Drive Showers, Are They Worth It?

D

Doc Garrett

New Member
Jun 22, 2012
24
Georgia
Boat Info
2007 260DA
Engines
Merc 350 Bravo III Drive
I know there are many posts on the mysterious drive oil loss in Merc outdrives. I am topping off my reservoir from time to time but I am not getting any oil in the bilge and never see an oil slick behind the boat. I am not running on plane for hours and I never see steam when coming off plane to indicate an overheated outdrive. I have not performed a pressure test, but will do so.

Many say a drive shower is one way to prevent the loss. Since I am going to have the boat out for the pressure test, it would be a good time to install a shower.

Has anyone had experience with this and did a shower solve the problem?

Thanks,

Doc
 
In my opinion, I would say if you are loosing drive lube then you have a problem that a drive shower is not likely to resolve. I have mixed feelings about drive showers but mainly due to some still unanswered questions about potential additional corrosion potential for a slipped boat. I think the benefit of keeping a drive cool is certainly a good thing although I have heard good arguements both ways about their need on cruisers but I digress. I do believe that if you are loosing a good amount of drive lube you likely have a leak somewhere. Is it loosing lube regularly? When was the lube changed last? Is it possible the drive is just "burping" from the last lube change? Did you see any presence of water in the old lube on your last lube change?

Not saying a drive shower might not be a good idea, just not sure it is going to solve loss of lube.
 
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Definitely worth it.....I put my hand on the top of a Bravo2 while on the plane and man do they get hot! The oil must last longer being kept cooler.
 
I doubt that pressure testing will show anything. Bravo 3s just tend to use a little oil now and then particularly after a fluid change. I have had about 10 years experience with B3's and had a drive shower on my 240 Sundeck. It did help the (slight) fluid loss that I experienced but that boat was dry stored. On a wet slipped boat, corrosion is what I would be more concerned about. In our lake, which seems to have a high rate of corrosion problems on B3s, I would never have a drive shower since my boat is in a wet slip year round.
 
stupid (or uninformed) question...
how would a drive shower promote more corrosion ??
 
Dave S said:
I doubt that pressure testing will show anything. Bravo 3s just tend to use a little oil now and then particularly after a fluid change. I have had about 10 years experience with B3's and had a drive shower on my 240 Sundeck. It did help the (slight) fluid loss that I experienced but that boat was dry stored. On a wet slipped boat, corrosion is what I would be more concerned about. In our lake, which seems to have a high rate of corrosion problems on B3s, I would never have a drive shower since my boat is in a wet slip year round.
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A lot of people I know with Bravos complain about fluid loss. When I picked this boat up it just had the fluid changed, after a couple hours the alarm went off and the reservoir was empty. Filled it up to the line and after another 60 hours or so it has used about 4oz. No external leaks I can see, pressure tests fine, bellows are dry inside, but it has to be seeping out somewhere when it gets hot and pressure creeps up. My guess would be the prop seals, some say they are made to keep water out more than keep oil in but i dont know about that.

I was considering a drive shower, I keep mine on a lift so corrosion isnt an issue for me, after an hour on plane if I take the cap off the reservoir there is quite a bit of pressure in there so its possible if its kept cooler (you can see the waterline on the drive and quite a bit of it is exposed on plane) there will be less pressure. Its been extremely hot this year, if fluid loss and pressure buildup after a long run is less when the cooler weather comes I may try a shower.
 
I've never owned one but IMO the drive showers are not worth the cost for the typical boater.
 
OK, here's another question from an unknowing boater.....what's a drive shower, what are they supposed to do, and how do they work?
 
Theory goes that while on plane the outdrive is not getting cooling from the water. So someone came up with the idea concocting a scoop and tube to direct water onto the drive housing thus cooling it down.
 
Gofirstclass said:
OK, here's another question from an unknowing boater.....what's a drive shower, what are they supposed to do, and how do they work?
Click to expand...


http://www.driveshowers.com/

I do not know a lot about them but they sound like snake oil treatments. I must say though I have no problems with my Bravo 3 and I sometimes cruise on plane for hours at a time. They do look easy to install. I suppose the chance for corrison increase comes from the increased amount of stainless steel close to the aluminum drive.

John
 
moparlvr4406 said:
stupid (or uninformed) question...how would a drive shower promote more corrosion ??
Click to expand...
The drive shower is made of stainless steel and essentially bolts on and wraps around the upper unit. Dissimiliar metals in this close proxmity/attached cause galvanic corrosion as seen in Bravo 3 drives, moreso if they are not well cared for due to the stainless props. As far as I know there are no additional anodes incorporated with the shower design to help protect the alumnium drive case from corrosion. Obviously this is not an issue with trailered boats.
 
Go First clas - A drive shower is a simple configuration of stainless steel tubing with brackets that bolts onto your drive using it's existing bolts. The open ends of the tubes face fore and as the boat moves forward, cool lake/sea water is forced into them. The water travels up thru the tubing and sprays out onto the top of the drive via several holes drilled in the tubing. It is a very simple device. I have had one on my B3 drive for several years and it ended my drive oil consumption almost completely.

My understanding is that when the B3 drives heat up during sustained operation, the tolerances increase in the rear seal area where the counter-rotating prop shafts emerge and pressurized drive oil can then leak out. What makes this hard to diagnose is that when the drive is pressure tested while at rest (cooler housing), the tolerances have lessened and no fluid is found leaking then.


My experience has been that the drive shower works and works well. I have the "Simrek" unit.
 
Thanks for 'splaining dat to this ol guy. I'd heard of them before, but never really knew what they were or how they worked.

Who says you can't teach and old dog new tricks???
 
Bravo's were designed almost from day one with what is known as uni-directional seals. Its actually an idea they stole from Yahama. For almost forever every one used bi-directional seals on outdrives. One seal faces in to keep oil in, one faces out to keep water out. What was discovered is that is either one fails, you can contaminate the system. Once contaminated, it does not matter if the oil stays in if you get water in it. So Yahama decided it was best to try to keep the water out rather than the oil in, so they faced both seals out. Well it worked, and worked well. Many of the drives leaked some oil when they got hot, but water contamination cases for outdrive failures fell by a huge amount, like 50%. This became common knowledge and Merc switched over to the system. But this all happened years and years ago. Ask any mechanic who works on them, there are maybe 5% that do not seem to leak, mostly people that do not run them much or fast. All the rest you have to keep adding oil to the reservoir. So when I say designed leak, perhaps its better said that it is a design change, oil loss was considered an acceptable trade off. In addition, B3's are Merc's hottest running drive and this heat is thinning the oil so much that the seals start seeping Tests have shown that cooling with a drive shower can double the outdrive life and service life of the drive oil by lowering the operating temperature by a minimum of 30%. It prevents oil foaming, the main cause of oil breakdown. Drive showers will help!
 
jason78 said:
The drive shower is made of stainless steel and essentially bolts on and wraps around the upper unit. Dissimiliar metals in this close proxmity/attached cause galvanic corrosion as seen in Bravo 3 drives, moreso if they are not well cared for due to the stainless props. As far as I know there are no additional anodes incorporated with the shower design to help protect the alumnium drive case from corrosion. Obviously this is not an issue with trailered boats.
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THANK YOU
the dissimilar metals make sense...didn't know what the showers were made from nor did I make that connection
 
Ball park, what are they worth?
 
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