My Tech Caught me Off Guard. Need Advice from a Pro.

[luckyinkentucky]

As many of you have been following my issues with my VRO on my '94 Vindicator 200hp engine I have somewhat of a wondering if my tech knows as much as he says he does. He's a young kid in his early 20's, and I'm kind of questioning his knowledge. Can someone with more knowledge and experience than me explain this to me?

We will start off with my service manual stating that my Maximum RPM range should be between 5000 and 6000 RPMs at WOT with my Power rated at 5500 RPMs.

With this being said, he told me today that my boat will easily get up to 5800 RPMs, but I need to keep it around 5500 and not any higher. He said I shouldn't try and push to 5800 RPMs even if the manual says it's ok.

The second thing he told me was not to overtrim to the point of throwing a 'rooster tail'. He said that a lot of people do it to get maximum speed out of their boats, but it's a bad idea. I have always been told it is ok as long as your tell tale is throwing out a good water supply then you are getting the proper cooling.

Any opinions?

 

[freddyray21]

Re: My Tech Caught me Off Guard. Need Advice from a Pro.

my experience with trimming has to to with watching the tach rather than the tell tale. I think if you are at the point where you are throwing a good rooster tail then you are risking over taching. If the tach and tell tale are okay then I think you are fine. I would also think he is right in the long run. While it will run faster than 5500 prolong running at that rpm will reduce the life of the motor imo

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: My Tech Caught me Off Guard. Need Advice from a Pro.

your motor reaches the rated hp at 5000 rpms. 5500 for wot is great, you go to wot, then throttle back to 5000, this will keep the timing at wot, and cut the fuel consumption, they are designed to run this way. the rooster tail, he's trying to keep you from burning up your motor. i'd say he is pretty much right on.

 

[Dhadley]

Re: My Tech Caught me Off Guard. Need Advice from a Pro.

First of all your 1994 200 doesn't have a VRO so right away we know he doesn't know what he's talking about. It has an OMS pump. While it look like a VRO pump it's quite different.

6000 rpm won't hurt a thing. What does he think will happen? I'd be curious to find out. Does he think a valve spring will collapse? Or maybe bend a push rod? You might remind him that your motor is a 2 stroke.

The rev limiter for your motor is either at 6100, 6200 or 6700, probably 6700. If you're not supposed to run it over 5500 why is the limiter so much higher? I'd bet he doesn't even know it has one.

We've turned those motors on performance boats right up against the 6700 limiter with no issues what so ever. If you by-pass the limiter that motor will go to the low 7000 range pretty easy. We turn a mod 3 liter well over 9000.

It's not unusual for a properly set up boat to have a small rooster tail. Big high ones are impressive (to some - probably the guy driving) but are mostly inefficient. As long as you have water pressure it won't hurt a thing. You'll probably slow down but........

 

[seahorse5]

Re: My Tech Caught me Off Guard. Need Advice from a Pro.

As many of you have been following my issues with my VRO on my '94 Vindicator 200hp engine I have somewhat of a wondering if my tech knows as much as he says he does. He's a young kid in his early 20's, and I'm kind of questioning his knowledge.

For the "VRO" knowledge, print out the following article, it contains more stuff than the factory teaches. He is an authorized and factory trained tech, right? Not just a kid who works on motors?

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

The factory built your motor to run up to the 6000 rpm redline. For best performance we find that propping them to about 5800 is ideal. You can then run it at any speeds that you want.

Some rigs lose speed with a large roostertail, others don't, so watch the tach and speedo to find the best and most efficient settings.