I keep reading how if you do full throttle starts you'll blow up a Bravo.....?

Is this true?....I have Mercruiser 320 EFIs and Bravo 1s in my Magnum. It has drive showers and I plan on putting a sythetic gear oil like Mobil 1 in them.

What breaks? I'm an auto mechanic and do transmissions and final drives a lot.....is it something that may be easy for me to repair myself?

Thanks,
Aaron

Yes they do tend to break. But there are alot of variables. The weight ,horsepower and driver habits being the top 3. You dont have that much power but what does the boat weigh? Full throttle starts and airing the hull out will certainly shorten the life of your drive. As far as rebuilding it yourself, if you have mechanical experience as you do, you can handle it. You just need the service manual and a good amount of special tools from Mercury. I also am a mechanic. I am in the process of rebuilding my drive right now. It is fairly straight forward, the service manual tells you what you need to know. I have to admit that an experienced drive rebuilder here on this board has helped me along by phone and e-mails with any special tricks that he has developed from his experiences. Being that you are a mechanic, you most likely have a few tools already IE: torque wrench and torque-o-meter, micrometer and various hand tools. I would say I spent about $600 for the special tools I needed. Bam has everything you will need.

You should be fine with the smallblocks.

do sharks have a water tight azz?

i have a 16thousand pound boat, with triple 640horse 670 torque bbc and the boat ran 525's for the first 14 years of its life. it has original 16 year old bravos with showers. it all depends on how u drive the boat

Beat the chitt of, or don't maintain something, anything, and it will break.

I would say no, provided you use it the way it was intended to be used. I don't think Merc ever claimed they would hold up with any more HP than what they offer.

Like others said, it depends on the boat and driver. I have a light v-hull with stock merc power. I run my chit like I stole it and spend a LOT of time in the air. My Bravo has over 600 hours on it and has never been touched. KNOCK ON WOOD!

I Rebuilt One Of Mine,very Easy If Your A Good Wrench!

it all depends how easy you are on it. the largest engine tehy come with is a 425 hp 496 so they arent rated for big hp engines. considergin their rating, tehy hold up pretty well

I Think They Came With 525sc And Maybe 575sc!