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Drive Shower

P

persuaderkurt

Member
I have a 5.7LX carbed driving an Alpha One on a 218BR Persuader. Love the boat! I am planning to do some engine modifications this winter which should put me over 300HP. I am looking into drive showers and would like some opinions on wether they really work or not. And if they do, do they cost a little speed?
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I have a 5.7LX carbed driving an Alpha One on a 218BR Persuader. Love the boat! I am planning to do some engine modifications this winter which should put me over 300HP. I am looking into drive showers and would like some opinions on wether they really work or not. And if they do, do they cost a little speed?
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I would definately look into the drive shower. I had a chaparral with a 350 mag and it would GPS at 60 mph. That thing was a bullet for its size, 20'. The top end started to get hot and chalky so I bought a drive shower off of e-bay and it worked and look awesome. Highly recommended.
 
I would recomend the Drive Shower, but with an Alpha Outdrive make sure you know what Generation you have if your looking for the style that mounts on top of the Bearing Cap. I have a '93 350 Mag w/ Alpha One Gen. II, I tried IMCO and I believe Lavorsi and both of the these were for Gen. I and Gen. II+. Somewhere between '91 and '95 Mercruiser changed to the Alpha Gen. II and went with a larger Bearing Cap and then back to the smaller Bearing Cap like Gen. I with Gen. II+. Most manufactuers that are selling the Cap style drive shower for an Alpha One are for the Gen. I and II+. I finally found one from Innovative Marine called Hydro Cool. It is polished Aluminum w/ a Braided Stainlees steel line, it looks real good and I would recomend it.
 
I feel the best drive shower is the one made by Simrek. It feeds both sides of the outdrive and the pickups are better designed for trimmed up drives. I put one on my Alpha II drive and then watched it's performance at all speeds and trim angles, it works great.

Check it out:
http://www.driveshowers.com/
 
I also use the Simrek on my Bravo unit.Before it was installed,the top of the drive was always hot and chauky after a long run at high speed.I cleaned it regularly.After install,the drive is cool after a long run and I don't have to clean it nearly as much.
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Redboat
 
I wanted a drive shower as well, but after some investigation I decided to hold off. According to several people I have discussed this with, in some cases they can cause prop ventilation problems (I suppose caused by the turbulence induced from the pick ups). In my case I already have this problem and did not want to make it worse. In addition, I have read that the Alpha is the coolest running of all the Merc drives so hopefully with a good synthetic drive oil, my drive will survive.
 
Give Simrek a call. He says the Alpha is the second HOTTEST running outdrive. And his drive shower causes no prop problems. I've installed and used it, and can highly recommend it.

I put his alpha drive shower on and switched to marine 100% synthetic drive oil per his recommendations. He's worth a call..............
 
The simrek unit does a great job. It did cause issues with prop slip on the ZT 280 I just got. The previous owner pulled the right side pick-up up out of the drive, capped it, and problem went away. Now it just pulls water from the left pick-up but still puts water to both sides of the case.
 
I know of several that were having problems with slip and they either ajusted or cutoff the pickup below the cavitaion plate to shorten it up as much as possible. This took the slip out for a couple of the guys.
 
Can't cut off the ends on a Simrek unit,they are closed . There are holes in front to let water in .
Redboat
 
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