Kidnova

My gear lube goes no longer than 30-35 hours between changes. Engine oil & filter every 15-20 hours.

Last time I changed gear lube, there was no peach fuzz, and the lube looked good. Frequent changes = cheap insurance IMO

Edit....I run about the same as you. Wife in the boat it's mostly cruising, and she is usually with me. Then some good hard romp and WFO time when wifey isn't with me.

Rage

I hear what you are saying.

GOODT

Rage, red line is a great lube but is 0 friction the problem is the bravo drives have a cone clutch which works on friction I have alot a few customers that had wanted red line in there drives and have refused to because you want some friction.... others my feel differt but I wont use it in a bravo also roller bearings need a small amount of friction to roll.


kidnova your on the money cheap ins to save a drive and will last alot longer......

Rage

GOODT,

Interesting. What is the symptom displayed when the cone clutch does not have sufficient friction? Grinding gears when shifting? A clunk when shifting? Vibration? Abnormal wear of ____? Other?

Have you or others seen documented damage/excessive wear/flat spotting do to the roller bearings and/or to their mating surfaces do to the zero friction condition associated with the Redline Heavy Shock Resistant Gear Lube?

If so I will drain it now and replace it with... what do you recommend?

Thanks!

Rage

Kidnova,

What lower unit lube do you use in your ?Bravo1? What hp / boat weight are you running? I have NO problem changing the lubes as often as appropriate to maximize life/durability.

Thanks for the input!

GOODT

I havent seen anything in writing for red line as for noise the cone clutch does not make noise but you will notice slow shifting as for flat spots ect you will notice the drive overheating drive resovoir overflowing ect if you read the bottle it says 0 friction not good for drives, great for motors.

hillbilly24

0 friction is no good for roller bearings and friction clutches, it works well with bushing and insert bearings.

Rage

GOODT,

It says that on the Redline Heavy Shock Proof Synthetic Gear Lube bottle? I'll have to look at a bottle when I get back to the lake this weekend.

I am a little confused. Redline Heavy Shock Proof Synthetic Gear Lube is designed and marketed by Redline for use in automotive racing differentials which have roller bearings in them and surely have to deal with a lot of energy/horsepower absorption. What is the difference between an automotive differential roller bearing and a lower unit drive roller bearing?

The clutch issue is another matter however but I believe when I checked the Redline web site the Redline Heavy Shock Proof Synthetic Gear Lube was specifically recommended for use in marine I/O drives as well. Maybe THEY added something so that the friction clutch will work properly. I have a hand full of hours with the Redline Heavy Shock Proof Synthetic Gear Lube in my Bravo1x drive and it seems to shift as it did before with the Mercruiser factory gear lube i.e. no problems with slow shifting so far. I will pay closer attention in the future.

It is hard to imagine a company like Redline marketing a product that is not suitable for the application. They are racing oriented and sloppy engineering is not the road to a their kind of reputation in a racing environment. Conversely I can easily imagine an oil company that mass merchandises a gazillion different oils to the general public getting it wrong.

I appreciate the information and any additional comments on my thoughts / questions above.

PatriYacht

I have had good luck with Redline Shockproof Heavy running standard Bravo's on a Black Thunder with 650+ hp 540's. I wouldn't worry about not having enough friction, I'd worry about having too much.

Rage

I talked to a Redline tech, Dave. He confirmed that they recommend the Redline Heavy Shock Proof Synthetic Gear Lube for Bravo1 drives (and a lot of others). Dave has been with Redline for eight years and they have been recommending this oil for drives since before then and no complaints just satisfied customers and compliments on its performance in drives. I Asked specifically about the 'friction cone' in the drive and was told "no problems".