A friend bought a low hour Eliminator with a 496ho and X drive with 50 hours, first day out he ran it at about 4,000 rpm for a short while and when he got to the dock he noticed the drive was really hot. I had some Amsoil 75-140 Severe Duty Gear Oil and we replaced the clean stock oil in the drive with the Amsoil, The next day we went on a 20 minute run at 35-4000 run and stop and the drive was hardly even warm!! He and I were pleased with the results. Also when draining the stock oil it flowed out very slow as always, but when filling the with Amsoil and it was time to replace the drain plug after pulling the fill line, the Amsoil shot out of the fill hole at a rate of five times as fast as the stock Merc oil, very slippery stuff!!

Yes it is good stuff, thats what I switched over to last summer, mine run cool also.

I switched to Amsoil Severe Gear last year beginning of season. Toward end of season and after the first lube change (25 hours), one of the drives started getting a delay in forward engagement - I thought cone clutch was going out. When engines were out for refresh, Eddie replaced lube with Merc (just because that's what he uses). At beginning of this season, same condition - slow to engage. But after about 15 hours this season, the drive has magically fixed itself. There is no delay anymore!

Do you think the Amsoil is too slick for a couple of drives with 276 hours on them?? Was the Amsoil the problem or is the Merc lube masking a tired cone clutch??

Prior to Severe Gear, I used the Amsoil Marine Gear Lube (with no problems and clean oil during changes) - but it seemed as though the OSO consensus was that it was not heavy duty enough for XRs under increased horsepower (but I guess nothing really is...).

Thoughts?

When I switched from Royal purple (pure garbage) to amsoil severe gear my lower gear life behind big hp doubled to about 60 hours, when I tried the 140 version vs the thinner stuff boat slowed down 1-2 mph if thats possible, fwiw

Tthat's good to know Artic! Thanks for the heads up.

I had similar experience switching to Red Line Shock Proof heavy in the drive

Easyrider,, when you have a delay in shifting your cone clutch is worn down, the severe gear oil is slicker than Merc. oil, when the clutch grooves wear down it takes longer to sling the oil off so it can lock in, mine did same thing with Amsoil Severe Gear oil, I had an 8 second delay shifting into forward on one drive, pulled my cone clutch and it was very worn down, installed a new clutch and all is good using severe gear oil

Delay also can mean the cone clutch is heavily glazed. just saying or you have a real problem with wear problem(s) or something else going on

I know thicker oil will heat up a machine faster then thinner oil but what a saw was pretty telling as to the heat reduction in the drive, and it was a stock 496 HO motor and X drive, how it would work on a high HP setup I have no idea? I 've been using it in my Nordic with the same setup and so far it is all good!

got your pm. good info and i'll keep it in mind hopefully, i can make it through season!