nascarLM21
Recruit
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
- Messages
- 2
I have a 2004 27' pontoon boat with a 3.0L Mercruiser 4 cyl engine with an Alpha 1 drive. I purchased this boat used a few years ago and it came with 2each 3 blade aluminum 16" x 16P props but I do not think they are correct for this application. I am not sure what the boat had at the time it was purchased new from the dealer because the boat seems to be underpowered to me and boggs down. WOT in the owners manual states 4400 - 4800 recommended, but I am only able to run about 4050 at best in perfect conditions when WOT. I do not want to buy a bunch of props to get to the correct WOT range and would be very appriciative of any help to get me to the desired range. I get confused when I start thinking of a 4 blade or stainless steel or diameter change along with the pitch change that I know I need to do. In most of my readings here I see I need to reduce the pitch to about a 13 pitch, I think, that would give me 600 approx RPM and put me right in the middle of the WOT recommended range for my boat. Is this about right? Should I also consider prop material change, prop diameter change, or even a 4 blade prop to help the under power feeling, and if so, how would this effect the pitch change that I need to do as well. I look forward to anyones help here and thanks in advance for you help.