We own a 1989 300 Sea Ray sedan bridge for almost 10 years now. We love this Sea Ray! It is a twin screw powered by big block 454 Mercs. The time has come for us to drydock the vessel for bottom paint and shaft gland packing. How do you feel about just installing brand new dripless shaft seals with the extra repair seal style? We appreciate your input. Thank you, Kosiedreamer
Waste on money IMHO>. Use real Goretex GFO packing. You can safely run that dripless without changing your boxes.
Hi, A. How much leakage have you experieced in your 10 years? B. For any leakage you've had, how much work has it been to pump out/clean up? C. How much will it cost to install new seals compared to repacking what's there? If the answers to the above are A. Not much, B. not much, C. quite a lot, then I'd personally stick with what you have. Then again if the answers are A. Lots, B. Lots, C. Not much, then I'd probably change. I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the type you mentioned, any chance of a link?
I'd keep what you have and put Goretex in it as well. I ran a vessel 5300NM over the course of 5 months, and didn't have any drips, and also did not have to even tighten it in the entire time. The cost of installing the dripless is not worth it. also the dripless, usually end up dripping within 5 years and have to be replaced anyways, at a further expense.
Gfo is the way to go as long as you have reasonable access which is unlikely on a sea ray... It is really almost dripless. The big downside to dripless is that as reliable as they are if they failing s usually a serous failure where you have to haul out right away The only case we re I d want them would be on a vee drive since the stuffing boxes are under the engines I ve had (or ran boats) with conventional packing, GfO, Pss etc. I have gFO on my own boat right now and wouldnt switch
