Will Gently Used Bravo III Benefit From Premium Drive Lube?


kai330

kai330

Member
Boat is a Formula 330SS with 496 Mags (alas, not the H.O.s). Engines and drives have 375 hours on them. I have the Simrek drive showers which seem to be working well because I no longer get white chalky deposits on my drives after running and them immersing them coming off plane.Drive showers were put on about fifteen hours ago.

As a general rule, I do not run hard. Typically I get on top of the water using moderate throttle, trim out and then cruise at 3200 to 3800 RPM. Occasionally I do open it up but that is less than five percent of the time. Most cruises are an hour or less, with a few 2 to 4 hour cruises planned in the near future.

Currently there is Mercruiser High Performance Lube in the drives.

Would I benefit from one of the premium drive lubes like Royal Purple or Amsoil? Or another that I haven't read up on?

Thanks, and I welcome both opinions as well as documented experiences.
 
I would say no, no benefit.

Or put in another way, do a risk benefit evaluation.

Risk- using a non tested oil for the application. All sorts of bad things can happen.
Benefit- I don't know any. In a standard application like yours, the oil recommended by Mercruiser will serve you fine.

Having said that, I use a hypoid full synthetic 75w-90 according to MIL-PRF-2105E / SAE J2360
My benefit is that I get less internal losses (losses = heat) due to a thinner oil.
(heat = fuel burnt to no use)
I drive a lot at hull speed, where the drives are submerged.
In our cold water, the standard gear oil will be very thick creating a lot of un necessary losses and fuel burn increase.

I'm an "oil nerd" and have come up with this concept on my own, and I'm taking the risk. (in my opinion none)
 
Thanks Mike. I think we're always chasing the best oil/wax/fuel, etc when somwetimes the regular manufacturer recommendation will suit our needs fine.

Cheers!
 
Bravo drives require the synthetic gear lube.
I also would stick to what Merc recommends.
 
The "Premium" Outdrive lube would not be a step up in this case . . . versus the "High Performance" lube, which is what the Bravos need.
 
tpenfield said:
The "Premium" Outdrive lube would not be a step up in this case . . . versus the "High Performance" lube, which is what the Bravos need.
Click to expand...

Good point. I meant "premium" to indicate Royal Purple, Amsoil, etc and didn't factor in that Merc sells their standard oil labeled premium.

I have the Merc Hi Perf stuff in it now and wondered if there was an reason to use the Amsoil, RP or whatever. Absent any good advice to the contrary, I'm leaning toward using the Merc Synthetic Hi Perf stuff and calling it a day.
 
kai330 said:
Boat is a Formula 330SS with 496 Mags (alas, not the H.O.s). Engines and drives have 375 hours on them. I have the Simrek drive showers which seem to be working well because I no longer get white chalky deposits on my drives after running and them immersing them coming off plane.Drive showers were put on about fifteen hours ago.

As a general rule, I do not run hard. Typically I get on top of the water using moderate throttle, trim out and then cruise at 3200 to 3800 RPM. Occasionally I do open it up but that is less than five percent of the time. Most cruises are an hour or less, with a few 2 to 4 hour cruises planned in the near future.

Currently there is Mercruiser High Performance Lube in the drives.

Would I benefit from one of the premium drive lubes like Royal Purple or Amsoil? Or another that I haven't read up on?

Thanks, and I welcome both opinions as well as documented experiences.
Click to expand...

Agree with rest that so long as full synthetic lube is used, and regular maintenance there should be no issue. I like another synthetic oils and lubes but I still stick with Merc only because it may cost a bit more, but it's made for the drive, and have never heard of a problem with using it. Only issues I discuss is mostly from lack of maintenance. Just like my CAT backhoe, I use CAT lubes, it cost more but not that much more and so far no issues
 
Thanks AllDodge. Looks like I'll stick with the Merc stuff. And, it will be way less expensive than the Amsoil or Royal Purple stuff anyway.
 
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