SEI lower units

[Kyle35]

Any comments on them? The good,bad,ugly? They are realitivley cheap and a 3 yr warranty sounds great, but I want some more info. Looking for one for a 1990 150 XP.


Modified by Kyle35 at 9:00 AM 4/5/2011

[gearcaseman]

These units are doing pretty good, as with any of them, they are subject to problems. But as you mentioned, with the warranty involved, they are hard to beat.

[kent61]

Ran one for the last 2 1/2 yrs on a 225 efi merc with no problems. You will need to change the lower unit oil after the first 20 hrs and again at 50 hrs if I remember the break in scedual correctly. SEI does not lap the gears in so there is a lot of metal shavings on the drain plug the first few times you change the oil.
Good luck
Kent

[beaveflipper]

I wish I would have known about the SEI units when I shelled out about 1300 for a rebuild back in 2009. One bonehead move on my part sure was EXPENSIVE!

[Kyle35]

Is $1300 the avg price for a rebuild?

[gearcaseman]

That depends on who's doing the rebuild. Just to add another fly into the soup, my R&D department has discovered an after market company making a heavy duty gearset for the standard size (H.O.) lower unit. This creates some interesting ideas. Back in the late 70's, we would put V-4 cases on our V-6's to attain better speed and handling. This worked great except for one minor detail. The gears just could'nt hold up to the torque potential of a modified V-6. Today's H.O. cases are having the same problem. The engines being produced today are torque monsters, and the gearcase is still the same as in 1979. Well, now someone is making a gearset of 12:22, which gives the same ratio as the 1.8 :1 The difference is the teeth are much beefier because there's less of them. If anyone has tried these, give us a report. I'm thinking of building a few to see how this works out. Let us know.... Thanks! E.P.

[bobbyhamrickdalton]

I have an SEI and I have had to use the warranty with no problems at all. I dont regret the purchase. Some points. Follow break instructions, do plenty of forward and reverse swift changes meaning at idle and firm during break in. Let it run in reverse a little. The warranty is voided under any competition format. Such as dog fights, tournaments. If it fails and you say hey it failed during a dog fight, they will say sorry read the terms. Dont get me wrong they were great with my replacement. Mine had vibration, severe and I know where that was headed so it hadnt really failed yet and it was 60.00 to get me a new one in less than 10 days. You will have to mount drive shaft, water pump assembly.