McKee Craft 14 Fuel Econ

BUDXR7

Recruit
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
4
Just purchased a 1972 14. She has a 40 hp Force 2-stroke. I was pleasantly surprised to find out she runs like an absolute top. The only thing I did before splashing her was replace what ended up being a good impeller. So I've used the boat twice now, put about 50 miles on her. I've burnt roughly 10 gallons of gas @ varying speeds. I haven't buried the throttle yet because I know no way of calibrating the tach I just installed. I've touched 5000 on the tach.

Anyways, that economy seemed a bit low and I was wondering what experience others have had with this size boat. I'll have to check the prop size... I will soon enough do plugs and decarb and see if that helps. I think she's mostly dry because somebody (I assume this is aftermarket) cut a whole in the deck and installed a weather tight hatch in the stern for sopping out any possible water intrusion.

Any suiggestions on prop size for this setup? I'd like to be doing ~25-30 knots @ WOT of 5250 if possible.

I will be documenting my restoration eventually on my Comcast home page and will get that link up once I start posting pics. The bulk of the work won't be done until this winter however because I just want to use it right now.

-Ben
Lowell, MA
 

mthieme

Captain
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
3,270
Re: McKee Craft 14 Fuel Econ

I have a 14' McKee with a 35 Merc on the back. I burn about 1 gph and it does 25-30 mph. I haven't GPS'ed it though. I have a worn 13 pitch prop on it know with a replacement on the way. I also have a 14 pitch SS prop on a 40 HP Merc I want to try (stick on at the moment though http://forums.iboats.com/images/smilies/mad.gif.
 
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