Kokopelli

I have the first Bravo Curtis at Billet upgraded to XR and have run 650HP through it for the past two seasons with no problems. Its on a 29 Warlock. I'd definitly check Billets upgrades out. His Bravo to XR conversion ran about $2600.

www.billetmarine.com

Mr Gadgets

MC,
I would take a serious look at buying the XR's. Of course I would pull the top cap to look at the pinion gear. If you look at that thread you can see the wear in the pinion gear. I had the same thing happen to my XR upgraded Bravo. It wore out the pinion gear but not the driven gears.

If you look at the upgrade, you must also consider the lower prop shaft upgrade. Merc does have a package to replace the parts. What I am saying is compare apples to apples. The XR drives come with all the pieces in the upper and lower. If you talk to Curtis, who is very knowledgeable, see what the cost is of doing all the changes that you would get by buying the drives. The XR has the steel tower already in it. So your drive needs that too. I dont know what Curtis includes in his package, but so long as you know what to ask for.
If you have a heavy boat you do just the upper and , well it might be better to have the heavier shafts in the lower.

There is a lot to consider, I have been researching this and will be building drives in the future, if you would like to discuss it.. give me a call at home, I can maybe shed some light on it. 616-335-8446

Dick

mcollinstn

Gadgets,

Been waiting for your input...

I've about decided to go with the XR purchase. I did find out that the drives I am buying DID have the wear issue on the pinion and have been rebuilt with new parts. Not upgrades, but standard XR parts. I know the seller well, and these have been run behind "turned up" 575SCi's for 45 hours before failure. I am assured that the parts that went in it are not from the soft run of gears.

I have looked at billet marine and max machine's websites and understand the different upgrades. It looks like I could puke more money into my B1's than the XRs are going to cost. I can also sell my B1's since they are good reliable undamaged drives (or maybe I should keep them around as spares?).

My only worry was that I would receive a lot of advice to throw some upgrades into the XR's as well. I do think I will replace the top caps with Max billet caps cause I still think the cast crap cap is a real weak point. Billet marine has a good cap that is cooled internally with water passages, but I feel a solid aluminum cap with the fins on it is stronger and will cool equally well with a top shower. Other than that upgrade, I think I'll leave the XR's alone unless any of you guys think I should do more...

Mr Gadgets

One thing you can do is use the new XR cap from Merc. It has fins, a steel tower, and extra oil cavity above the tower. I just purchased one from Sterndrivespec. It includes both bearings and Oring and is about half of the others in price. All you need to do is check the distance of the thrust shim to case surface to make sure it is the same and bolt it on. All though I have been doing pinion centerline measurements and adjusting the shims to get proper gear mesh and some people dont. But you should be able to just switch caps. One problem is the new Merc Cap has a steering boss on the tail end of it. Used on the ITS system. It can be cut off, but it is added alluminum to remove heat. So I will leave it on until the outdrive police make me cut it off.
You can also get studs from Merc, but if you are running a drive shower, you may only need two them. I mention this because I have a couple extra now.. and looking for some longer ones to mount the shower with. The new cap is much thicker than the stock one. But looking at the cap itself, it is a quality piece, much stronger than the stock Bravo cap and it is priced right..
Talk to Kaama, you need to get different gimble bearings and a trim limit kit to use the XR's on the standard Bravo gimbles. Merc I think has a kit.. again talk to Sterndrivespec... 315-676-2979. He as been the best with pricing the Merc stuff..

Dick

mcollinstn

Gadgets, is the new XR cap still cast aluminum? I don't feel good about a cast piece. I'm not wanting to spend unnecessary money, but will pay extra for a billet cap. NOW, if you mean the steel tower is steel in all the places that absorb the bearing loads, and that the steel piece is trapped in the cast cap, then I feel better.

As far as the ITS lugs, I thought the ITS attached down LOW on the drive..??

Breathe Later

MC,

I bought I Teague Platinum XR complete (less gimbal and transom pieces). It's got the upgraded vertical and prop shaft. The top cap is also a billet piece with additional width. They're about $7k and you'll need a gimbal bearing kit to convert.


Regards,

Mark S.

26scarab

Personally,
I would have went with Billet marines XR upgraded bravos.
$2500-$2800 for the upper (lowers never break) as opposed to the $7000 + for a XR .
I've also heard that the XR case is weaker than the standard Bravo because the machining they did to fit the new not needed huge u-joint assy.
I have a XR converted Bravo at the moment (not Billets) , a friend and I did 4 of them , so far only two have been tested
(720hp 565) and have had zero problems. We have around $2000 in each upper. On my own one I will be adding Billet's top cap/cooler.

Just my opinion

mcollinstn

26,

Okay, if I told you that I could buy the freshly rebuilt 2002 XR's for $4500 each then would that change your decision?

Billet Marine quoted $3400 each for the uppers. That's a good $600-900 more expensive than your numbers. At your figures, I'd have been more inclined to consider the upgrading.

I plan to run studs on the back cover and the top cap so I can inspect with each lube change without worry of stripping the threads out of the aluminum cases.

(seth enslow should definitely know about scars, but how would he know that pain goes away? I've never seen or heard of a time that he was not horribly wounded...)

Mr Gadgets

MC.. the cap is a cast unit with a steel tower installed in it. It is much thicker than the stock Bravo, but not a billet piece I believe. I was told it was billet, so I may be wrong. If you like I could maybe take a pic.. It does have six holes in it so you can bolt into the back cap, but I am not sure what the ITS back cap looks like. Let me see what I can do with the camera.. give me some time to get it figured out.. and you can see what it looks like..

Dick

Mr Gadgets

Mc,
Go to the Photo section, Members Galleries, I posted them there, but they are pending approval. So I am not sure how to search for them, but I named them
XR ITS Top Cap 1,2,3.

Let me know what you think.. the pics aren't that good, lighting, lighting, lighting..