Low water pick-up

[cola]

I have a low water pick-up only lower unit on my Bravo 1.
What would it do to change to the high / side pick-up's. The moter is a HP500EFI. Will I have enough water with this style lower.
Thanks, Mike

[RODE'S WAY BOATS]

why would you want to change it ? The side pick up could cavitate if your boat has enough lift to get the drive out and surfacing.

[cola]

why would you want to change it ? The side pick up could cavitate if your boat has enough lift to get the drive out and surfacing.
I like the shallow water where most people don't like to go. Just don't like sucking sand. ?????

[RODE'S WAY BOATS]

Most likley if you getting sand that is mixed in with the water it won't mater which pick up you have but if you are parking and letting the drive bounce off the ground it will help. The plastic W/P housing don't like thesand.

[ToMorrow44]

I have a low water pick-up only lower unit on my Bravo 1.
What would it do to change to the high / side pick-up's. The moter is a HP500EFI. Will I have enough water with this style lower.
Thanks, Mike
It also depends on drive height. Is the low water pickup a shorty lower? If it is, that's why they put the low water pickup on it so that it still picks up enough water. I assume that yours is standard because if you want to go to a side pickup that would be a standard length anyway. Assuming you don't have an abnormally high x-dimension, I would say that you'll be fine with the side pickups because Mercury sold the XRs with the 500efis like that.
-Tom

[BDMar]

The low water pickup is approx 5" lower than the bottom hole on the side pickups. If you are in shallow enough water to make the low water pickup a problem you will be getting sand/debris through the side pickups too. Beside killing the sea water pump you are probably filling the block with sand.....:idea: does this mean that you are also idleing in shallow enough water that the drive is trimmed up past the trim limit? That would be a whole new issue...

[cola]

I don't think I suck that much sand or mud. I have drainded the block a few times when it was in question and very little in the block. I change the sea pump every summer or when I think I sucked some sand. It has never been torn up or grooved from the sand. I always back flush the coolers to make sure they're clean. Maybe what I should do is put a pickup on the transom & a sea strainer. I was going to do it this winter but didn't want to have too much water pressure at running speed.???
Thanks, Mike

[Run_em_Hard]

I have the low water pick-up as well. A couple weeks ago I got enough sand in mine to completely clog the oil cooler. Not very good deal. I have an extra outdrive that has the mid water and I have thought about swapping myself. If you don't want to spend the cash on a new lower unit than get a thru-hull pick-up and that would give you quite a bit more clearance.

[cola]

Thank-you for the info guys.
Mike