oops, bent cavitation plate!

[wrestler20]

I was anchored in the river in an eddy when my anchor busted loose and before i could get the motor started the rear end of my boat smacked into some rocks. I thought i escaped without any major damage because the prop and skeg were clean with no marks. Last night while cleaning up the motor i noticed that my cavitation plate is bent on one side. It starts about even with the propeller and ends up being about a half inch high at the back of the plate on one side. Does anyone know if this is fixable? Can they be heated up and possibly bent back into shape? The motor is a 92 200 johnson gt. Is this something that will cause major problems or be barely noticable under power. Thanks for any replies, just trying to figure out what my options are. <br />Steve

 

[DJ]

Re: oops, bent cavitation plate!

wrestler,<br /><br />It is probably OK. If it performs OK, don't worry about it.

 

[wrestler20]

Re: oops, bent cavitation plate!

Felt pretty stupid though, spent all winter trying to get a little more performance out of my setup, and then smack it on the rocks. I have a hydraulic jackplate with a tempest plus prop that runs pretty high in the water anyways, but it sure doesn't seem like this can affect performance in a positive way, just not sure how much it can and will affect it. I won't have chance to get it in the water for a few weeks, so just curious if i should be looking into fixing it. Thanks for the reply<br />Steve

 

[bidlimit]

Re: oops, bent cavitation plate!

I used a hammer and a body dolly to fix mine. I held the dolly on the prop side of the plate and tapped the other side with a hammer. If you don't care about the paint damage, by all means use a propane torch to heat the area. Work slowly and don't crack it. It does take finesse. It doesn't sound so bad, 1/2" isn't terrible.