material around the gears to give it a smaller profile. I am curious about all this because I don't want to have problems with the drives next year. I just got this thing ('80 38 scarab special edition which has factory installed twin turbo 454's hooked to the speedmaster II's)

Ed wrote:
"as most people simply bolt them up to their exsisting TRS drive with it's low X"
Yep, I've seen that on a few V hulls. They are usually slower without a raised X dimension.
Compare Chris Cats (a lot of them came with TRS or IIs), prop height is about 1" above the bottom of the hull with IIs. I've seen TRSs at least 2-3" below the bottom of the hull. It's the drive height and being able to use a surface piercing prop that makes IIs faster.
BTW, when you get around 100mph, IIIs are faster than IIs.
Gary

phughes69
I'm not sure IIs are significantly weaker than TRS. All the speedmaster drives use 2 verticle shafts in the lower which also allows use of smaller lower gears (3 or 4 in speedmasters vs 2 in TRS). The smaller gears may be weaker or it may be a surface piercing prop is just harder on the lowers. Bravos tend to break a lot more in applications where there is a very high X dimension too.
Gary

Thanks guys,

I plan on running it the way it sits. This was a twin turbo boat from Fountain, so I'd guess that it has a raised X dimension to start with. I'm planning on running about 500 hp (conservative as well). I'm just happy to have the boat, I don't have the wallet to support big horse motors no matter how much fun it is to talk about it...

Bryan, does your boat still have the turbo motors in it? If so I think you and I have the same motor/outdrive package. I also have twin turbo motors in mine('80 scarab KV) with speedmaster II outdrives.

Pat

Pat/phughes,

A friend of mine has practically the same boat as you do---a 1980 Scarab KV with Speedmaster II drives. He also had the 475hp twin turbo'd 454's in it that came stock from Merc at that time. He has since removed the turbos along time ago and has gone with 509 inch engines with 420 mega blowers---about 750hp or so. He has broke his drives twice now.

Does your boat happen to be red with black and white accent stripes? If it is, I have seen it a few times years ago----once up in Traverse City. Nice boat.

Pat,

No, the turbos are long gone. I'm going with naturally aspirated power. Best of luck w/your KV. I love those flat deck scarabs...

Kaama.
I think the color mine is called sunburst. It is yellow fading to burgundy with orange in the middle, with a black border The old owner of it has had it for the last 10 years and has put in at lake St. Clair. It hasn't been in the water in 2 years.