Anyone know the max HP an older 888 will handle. Trying to help out a friend that needs to rebuild his runabouts 302 with a Merc 888 and he wants to get a little more out of it without blowing the outdrive.

The 888 pre Alpha Was Hooked Up To 302 And 351 Ford Motors The Max Hp Would Be 260 I Wouldnt Push It Much Past That !!!!!!!!

I believe that would be the old #1 drive.
Merc hooked 260HP/350s to them so I would say that is a safe limit.

Thanks guys, I will pass the info to him.

I have had no problems with my old 888. I'm not sure what sort of HP it is pushing, but it is well over 188 now.

I put a carter 4bbl, edelbrock intake, electronic ignition w/ MSD Blaster II coil and 8.5mm wires, upgraded to center rise exhausts and 3" thru hulls straight out the back.

I'm probably going to change the cam and get the heads done by shop up here that does work for NHRA teams.

As long as he isn't doing anything stupid, like a full throttle hole shot every time, or bouncing the boat in and out of the water, and as long as it has good oil in it, I would not be afraid of that drive.

My old 21 Nova does about 55, which is about a 20 mph pickup from when I started! (10-12 came from messing with props)

Ok, the old, pre alpha upper's can't take too much power. the case is not as sturdy as an alpha, and they didn't have the heavy duty gears. I think that you can change the gearset and bearings to hd style. They have a much thicker gear floor and, are cut better, the bearings have to be changed to make the gears fit, this goes with any gear swap, the bearing size and angle will differ. So the correct bearing always has to be used. You would be better off getting him a good set of alpha gen1 uppers with the hd gears. from a boat that had 260 Gm's . How about the transom assys. If they are the older style they really can't take too much abuse. If anything get a tiebar if you havent done so already. The older pre alpha transom assys, have a weak gimbal ging and shaft that will get sloppy, especially on a boat with twins. Pm me if you need parts, or want to talk over the phone, I was involved in a 25 Nova that had the Fraud motors ! Was going to repower but was not worth the parts and labor. It's a nice boat, but I had to part it out. I have some Ford stuff, including 2 sets of manifolds and a coupler that were used about 5 hours, before the motor spun a bearing, The timing tab had rusted off and my friend timed it by ear ! He bought a 38kv Scarab and suddenly the Nova was on the back burner. BBB

Billy,

I will pass this info on to him.

Thanks again for the help guys.

You will have trouble with the lower.It is the same as an outboard ,it has a spring pin in the vertical shaft, too much load and the pinion gear will push up and strip gears.The upper is same as alpha.Doug