Too Stroked

Yea, I'll buy that. But I've also played the game at the marina with shorty lowers on various boats with very limited success - except where somebody was going pretty fast already. I even had a friend with a Chaparral Villan that had a stock Alpha drive and a shortie Alpha SS. He saw more difference in speed (he was running low 60's) by changing props than he did changing drives & drive heights.

But, since the OP already has everything torn out, what the heck! I just hope he doesn't go too high and eliminate his ability to get up on plane. I don't think anybody is making spacer plates for King Cobra drives!

Panther

I'll side with Too Stroked on that one as well. If the boat isn't fast to begin with, the advantage of raising the X or using shorties is less in my opininon.

Too Stroked

Thanks man! I was starting to feel kind of lonely on this one.

Itsallgood995

Being my drive was the last generation of the OMC under the joint venture w/ Volvo is there any difference? Look @ my drive & compare it to the VoLvo SX its nearly the same? Is it just stickers?

blue thunder

I'll also concur with the speed idea. I was already in the low 80s before raising the x. Probably would have been a much more modest result if I was running low 60s to start.

Itsallgood995

Got the boat out of the shop yesterday & it looks great! Can’t even tell anything was moved. I didn’t have the exhaust moved & now think my steering will be located in the middle of one of the cutouts. Hope it doesn’t take another two months to get those holes relocated.

I also decided to do away with all the OMC stuff. I have a 06 bravo III drive that should ship in the next day or two. I’m going to convert it back to a bravo one. Found a bravo 1x lower but haven’t confirmed if it’ll mount to my upper. Should have the new transom shield & gimbal assembly mounted in the next week or two & get the motor back in. Still need to locate some taller motor mounts.

blue thunder

If you have pedestal mounts you can just buy some Aluminum bar stock the right thickness and space the existing mounts up and equal amount to what you raised the transom assembly. Thats what I did.

jeffswav

I had mounts fabricated at a welding shop that wrap around my stringers and through bolt. Then mounted the merc mounts onto the bracket and through bolted those also. Take a closer look at my post.

stlliberator

iTrader: (1)

My baja has the x raised 3 inches. Its a 24 outlaw/sport. It doesnt come on plane all that great, but that might have alot to do my prop selection. Going to cure that issue with k-planes, that I havent installed yet. But, if you have a king cobra outdrive..I wouldnt mess with it..you will end up doing all that work, and you will blow up a outdrive, and spend tons of money finding a replacement. I would find a bravo replacement before you even do all this work. Have you thought about when you trim the outdrive up all the way to the trailer position will it hit the swim platform? I had to rise the platform on my baja cause of the location of the exhaust tips. Also you might have a issue with water pickups on the outdrive. I dont have a lwp on my bravo, but Im really lucky..cause we ran a straight edge off the bottom of my boat to my outdrive, and it looked like I would only be getting water to the bottom hole of the water pick up...but luckly I dont have water pick up issues with the motor running hot, even at full trim, and I trim alot to get the nose of the boat out of the water..I did pick up mph in my boat. I would love to even try a imco shorty on my boat even with the raised x. Just to see what would happen. Oh and luckly I had enough clearence under the hatch, I can still run a 3 inch eddie marine cleaner under the hatch..but if and when I get a blower I might have some serious issues with clearence even with a scoop...I just used the dana marine mounts that are 3 inches higher..

Itsallgood995

I’ll look into those Dana marine mounts. I was just looking on the McMaster Carr site @ their Aluminum 3x3 square tubing. I was thinking of using that in between the motor mount & the existing aluminum L angle mounts. Only problem is the tubing is .25” wall thickness & I’m not sure that’s strong enough?

I had clearance with the KC drive & swimdeck. Now that I am converting to a bravo with the low water pick up that clearance may have changed. The motor did & still sits low so there is lots of room under the hatch. Maybe even enough for a small blower someday.

My hull has large afterpods molded into the hull that basically act like K planes so planning shouldn’t be a problem.

How low is your prop now & how much speed did you gain?