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Just wanted to share my experience with everyone sceptical about the SEI product.
I cracked my mercruiser leg on my 160hp 1970 silverline boat last fall. I was pretty upset as I just rebuilt the upper gears and that was about a $1500 cost. Seeing its was time to pack the boat away for the year I did not worry about it to much as I had plenty of time to come up with solution. I found several mercuiser legs on EBAY and other places but a used leg (not refurbished) was close to $2000 a refurbed was over $2500 a new one localy here was $4000. I found SEI and kept researching thier product. I finaly bit the bullet and decided to buy a SEI complete leg rather than just the lower that I needed. I was told that currently the only way SEI ships to Canada is through Fed Ex and my cost would be $230US shipping. It would be nice if there was an alternative for shipping to Canada ie: truck but even still $230 for 150lbs of freight delivered to my door in less than 5 days seemed OK to me. Now like the other Canadian I did get stung with customs charges of $255 which included the 7% GST Tax. I did anticipate a fee for a customs broker as anything shipped across the border gets this. Even after all was said and done I paid less than $2000 CND for a BRAND NEW drive with 1 year warranty on it.
When I ordered the leg I decided I would replace all the bellows, bearings and seals with new ones and ordered them from SEI as well
I decided to pay a pro to put it on as I did not have some tools required. I stayed in touch with the mechanic as he worked on my boat and he said the leg went on smooth. He did however have a problem trying to put the bellows on. The SEI replacement bellows were alot stiffer than the Mercruiser genuine parts. We wound up using Mercruiser bellows as we were just wasting to much time trying to get the SEI bellows on.
Now it was ready for the break in period. I followed the procedures recommended. 5 hrs breakin period ranging my RPMs from an idle up to 75% of max RPM. I probably spent more like 6-7 hrs during the break in period. I used mercusers high performance gear lube during my break in and again when I replaced the gear lube after the break in.
The gear oil I took out was as clean as the stuff I put back in. There was no burning of the oil nor any milkiness. There was some very fine metal shavings on the magnetic plug on the bottom of the drive but I would say it would be normal for a brand new drive to have this. There were no large peices at all on the plug nor in the oil that drained out. I have about 15-20 hrs on the drive and so far it is running great. I do have a slight whine when I use reverse but it seems to be getting quieter. I dont spend a lot of time driving backwards so it has not realy been a issue. If it gets worse or does not get beter by the end of the season I might consider contacting SEI to see what they suggest.
Overall I am very happy with the SEI product so far. It was very easy to deal with the Sales people when trying to determine which drive I needed.
The drive installed very easy with the exception of the aftermarket bellows. The costs was under $2000 CND. And should I do something bad like crack the drive or strip gears I know I can replace the complete bottom or the top seperatly for $600-700.
I cracked my mercruiser leg on my 160hp 1970 silverline boat last fall. I was pretty upset as I just rebuilt the upper gears and that was about a $1500 cost. Seeing its was time to pack the boat away for the year I did not worry about it to much as I had plenty of time to come up with solution. I found several mercuiser legs on EBAY and other places but a used leg (not refurbished) was close to $2000 a refurbed was over $2500 a new one localy here was $4000. I found SEI and kept researching thier product. I finaly bit the bullet and decided to buy a SEI complete leg rather than just the lower that I needed. I was told that currently the only way SEI ships to Canada is through Fed Ex and my cost would be $230US shipping. It would be nice if there was an alternative for shipping to Canada ie: truck but even still $230 for 150lbs of freight delivered to my door in less than 5 days seemed OK to me. Now like the other Canadian I did get stung with customs charges of $255 which included the 7% GST Tax. I did anticipate a fee for a customs broker as anything shipped across the border gets this. Even after all was said and done I paid less than $2000 CND for a BRAND NEW drive with 1 year warranty on it.
When I ordered the leg I decided I would replace all the bellows, bearings and seals with new ones and ordered them from SEI as well
I decided to pay a pro to put it on as I did not have some tools required. I stayed in touch with the mechanic as he worked on my boat and he said the leg went on smooth. He did however have a problem trying to put the bellows on. The SEI replacement bellows were alot stiffer than the Mercruiser genuine parts. We wound up using Mercruiser bellows as we were just wasting to much time trying to get the SEI bellows on.
Now it was ready for the break in period. I followed the procedures recommended. 5 hrs breakin period ranging my RPMs from an idle up to 75% of max RPM. I probably spent more like 6-7 hrs during the break in period. I used mercusers high performance gear lube during my break in and again when I replaced the gear lube after the break in.
The gear oil I took out was as clean as the stuff I put back in. There was no burning of the oil nor any milkiness. There was some very fine metal shavings on the magnetic plug on the bottom of the drive but I would say it would be normal for a brand new drive to have this. There were no large peices at all on the plug nor in the oil that drained out. I have about 15-20 hrs on the drive and so far it is running great. I do have a slight whine when I use reverse but it seems to be getting quieter. I dont spend a lot of time driving backwards so it has not realy been a issue. If it gets worse or does not get beter by the end of the season I might consider contacting SEI to see what they suggest.
Overall I am very happy with the SEI product so far. It was very easy to deal with the Sales people when trying to determine which drive I needed.
The drive installed very easy with the exception of the aftermarket bellows. The costs was under $2000 CND. And should I do something bad like crack the drive or strip gears I know I can replace the complete bottom or the top seperatly for $600-700.