happy hours

I have a 99 Vovlo Penta 5.0 GL with about 700 hrs on it and it has been down on power lately. I do a ton of wake boarding and typically have a lot of weight (ballast) in boat so the power decreases super noticeable. (struggles to get on plane). The tune up is relatively fresh (~50 hrs) and I checked easy stuff first. (throttle linkage etc. to ensure it is going WOT, all checks OK). It runs smooth, good idle etc so I doubt it is valves or something internal etc. I have not done compression test lately but plan to do that for warm and fuzzy. I checked timing advance and my factory manual says it should start at 3degree at 600 RPM and go to 26 BTC at like 3400 RPM and above. I checked it today while boat was in water and it stopped advancing at 22 degrees. The mechanical counter weights seem to operate smoothly by hand and and rotate as far as they are supposed to. What would limit the total advance and think that is it? I also noticed that although the motor has 4 barrel intake , it has adapter plate and holly 2 barrel so I might upgrade to a holly or edelbrock carb 4 barrel. I would hate to give it low end torque though (wake boarding). I suppose a properly adjust carb with secondaries would not though...true? Any thoughts on the timing and power decrease?

happy hours

Changed separating filter tonight. I drained the old one into clear glass and it was fine, no water. I double checked and the advance stops about 20 degrees about 3 k, no more advance after that. (It follows the trend per my factory VP manual to that point. I triple checked the mechanical advance spins/returns free and looks fine. I might try to advance it slightly and sea trail it to see if it pings, but since it all electronic I doubt it moved. Manual says it can be 6 BTDC if I run 89 octane I think I will do compression test tomorrow night.

happy hours

I checked compression tonight and changed plugs, compression was about the same as it was ~250 hrs ago. One odd thing is back plugs were wetter as I did compression test. I thought they were getting wet, I thought from the cranking with no ignition doing compression test , but the front side on the last side were pretty dry when I got over there. (started the compression test and did it in 1-3-5-7-8-6-4-2 order)

Anyhow the compression test results:
#1 172psi
#2 160psi
#3 169psi
#4 170psi
#5 175 psi
#6 165psi
#7 172psi
#8 170psi

Numbers look god too me, so I guess it is not major internal problem.

happy hours

Bump....No thoughts from the props ?