Gear line for B3 outdrive

R

Ralph vaughn

Member
Nov 14, 2018
259
Atlanta Ga
Boat Info
2007 Sea Ray 290 radar & GPS, triple axle trailer. 2006 Sea Ray 280 radar & GPS & triple axle tlr
Engines
5.0 MPI closed cooling Sea Core engines & Bravo III outdrives
4.3 MPI with alpha outdrives
Can I use any brand name SAE 90 gear lube or should I use the merc cruiser SAE 90

thanks in advance for your responses

Ralph.
 
PS. My boat is a 2008 Sea Ray 290. Can I use a synthetic SAE 90 oil?
Espos4 said:
For a Bravo 3, I only use the High Performance Gear Lube.
Click to expand...
what is high performance gear lube
 
I used google and found this
0FFD4515-21E8-4561-ABE6-977EFE31E880.png
 
Bravo 3 run hot. And its recommended you use Mercruiser High Performance gear oil.
 
HP is synthetic, regular Mercury lube is dino based. I suspect that you could use any syn gear oil, but the Merc stuff isn't expensive, so I choose not to be a test case. You need 96 ounces for a B3.
 
Use synthetic. They certainly run hot. On my 360 with twin IO's the paint at the top of the cases would get chalky white from heat. I used to run for no more than an hour before coming off plane and dipping the drives. Drive showers help too, but i never invested as i was too concerned with fouling in SW.
Bare in mind my boat was 18-19k lbs which is a bit much for B3's IMO.
 
When I used the change the gear lube on my bravo 3 at the end of the year. The oil would be black and thick. Then I installed a drive shower. Now when I change the oil it’s still like new.
 
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the information about the B3 drives running hot

what is a drive shower.?
 
Maggieiscrazy said:
When I used the change the gear lube on my bravo 3 at the end of the year. The oil would be black and thick. Then I installed a drive shower. Now when I change the oil it’s still like new.
Click to expand...
How many hours would you normally run in a season? Were you at a higher speed cruise most of the time, or an average rpm variance?
 
Leardriver said:
How many hours would you normally run in a season? Were you at a higher speed cruise most of the time, or an average rpm variance?
Click to expand...
I average 100 hours a season. At times on the Mississippi I will run for a couple hours at a time at a cruising speed of 28-30 mph.
 
That doesn't sound like you are asking for it to work too hard. I don't get those kind of hours, but I'll pay closer attention to my lube color.
 
Thanks everyone I filled both my remote reservoir, they were both almost empty, and the alarms are now silenced.

thanks everyone for the great information.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,117
Messages
1,426,435
Members
61,030
Latest member
AbagailPugh
Back
Top