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Blackhawk Drives- Reprint Hi Guys- since there is not alot out there regarding these drives here is an older blog with some info regarding them, again hope this helps some.- Al / Viol8or.

Everything that I wanted to know about Mercury Blackhawk Performance out drives; but had to learn the hard way. Complied By: Don Tamm, aka DonCig Posted on www.PerformanceBoat.us on 03-04-06. I have attempted to gather all of the various excerpts and bits and pieces scattered around the USA on the discontinued Mercury Blackhawk Out Drive. I make to promise that this information is accurate or complete, but I hope that you will find it of use if you decide to experiment with this performance marine out drive. The following excerpts are from my 1996 Mercury Owners manual: DonCig The BH drive is sold and authorized for use on the following power packages only. 350 Mag MPI Gen+ Blackhawk 454 Mag MPI Blackhawk 502 Mag MPI Blackhawk I have never seen nor heard of a factory 350 Mag Blackhawk setup. DonCig The following points should be considered when making the determination to use the Blackhawk Drive Unit: The Blackhawk Drive is designed for single or multiple engine applications in Mid Perf. And High Perf. Sport Boats that generally run in excess of 60 mph. It is designed for boats that have a natural Bow-Lift (where the stern drive unit is not needed to lift the bow of the boat.) The Blackhawk Drive is designed to operate with the propeller shafts running parallel to the water surface. The boat should be designed to run with a minimum wetted surface without porpoising at wide-open-throttle (W.O.T.). To achieve this, Delta-Pads, Notches, or Steps are often used. It Should Not be used on boats that have a Hook in the back of the boat (which would lift the stern of the boat and drop the bow.) The Blackhawk Drive Unit uses an X Dimension that is 3 inches (76mm) higher than the standard dimension used for the Bravo One Drive Unit (See Transom Cutout section in this manual for further information). Blackhawk Drive Unit: Should be mounted 3 in. (76mm) higher than the Standard X Dimension that is shown for the Bravo Drive Unit. This is a starting point only. Because of the wide variety of hull configurations, the proper X Dimension can only be determined thru testing. Through testing, X Dimension can be increased in small increments until desired performance is achieved. In no case should it ever be increased by more than 1-1/2 in. (37 mm) maximum. In ALL stern drive applications, extreme care should be taken when raising drive unit to ensure that water supply does not become aerated. Use clear water inlet hose to monitor incoming water and monitor engine temperature gage to ensure engine does not overheat.

General Comments, Excerpts and Observations obtained from a multitude of sources: DonCig

The X Dimension can be measured by the 90 degree Tool Method, or by the Tape Measure Method. 90 degree Tool Vertical Dimension Chart Stern Drive Unit Location Bravo One/Two/Three 13-9/16 in. (345mm) Blackhawk 16-1/2 in. (419 mm) IMPORTANT: This dimension should only be raised or lowered after proper testing. Lenny Green of British Columbia and a member of www.PerformanceBoat.us confirms that the Donzi Classic 18 has a 12 degree transom angle. DonCig A Blackhawk is 8 inches shorter than a Bravo. Excerpts from a conversation with Gary Eisenberg Sr. at Performance Marine in WI: DonCig A Blackhawk case is 8 shorter that a Bravo 1 case. So if you raise the X Dimension 3 per Mercurys recommendation, you have an outdrive that is protruding 11 less in the water than a Standard Bravo 1 outdrive, hence the large reduction in parasitic drag. A Blackhawk drive has about 70/80 pounds of parasitic drag at 70 mph. A Bravo 1 drive has about 300/400 pounds of parasitic drag at 70 mph. Most boat riggers raise the transom holes (X Dim.) 2-3 when installing a Blackhawk versus a Bravo 1. The bottom of the torpedo should be located above the bottom of the keel on my Donzi Classic 18 per Gary Eisenberg Sr. Gary felt that the front prop pitch and the rear prop pitch should be different by 2. Mercury used to ship the Blackhawk props out with a difference of around 1.25 to 1.5 between the two props (Front and Rear.).

Blackhawk Props:
Blackhawk props came in unmatched pairs in 27, 29, 31 pitches. There are some Mercury R&D props floating around that are outside of this pitch range. The standard production front prop was a normal eared prop and the rear prop is a chopper style. There were some prototypes that were chopper style in the front blade. I have heard of one set of 26 BH props in California at Eliminator Boats. Dave Hoss at Hoss Props did a lot of prototype prop work for Mercury on the Blackhawk. He still has some prop inventory of some odd configurations like a 31 front chopper prop. Both Brett A. at BBlades and Dave Hoss at Hoss Props stated that the front Blackhawk prop does the majority of the work up to 60-65 mph and then the rear prop would come more into play from 60 mph and up. Props need to be timed in relationship to each other. If you get the props one spine off in timing you will usually feel a rough vibration coming from the rear of the boat. The purpose of timing the props is so that the driving blade has a clear path of where to throw the water discharge. Think of a runners legs needing to be timed and it makes sense. To properly time the props put on the front prop with one blade pointing straight up at the 12 a clock position and then mount the rear prop with one blade pointing straight down at the 6 a clock position. Now as the props counter rotate each prop has a clear path to throw or push the water rearwards when the blades hit the 6 a clock down position. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect to need 3 more pitch on a Blackhawk prop versus a Bravo 1 prop when changing from a Bravo outdrive to a Blackhawk outdrive to obtain the same net mph.

Blackhawk Gear Case and Model #s:

A Blackhawk drive uses a 1 piece case, so you must raise the engine crankshaft centerline dimension (X Dim.) in the boat to adjust the propshaft location in relation to the keel. ie: to raise the prop shaft higher out of the water, you need to raise the engine on its mounts in the engine bay, to lower the prop shaft into the water you need to move the engine closer to the bottom of the engine bay floor. The bottom of the torpedo should be located even to above the bottom of the keel per Gary Eisenberg Sr. You can run the torpedo deeper in the water, but you will loose some of your top speed and you run the risk that the torpedo will create stern lift. If you run the torpedo too deep in the water the props will not be able to ventilate or catch air when the props swing to the 12 o clock position. I am running the props about 1.75 deeper than if I was to re-drill the transom. I do not have any issues with stern lift. I believe that I could obtain another 5-7 mph in raising the outdrive higher. I also have very good steering control which I believe can diminish as the drive is raised higher on the transom. If running an above water transom exhaust, make sure and remove the rubber exhaust hose in the lower outer unit so that you do not create a vacuum. When we installed the Blackhawk drive we had a lot of difficulty with the shifting mechanism when the boat was in the water with a water load on the props. We readjusted and lubed everything which helped a small amount. The best solution to the problem was installing the latest and greatest gearset from Mercury and setting up the gearset properly. Mercury has redesigned the cone clutch, their mating surfaces (Bump) and the shifter forks a number of times over the years trying to improve the shifting ease on Bravo/Blackhawk drives. This is another reason to try and make sure that if your re-gear or repair the upper unit on the drive you should try to install a whole new upper kit and not just a few components. After installing the Blackhawk in 2004 on my Classic 18, my GPS idle speed was 5-6 mph. The initial DonCig Donzi 18 Blackhawk installation was with a 1:50 ratio and 27 pitch props. We were able to run the boat up to 69.5 mph at 4600 rpm. By using the out drive trim we were able to see 5000 rpm on the tach, but the max. mph stayed at 69.5, which we could also obtain at 4600 rpm. We decided to put some 1:65 gears in the out drive to see how the boat responded to the greater torque multiplication factor. The 1:65 gear case was a much snappier package with this engine/boat package. Top speed only jumped to 70.5, but hole shot and acceleration improved. I ran both the 29 and 31 props and achieved the same top speed. Obviously the 31s were spinning slower than the 29s. The following numbers were seen at a Donzi rendezvous in Texas in Sept. 2005. 3500 rpm 52mph 13% slip

4000 rpm 60mph 12% slip 4600 rpm 69.5mph 11% slip Blackhawk gears and the breaking of them: Mercury has been working on improving the upper gears in Bravo and Blackhawk drives for as long as they have been making them. The Blackhawk drive suffered some durability issues on heavy high horsepower V bottoms. I have not heard of any durability issues on small block powered light V bottoms. If you have a Blackhawk drive that needs the top end rebuilt you would be wise in really making sure that you obtain the latest gear package from 2001. Take the time to talk to a number of Mercury suppliers/mechanics to make sure that you are getting the latest parts. Mercury and there distributors are not real diligent in making sure that old stock parts are removed from the dealers inventory.

Reference Contacts: Gary Eisenberg Sr. Phone # 920-236-4220 Performance Marine, WI Part of the design team on the Mercury Blackhawk drive. He has some spare parts and can custom build Blackhawk parts if needed.