Bottom Pain cause of B3 Corrosion???

Summerwind said:
Good News: Merc has agreed to replace both ODs :smt038
Merc said; "its only bottom paint requirement is the 1.5' threshold around the transom bracket" which was followed.

Thanks for the support and feedback.
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That's excellent! :grin:

With how tight things are right now, it very good to hear they are standing behind their product.

The real question, though, is why did it corrode in the first place? Any word on that?

I just remembered we had a similar case a few years back. The guy kept his boat in Philly, on the Delaware. It turned out the wrong anodes were on there. Merc replaced the drives, as well.
 
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Dennis,

My Bravo III corroded after one season (6 months) in fresh / brackish water with the factory installed aluminum anodes. Not sure if using Merc anodes is better...IMHO
 
Summerwind said:
Good News: Merc has agreed to replace both ODs :smt038
Merc said; "its only bottom paint requirement is the 1.5' threshold around the transom bracket" which was followed.

Thanks for the support and feedback.
Click to expand...

Great news! Can I assume that your drives are still under warranty? Do you have any pictures of the corrosion?
 
At Ease said:
Great news! Can I assume that your drives are still under warranty? Do you have any pictures of the corrosion?
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Yes drives are under warranty and I actually do, I posted them over the winter months. You might be able to find that thread, in the meantime I'll see if i can re-post.
 
I am glad they are replacing your outdrives but unless they find the cause of the corrosion, the new ones will do the same thing. Also are they replacing the drive mounting itself because that is likely corroded too? (To do that they have to pull the engines).

I looked at your posting from last year and our advice was the same back then as we gave you on this thread. Trust me, as a person who knows more about corrosion of his own B3 more than I ever wanted too :smt101, I would not let them install the new drives until you get some answers on the operation of the mercathode, the bonding system, and the galvanic isolator. I would also invest in extra protection by installing the HD Mercathode Controllers and the permanent anodes that are mounted on the transom. That makes a huge difference on corrosion of B3s in our lake.

Trust me........... I have been thru all this before myself including replacement of my lower unit.

Dave
 
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At Ease said:
Dennis,

My Bravo III corroded after one season (6 months) in fresh / brackish water with the factory installed aluminum anodes. Not sure if using Merc anodes is better...IMHO
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Yup, I don't know if they're better, either. But, unless a specific body of water is just "that bad", a drive shouldn't corrode in 6 months if everything is working properly. But, therein lies a problem - there is a lot of dissimilar metals in a B3 (especially a non-Sea Core) - which means everything has to be working perfectly. I mean, think of all the possibilities for something to go wrong: wrong anodes on the drive, something not working, electrical issues, excess stray current, a neighbor with something wrong (causing your set-up to do double duty). I'm not saying this to defend Merc (it would certainly make life easier for business if they made this problem a "non-issue") but this is where talking to locals - both people and shops - can help tremendously to make sure your rig is protected well from the start. Unfortunately, sometimes this means adding extra things at your own expense (it'd be great if Merc would reimburse for that!).

Summer - what's the possibility of replacing the drives with SeaCore drives? It's just a quick thought off the top of my head - maybe it's not even feasible. Can a Sea Core drive be mated to a non-Sea Core engine? It might be a good question for Merc, though.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Summer - what's the possibility of replacing the drives with SeaCore drives? It's just a quick thought off the top of my head - maybe it's not even feasible. Can a Sea Core drive be mated to a non-Sea Core engine? It might be a good question for Merc, though.
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The short answer is no.........I already looked into that. The transom mount is even different for a Sea Core drive. I "volunteered" to test one on our lake but alas, it was not too happen. :smt043
 
Dave S said:
The short answer is no.........I already looked into that. The transom mount is even different for a Sea Core drive. I "volunteered" to test one on our lake but alas, it was not too happen. :smt043
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Well, that sucks. Just plain and simple... sucks.

But thanks, Dave, for the info:smt001
 
Summerwind said:
Yes drives are under warranty and I actually do, I posted them over the winter months. You might be able to find that thread, in the meantime I'll see if i can re-post.
Click to expand...
I looked at the pics you posted showing one seasons corrosion. How many months was the boat in the water during that season?
 
Dave S said:
I am glad they are replacing your outdrives but unless they find the cause of the corrosion, the new ones will do the same thing. Also are they replacing the drive mounting itself because that is likely corroded too? (To do that they have to pull the engines).

I looked at your posting from last year and our advice was the same back then as we gave you on this thread. Trust me, as a person who knows more about corrosion of his own B3 more than I ever wanted too :smt101, I would not let them install the new drives until you get some answers on the operation of the mercathode, the bonding system, and the galvanic isolator. I would also invest in extra protection by installing the HD Mercathode Controllers and the permanent anodes that are mounted on the transom. That makes a huge difference on corrosion of B3s in our lake.

Trust me........... I have been thru all this before myself including replacement of my lower unit.

Dave
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Well guess what? Dave is right, drives need to be replaced again! Same issue as before:smt089
 
Lazy Daze said:
Here's something that I've been wondering. But first, yes I work at a Sea Ray dealership, but this is simply a question for those "more in the know" than me about anode composition.

I'm wondering... I've often heard (and been told) that different companies produce anodes (let's say aluminum, for sake of argument) with slightly different chemical make-ups. Now, I've never researched this any further so I'm hoping someone can help to verify/nullify this. Let's face it, we know what the answer is going to be if I call Merc!

If this is true, could that help explain the problem? Let's say Merc's aluminum anode was developed specifically to fight the inherent corrosion problem with the B3. Does a company like BoatZincs use the same formulation? Do the people having major problems use an aftermarket company, when maybe using the Merc product would help? I dunno.

I know enough about anodes to know things like... even though a boat may see only fresh water, Magnesium may not be the best choice. I also know that some waters are just plain going to be harder on anodes than others, no matter what you do. But I'd really like to know more about whether or not using Merc anodes is indeed better.

By the way, personally I use aluminum anodes by an aftermarket company... Navalloy. "According to the literature", they're chemical composition is superior as it contains some Zinc and Indium (what the heck the Indium is good for, I don't know). I only mention this to hammer home the point that I'm not trying to promote the Merc product - just genuinely interested.
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Me too!

FWIW..The 3rd season our boat was launched I had my marina install anodes, I took note before launch that they were not MercMarine. I was told that they were aluminum and met the military spec such in such. You've probably seen this spec on the packages or websites. Those non Merc anodes were used up by August. Since then I install my own MercMarine anodes, they last the season (mid-October), drives are just starting to show some corrosion at the water intake and other areas. The lower unit at the prop area is also minimal. Saving $50 a year to protect $10K worth of outdrives just doesn't sound like a good choice. It could be a win-win for the installing marina though! More profit up front...replace the corroded housings down the road.
 
I don't want to get this thread kicked into the Holding Tank for starting a political discussion, but here goes. The fact is unless you are buying things like anodes from suppliers (like Mercruiser) who do their quality assurance, then buying no name anodes is a risk. It's too easy to shave the price by making something that looks just looks like the real part but lacks the correct chemical composition.

Henry
 
Henry Boyd said:
The fact is unless you are buying things like anodes from suppliers (like Mercruiser) who do their quality assurance, then buying no name anodes is a risk. It's too easy to shave the price by making something that looks just looks like the real part but lacks the correct chemical composition.

Henry
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Well said !!! :smt038
 
Summer - what's the possibility of replacing the drives with SeaCore drives? It's just a quick thought off the top of my head - maybe it's not even feasible. Can a Sea Core drive be mated to a non-Sea Core engine? It might be a good question for Merc, though.[/quote]

Dave S said:
The short answer is no.........I already looked into that. The transom mount is even different for a Sea Core drive. I "volunteered" to test one on our lake but alas, it was not too happen. :smt043
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Dave, Glad to see you have checked into this a little, I'm curious as to what you have heard the differences is between the sea core versus non sea core.

I have kind of brought this up before here at CSR, But I guess my thoughts where proven incorrect by someone at mercruiser customer support.:smt101

I almost positive at one time or another I was either told by someone in the sea core department of mercruiser, or I have read it someplace that you can not mix the two together as one.

Unfortunately I just can't find any proof of what I'm pretty sure of.:huh: But unfortunately I'm also just going on that gut feeling you get of "I'm pretty sure I'm right".:grin:

See post 8-12.
http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31215

Thanks.:smt001
 
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