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Well...we are kind of speechless. Picked up the boat with new engine on Friday. Word at the dealership was very grim.
"So what kind of RPM's/speed were you getting?"
"Not sure, it was ventilating so quickly we couldn't even really tell"
Needless to say, we handed over our check, and drove home with our boat feeling pretty crappy given their in person report. Before we left, we had them put on the new 9 pitch propeller. We figured we wouldn't even try the 11 if it was that bad.
Spent the rest of Friday getting all the furniture and equipment back on the boat and routing the NMEA 2000 cable so we could get engine information on the Lowrance HDS 5.
We had the boat in the water by about twelve thirty on Saturday. We christened the engine with a Miller High Life and hoped for the best. Me and the other owner had it a 50:1 odds we could get past 1/4 throttle - and the odds of it actually working really well given the dealer report were 100:1 or higher.
When we fired up the engine things sounded really good...we putted around for a bit while I worked on getting the engine data up, which worked really great. I love having all that engine info on the depth finder. So, in an effort to get the disappointment out of the way we both looked at each other and said "lets do this".
I slowly added more throttle...first 2500 RPM and about six or seven mph...then 3500 and up to eight or nine...then 4000 RPM and cruising at ten or eleven...then I put the lever down...15 MPH and no ventilation or cavitation!!! Plus the torque on the engine prop combo was amazing! Our WOT RPM's were a bit low at 4800, but we can figure that out. Its in the double oil break in period right now, not sure if that has an influence.
I have some great pictures of the OB height...Sea Ryder if we aren't TIP TOP I think we are really damn close! Bottom line we are thrilled, we actually upgraded our big ole boat from "slow fishing barge" to "mid-performance pontoon". We even had full trim range at WOT and it stays completely connected in turns. We had to work very hard to make the engine cavitate.
We just wish the dealership would have tested a bit more. The six weeks between when we dropped it off and when we could get back to it have been awful and full of speculation given the report from the lake test. The stress has taken years off my life haha. We put so much work into getting that new transom on and restoring other parts of the boat it was just a very bothersome to think all our hard work was for nothing. Now we can confidently say the boat is performing the best it ever has and we have the reliability of a new generation outboard. Its fantastic!
Bottom line the 14x9 prop and all the gear weight was the magic combo.
Thanks for all the help/guidance all.
