Hello,

Does anybody know how power a # 3 speedmaster is rated for?

Whats the max that can be put to it daily and keep it together?

Thanks for all your help

Cougarman

Hey Cougerman!
Cresent or non Cresent?
Non Cresent will hold approx 800 HP
Cresent will hold approx 900 HP

It's cresent, what is the difference?

Why a 100 hp difference?

Is there any reason to stay away from a # 3?

Thanks again

Cougarman

repairs are going to be big $$$

that would seem to be the only drawback. and you might wnat high perf trannies from BAM. www.go-fast.com

What's the cresent mean? My friend has a set of 540's and ssm3a's on his 87 35 cig cafe racer, he is getting ready to dyno the motors in the next few weeks. He was pushing about 600-650 estimated before, but never dynoed the old ones. he never had any problems with the drive's, and runs trs tranny's, which weren't a problem either, but he had both of them re-done along with the drives from an impact. Both drives were replaced, and both tranny's rebuilt, the drive's were outrageous prices, but the tranny rebuilds were not too bad, if I remember correctly, aroung 5-600 each. The insurance picked up everything for him, along with fixing the scrapes on the bottom, thru a dock at 3am, onto a beach, oops, read the gps upside down, went left, should have went right, got some good air though. He's putting new merlin blocks, new heads all ported, biger cams, all new valvetrain and everything re-done internally. he's hoping for 700+, I'll post it when the dyno sheets come out.

We are using supercharged 572s with Crescent #3s and have had no problems.
Keith, owner of Hot Pursuit Shadow Cat runs about 1,100. hp each thru his non- crescent 3's. Only mods are custom prop shaft because he runs 1-1 ratio at 6,000 rpm: "prop" rpm is way up there. I think he uses Amsoil also, but don't know if that makes any difference.

The difference is:
Non Cresent #3 SSM are the first generation #3, the lower unit does not come to a point it looks almost like a torpedo. Very weak gears and shafts all parts are no longer available. Cresent is the newer version has a very sharp arrow like tip on lower unit gears are alot stronger than the Non Crsent. A #3A SSM is the latest and greatest #3 speedmaster all gears and shafts are bullet proof up to 1000 HP. Hey Advantage Rob how is my
2004 C-6 Z06 coming!

Ahhh, he's got the pointy nose for sure, 3A's is what was on the bill.

That Z-06 is a big pain in my ass, Its so different than the standard vette it's making my job even more fun
I got to go in the SLR the other day, WOW!!

Not so sure about the crescent being stronger than the regular 3, same part numbers for shafts and gears. Primary difference is the shape of the lower. The very early 3 straight cut upper gears are generally stronger than the newer spiral gears. If you are lucky, either 3 drive could have the vertical shafts that were made by Kiekahefer. They are thicker than the stock Mercury pieces. If I remember correctly the 3 was rated for 600 HP and we used to break them pretty regularly with 700 HP even though that is with some pretty rough usage. In any case the parts are NLA.

I don't know about bullet proof, but we do put 1000 HP through the 3a's and 5's without much trouble as long as they have the net forged upper gears as are used in the current models.

Bam-
We recently purchased a new set of upper gears, seals, etc. from Merc for a ratio change, so not all parts are NLA. There seems to be a good supply of used parts available.