L6 LU on V6?

[tombrown]

You guys have talked about running an L6 gear case on a V6. How well do they stand up? If I run the gear case off my 1500 on my XR-4, will it last? I assume it will run hotter due to dissipating the extra power so I would run a synthetic gear lube.

Also, don't I have to move the front two studs? How close is the L6 case to the Sport Master case? Lastly, my L6 gear case has the high pressure water pump. Do I have to convert it to the high volume pump and is that hard?


Thanks in advance,

Tom Brown

[Raceman]

Tom, Merc used to sell a converted inline 6 case for use on the V6 from High Perf. division. This was in the late 70's. It had 1.78 gears, said to be stronger than the 2:1's. The front stud was moved and the driveshaft required extension of about 3/4 inch. There was also a rearmost bolt hole issue. I can't remember how they solved it, we left it out when running one of our backyard converted units. There's also a shiftshaft modification required, I think just removing, bending a slight offset and re installing, and seems like the water tube length was a little off too, but I can't remember that for sure. You might get by running a stock one with the above mods if you don't hammer it. As far as the waterpump, the 1500 unit uses the same impeller as all the other V6 stuff I ever fool with. I know they've got that big, floppy implellor thing in some engine like the OMC runs, but it's not in the high perf stuff, and I don't know what they did put it in. If you're speaking of the tube size, that'd be an easy conversion, but probably not necessary. A lot of V6's have been run with the smaller sized tube and lived.

[tombrown]

Thanks, Raceman. I didn't know the shaft was too short. The other stuff I could have dealt with but lengthening the drive shaft is a little more work than I wanted to do. My thought was that if I could recover the gear case I could throw the rest of the 1500 out and recover the garage space. This is better. I'll get a chance to practice balancing rods and pistons.

I've been thinking that it would be nice to have a slim gear case for those light days when the regular lower unit seems too thick and heavy. Perhaps I should just keep my eyes open for a Sport Master case.


Your time is appreciated,

Tom Brown