I need someone's help that may have had a similar setup to mine before I drop a lot of$$$ on changing my setup.

I have a non step 27' formula with a single 850hp bravo style drive mounted on an imco standoff box. The x dim. is about 2" from propshaft to keel, Im running a labbed maximus and the boat runs 90 on GPS.

I'm currently running the stock style water pickup through the drive, and a stock style water pump. I have an eddie marine 3" x 16"(20" overall length) combonation oil/steering cooler.

Cruising below 4000 rpm, the oil temps are good, but anything 4500 or above gets the oil temp quickly in the 250 degree range. When I've run it in poker runs at 80 for extended periods, the oil temps climb up to nearly 300.

What I plan on doing is drilling a hole in the side of the drive and having the drives pickup just dump back on the side of the drive, add a transom water pickup, add a sea strainer, and a hardin 13 plate cooler with oil thermostat so that I will be DONE with the headaches.

My biggest questions is I don't want to slow the boat down by adding a transom pickup. Ive heard it can slow boats down 2 or 3 mph. With the top 2 ports plugged in the bravo's pickups (because of the high x dim), would it work to plumb in the new cooler/sea strainer into it?

Is there a more simple way to get what I need?

with the current setup, my water temps stay at 120 degrees at around 10psi.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Sam

how much speed are you losing due to oil temp. i would just do transom pickup, use strainer setup like your planning, feeding thru drive will choke down volume,

No loss in speed from elevated oil temps. Just don't want to ruin 15 qts of oil every trip or grenade motor from excessive temps.

It has taken so much to gain the last 5 mph or so, I hate to give them back!

I run a 28' Checkmate with a stand off box. My propshaft was 4.5" below the hull. Using a Hydromotive nose cone, I plugged the top two holes on the side pickups and never had an oil temp issue. I plugged them because my friend had the same setup and he ran it with out the plugs and had oil temp issues at speed.

Are you loosing water pressue due to the high X..??

Easy to plug the top holes.. just to try it. From what I read, you do not have them plugged now, is that correct??

Hope that helps..
Dick

Yea, I don't have them plugged yet. I assumed since my water temp stayed low that I was getting enough volume and pressure, but???

Dick, when you plugged the top two holes, did you open up or re-shape the lower openings to channel more water into the ones left? If I remember right, the first 2 or 3 holes are grooved towards the bow, and the bottom holes are pretty much a straight drilled hole with no chamfer or porting towards the outside at all.

FYI, I also have a Bob's machine nose cone with only the side water pickups (no LWP)

Thanks

Whats your water pressure? How do you know you have water pickup issue vs a oil cooler issue.

My pressure is around 10#

I'm fairly confident it is an oil cooler issue, but that is the $1,000 question.

judging by your water temp&pressure,i think you need a bigger oil cooler,try adding another cooler along with what you have now.

WHAT? Has it been proven that a transom water pickup scrubs 2 mph?

10 psi of water pressure at 90 mph isn't much. I would plug the upper 2 holes as mentioned and open up the lower few holes along with grinding a lead in to each hole. This will help drastically to raise the pressure.
Problem number 2 is the cooler. You only have a 16" bundle, and that includes the p/s cooler. Definitely not large enough. You really need a cooler with about an 18" bundle length just for the oil. If you want to run a combo cooler, that's fine. Just get one that is large enough. The plate cooler you mentioned is excellent. You would need a seperate p/s cooler obviously.
I would start with raising the water pressure. That should help quite a bit. However, you may still have a temp issue with the oil with that cooler. I would check it first though.
Let me know if I can help in any way. Good luck.
Eddie