XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

I have to make a decision early next week.

Need some direct first hand comments on your experience with drive options.

I have to upgrade from Bravo Ones with the new 700's with 770 ft lbs torque just installed.

If you upgraded and had a chance to do it over again what would you do?

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Hi! How is the Cigarette running with the new power?

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

TRS .. cuz im SICK :D :D

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Didn't run it today. Rained Out. Sunday or Monday

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

EC, the rain here is a bit harder than the rain there,,,,,,,,it's a whopping 13 degrees.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Max Machine Worx-1 year warranty. They have a few running around with 1200hp.I have 800hp with 836ftlbs. runnning through them on a 38' Sonic.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

I would pick a mercury product.... XR Sportmaster... My opinion is that they spend more in R & D than all of the others combined, and I'm thinking they know something they aren't sharing.

Don

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Bravo One XR Bravo One XR SMS Bravo Three XR
Maximum Power Capacity 575 HP (424 kW) 525 HP (403 kW)


http://mercruiser.com/_bravo_xr

Read what they state on their web site.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Max machine worx gets my vote,not to sure about any one year warranty though as njsonic mentions above. They have always said to me NO WARRANTY but when i have broken their parts(yes ,all Bravo based drives do break sooner or later if your running big torque or tall props) they have given me free parts,partial credit or at least parts at their cost,even three years later,great guys who actually care,Smitty

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

http://www.arneson-industries.com/br...conversion.htm

my first choice when i blow a bravo or want to upgrade.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

I read a lot of post by Guys who say,,, I would do this ,, or I think this is the best ,,, Bad advice,,, You need to step back and read the post from the Guys who are doing it!!

Read the above ,,, 38 Sonic big power,,, Artic tells you that he has been running them for 3yrs and gets great support,,,,,

I have been beating on XR,s with Maxx Machine upgrades for 240hrs and they have not failed,,, I did break the old Port Top Cap (Merc) and wiped a bearing in the process... I then put on the Maxx Top Caps ,,,, No more problems...

Maxx will take your XR,s and upgrade them ,,, or they will sell you their own version at a Great Price..

Its the only way to Go,,,,,, I have 600sc Merc engines in a 36 foot Resin Bucket ( Heavy) and it works.. Good Luck,

RHC

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

One more thing ,,, Good Oil and change it every 30-40 hrs ,,, its cheap insurance ,,, if its got shavings in the oil ,,, tear them down ,,, if the Oil smells hot or burnt ,, tear them down and inspect the bearings and shafts,,, also run showers to help cool them..
again ,, Good luck and enjoy!


RHC

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

How about Konrads?

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

The best thing to help make your Bravo type drive last is REPLACE THE GEAR OILevery 25 hours. The Merc. Hi perf. gear oil is the best from what I have been told.I was also told after 200 hours have the drive set back up.The Max drive has shims.Just my 2 cents.

Articfriends, How much horsepower are you running and what boat?

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Okay, I have many applications that are heavier and have more hp, do they count?

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

mercury doesn`t make the bravo xz anymore go with the bravo xr i have seen this drive behind some serious horsepower like yours. no problems when the owner knows how to run the boat

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

mercury upgraded their top cap for the bravo 2000 series and it does back fit to previous models as far as warranty mercury stands behind their product. i have never seen drive failure denied under warranty. like i said before if the owner knows how to run his boat the bravo will live well beyond 600 hp

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

the new bravo 2000 series also has a shimmable upper this opens up different gear ratios as well as better reliability with big power. my concerns with the Konrad are as follows
1.) WARRANTY all mechanical devices eventually fail what will th OEM do in this case i have personally seen mercury reimburse the owner for product failure well outside of the warranty they have been building drives for 40 years its not a fluke that they are #1
2.) availability of parts. mercury has a dealer network of over 6000 in the u.s. alone and most of the good dealers carry a large supply of drive parts (i could build 30 or 40 bravos all gear ratios all models from what is on my floor right now and you would be on the water tomorrow a Konrad might take weeks)
3.) PRICE a Konrad is 9k a bravo X can be found for 7.5k

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Man, I wish the IMCO's had a 1 yr. warranty.. What is the cost of the Max Machine drive? I know the IMCO is $9,000.

I've got my fingers crossed, I'm going to be running 800 hp and 800 ft. lbs so I hope my new IMCO's stay together. They had about 10 hours on them, I tore them down, went thru all the gears, bearings, and shafts, everything looked fine.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

RIK:: Sorry I was not clear ,,,, What I was trying to say is this ,,, a lot of people respond to these questions because they have an opinion,,, or because they have read the hype and don't really have first hand info,,, I then referred to the two users who made the comments about there own use of the Maxx Drives ... I don't doubt that you have more weight and more hp in use and don't have failures.. Hope they stay together and you get lots of hours

RHC

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

It is just funny that everyone wants a Bravo to stand up to the abuse of the power and weight of the boat along with a warranty and for little cost.

There are alternatives, and the economics of the Bravo make others very viable.

You are right, most read the hype, especially on OSO and believe it. The ones that sign the checks know what reality is.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

I have roughly725 hp/800 ft lbs torque(only made 630 hp/697 ft lbs torque on dyno BUT turned up timing and boost since and picked up 9 mph so my guess is the 725/800). I spin a single 30 pitch 4 blade w 1.50 gears at 5400rpm's at 85 mph(yes,i know its about 20 % slip).When i'm racing someone,its sometimes for 4 or 5 miles and I DON"T LET OFF,EVEN IN THE AIR. Alot of our racing locally is also rolloffs from 20 or 30 mph,my prop doesn't blowout or cavitate and i just wince thinking that the drives going to blow but it doesn't. I have sheared the floor in a set of xr upper gears,sheared off one max machine worx billet vert shaft and found some pretty sick looking bearings and upper shaft ends tore up in caged bearing. I change the drive oil every 25 hours,its never burnt. A full out done max machine upgraded drive outright is about 10k and to me well worth it. I believe in tearing drive down every year and replacing bearings,inspecting parts for wear/brinnelling if your running a blower motor. I don't kid myself about how i drive,i run hard on my drive and if it fails i know its my fault . I will continue to praise max machine worx because in my opinion they have the best upgrades out there for xr's,Smitty

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

2000 baja 272 w/540 m-3 running 9 psi boost,headers

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

RHC,i was in cedar point harbor last june (around 2nd or 3rd wk) :D ,saw a LOUD boat with big'ol cams,could that have been you? :D

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Even though we all know that anything can and will eventually break, it's still good to see some of the heavier boats with twin engine applications running some decent power with their Bravo XR drives modified with the Max Machine Worx products and live. I enjoy reading about some of the higher horsepower to weight ratio testimonies given here (as stated in other posts above) with drives modified by Max Machine. Sounds like they make a decent product.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

After several dozen phone calls with some very patient expertise, I made a decision as to which drives would be best for my application and situation. I would especially like to thank all who put up with my unintelligent phone calls.

Major factors considered: 1.)Performance required 2)History/experience of others 3)input from the best in the business.

TNT is building a set of drives that will be comprised of a Merc XR uppers, Imco extreme lowers and basically the premium Imco Extreme parts from that point on. 1.25 inch shaft and shortening the length by 1 inch.

Imco, Max Marine, a couple Merc Dealers, the key players at TNT and the OSO board members input certainly helped the decision.

The lead time at Max marine was long, Imco had the Extreme drives in stock and they did have a couple cheescake features that were attractive, straight up XR sportmaster series had very respectable reviews but the consistent factor was everybody agreed on the other drives are stronger with more beefier parts all around.

Even though Imco's were my first and foremost choice, the election to go with TNT building the drives with Merc/Imco parts was based on the work they have done for me in the past.
Matt knows the boat, engines, engine builder, the application and will make sure the best work that can be done will be done.

As they say the proof is in the pudding. I have another thread that many have followed regarding the building of the engines. I will update this from time to time concerning prop selection and overall performance of the final package.

Re: XRs, XZs, IMCO, ?
 

Going with TNT is the way to go they did mine and they work just fine for me. I run zul 800+ hp with herring 6 blade on my gladiator


Rick OSG