Been following your thread and IMHO I think the perfection your striving for is somewhat of a lost cause. The equalizer is doing what it's meant to do..
Sounds like carb issue, the idle circuit is probably still fouled. I hope you replaced the impeller and gear oil. At that age most of the seals and rubber bits are not good..
I understand the benefits of both, but neither is essential when you know how your boat preforms. The limit prevents you from raising the drive too high while racing your neighbor's boat.
Depends on what you're testing. If the system is drained you could set 30 gallons of mix on your swim platform and feed the drive from the bucket with muffs but you'd be very limited for time and RPM..
