holes in vent plate

chris650

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 11, 2013
Messages
159
Hello everyone! On a recently acquired lower merc unit, there are some holes drilled thru the vent plate where the previous owner had a whale tail mounted. The boat that im putting it on has trim tabs, so the whale tail wont be used. Will having those holes there affect performance? Im concidering plugging them up with some j-b weld for now. Just curious.
 

thumpar

Admiral
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
6,138
Re: holes in vent plate

My old boat had holes drilled from a trolling plate mount. Never caused an issue for me.
 

achris

More fish than mountain goat
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
27,468
Re: holes in vent plate

The only issue they might cause is corrosion... As far as performance... Nothing....
 

animal55

Cadet
Joined
Oct 1, 2013
Messages
6
Re: holes in vent plate

I had the exact same thing, used to have a whale tail on my outboard. I removed it and installed smart tabs, now my 22 year old boat runs better than some new boats I have been in. So performance-wise I lost nothing.
 
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