SuzukiChopper
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2004
- Messages
- 782
I think I finally have my boat running at peak performance. I was plagued by no trim for a while and 25mph top speeds with a 16' foot boat and 100hp motor. I finally found out my hub was slipping so I put a new prop on. Had taken the dole-fins off in the mean time thinking this was causing problems. New prop = 33mph, trimmmed properly finally, and made the boat ride flatter. Never had reverse though. Tore apart LU, repaired clutch dog and reverse gear (thread in Johnson repair "Just some helpful advice"), new seals, etc. I also de-carbed the motor while I was at it.<br /><br />Decided to through the dole-fins back on just to see what would happen while I was out today. First off, motor fired RIGHT up and idled BEAUTIFULLY! Popped it into reverse and actually backed away from the dock instead of having to turn the boat around. Got out into the middle and wanted to play around a little. It was round, whitecaps, but holy cow did that dole-fin ever make a difference. Hitting chop straight on as well as riding perpendicular to it... boat really liked to stay flat! I was supper impressed. It also helped get the boat further out of the water and was pushing 40mph on any of the smooth spots I could find. Cornering was WAY better also. <br /><br />The de-carbing also helped the gas mileage HUGE. Used 1/2 a tank going the same distance, in chop, that would have usually used a full tank on smooth water. At $1.05/litre this was a really nice improvement. I must say that after today it really has me wondering how much better Smart Tabs would make the boat run!! (unfortunately can't afford them right now) I'm extremely happy and it's all because of the wealth of knowledge on Iboats! All I can say is THANKS!