21' Suntracker FB motor swap

[Tony T.]

Recently bought a 21' Suntracker fishing barge that had a bad powerhead, 70hp Force. I had a 75hp Mariner that I mounted on the Suntracker.

My question is, does the cavitation plate on my motor need to be even with bottom of the toon? I used the second set of holes on my motor not really thinking about it at the time and just today I decided to measure with a level from the cavitation plate to the toon. I marked it and measured from the mark to bottom of the toon and it is 3".
What do you guys think, should I go ahead and move the motor now down to the last set of mounting holes or try it out first with the 2nd set of mounting holes?

I got every thing hooked up except the power tilt and it's a make shift set of jumper wires I rigged up to lift the motor up and down for now. Also could you recommend where to buy a 3-wire harness kit for the power tilt, The original harness was wired into the Quicksilver control box and I wanted to keep it complete.

I'll try to get up some pics of the motor mounted here soon.

I do figure I'll have to trade out the prop also it's a stainless 13 1/4x 20 that's on the 75hp Mariner now, the Mariner was mounted on a 15 1/2 ft Skeeter F-80 bass boat.

Thanks for any info

Tony

 

[treker]

Re: 21' Suntracker FB motor swap

I have a Party Barge 21 heres a photo of the motor height, cavitation plate is about 1" above the bottom of the tube and I have no problems

 

[5150abf]

Re: 21' Suntracker FB motor swap

I would run it and see what it does, no sense moving the engine if you don't have to and it may actually run bette where it is now.

The being level with the bottom of the boat is a mono hull thing, toons are way different and since the back normally sits pretty low you may be okay.

 

[Tony T.]

Re: 21' Suntracker FB motor swap

Ok! thanks guys for the replies, this is the first motor swap I've done and really didn't know how critical that was. I'm close I believe so I'm opting to try it out first as 5150abf said. When I measured the cavitation plate it was level,so it will trim down still quite a bit, plus I can still lower it another 1" to 1 1/2" to the last set of mounting holes if need to be.

Thanks again, I like this site a "sea" of information.

Tony

 

[suncruiser24]

Re: 21' Suntracker FB motor swap

OK, I'm going to be picky, picky, picky. On my 24' Suncruiser, I run the prop arch right at the bottom of my toons. Use the trim (depending on how boat sets) to keep my "anti ventilation" plate level. Outboard have a "anti ventilation" plate, cavitation comes after ventilation. I know, picky, picky, picky. Boat safe and be happy.