I was down at the lake last weekend and I noticed how big and beefy the Volvo SX drive on my buddys ski boat looked. It looked a lot stronger than an Alpha I drive. How much HP can these drives handle? Anyone have these SX drive on their boat? Thanks

When I was considering buying a runabout with Volvo Penta equipment, I had a dealer buddy of mine say he thought the Volvo products were better built. That the SX was an equivalent to the Bravo 1 and that they didn't make anything as cheap as the alpha. My next question was why everything he had on the lot (aprox 75 boats) had mercruiser drives/ motors. He stated that his customers "knew" merc was better and that he didn't have to "sell" the equipment to a novice if the thing was painted black. I ended up buying the Volvo and had it 4 trouble free years until LOA got the best of me.

Short answer - slightly stronger than a Bravo. The upper is the same as the Volvo DP-S (DuoProp). Volvo puts them behind engines as big as 420 hp on 18,000 pound cruisers, and offers warranties as long as six years.

6 years, makes a good point!

I know of a few Volvo SX drives with not too far from 600HP in front of them wiht no problems.

I know a guy that had either one or two of the Sx drives for sale. I think they were new take off's if anyone is interested, I'll contact him.

I have a SX drive ona 20 ft bowrider that I used for a ton of wakeboarding. about 300 hrs per year). My old boat had the mercruiser 3.0liter alpha setup and I had some drive trouble. (one was my fault). Anyhow about 300hrs on the SX drive last year and it works perfect. I have not seen the internals of the bravo so can't comment but the guts of the SX are far better than the alpha from a mechanical engineering power transmission perspective. Cuda what ratios and $$ are your buddies? I knew someone looking for a sx drive for aproject boat he was messing with.

I don't know if he still has it, but here's a link. I think he's on Oso too.

Sx

My buddy have a stock 290 DPX behind this motor (808 hp, 98 mph)
Three years, no problems.

Thanks for the linmk cuda. I will pass along to buddy.