2" shorty on a 28 excell

[Hot Boat]

Any one ever run a 2" shorter drive on a 28 Scarab Excel. Was it worth the $$$.

I already tested with a land & sea stern jack and had excellent results. Ideally I would like a stelling box in its place.

what kind of results should I see

The boat is currently running about 80mph

[Keith]

Sorry I can't answer your question, but your post reminded me of the days when I had my 28 Excel. If memory serves, I think the 28 Excel set a record at 96MPH at the time of production (maybe someone else can confirm or clarify).

The reason I remember is they apparently flipped it during an attempt at the world record, which makes me wonder about the limitations of the boat. 80 is awfully fast for that boat. Perhaps Mike J knows more details.

[Strip Poker 388]

When I put it on mine I did a lot of other changes at the same time .I never had any blow out and I could tell it was a little harder getting on plane . The one thing I regretted doing was going with a 1.36 gear I defiantly think this hurt me on speed .I would think the shorties would help . How much I don't know . The X Dim is pretty low on the boat . I would also think a extension box would help even more .Dan Archer at Archer marine did a lot of testing on this hull. He played with the x dim .I think he is the one that had the speed record.I talk with him about 8 years ago and he really didn't remember what the x was that they ran, It seamed like someone in his shop did the actual work on the hull.Remember when they raced the hull it was the 26 Scarab Lighter version.The 28 is thesame bottom but with a swim platform.

Being a pad bottom mine would chime walk and lay on it LH side when I was in the throttle .When it chimed walked the bow would hunt and dip in to the water feeling like it was going to do a 180 at anytime I never played with the bottom much ,that could of help I guess . I just keep throwing more power to it and not picking up any speed .


I was wanting the Stelling box but it was going to be a major job . You have to raise the motor 1-2 inches and my stelling headers where already touching the hatch.

The boat also needed the offshore style mounts I never broke a stock one But the torque pulled on the stringer so hard it cracked the bottom on the LH side .I had the fiberglass fixed but I think it was still pulling on the stringer so hard it was pulling the bottom putting a hook in that side .This could of been the cause of the speed loss when going up in power??? At full throttle when ya let out the boat would straighten up [get off it side ]

Hope this helps


Rob

[Scarab28]

Paul - What are you runing in it now? The best I've seen with mine is 77 MPH.

[Hot Boat]

The last time we GPS the boat with the standard drive I was with my wife

It was 90+ degrees , 100% humidity , dead calm water and a full tank of gas. Not the best conditions for a speed run.

My wife was holding the gps. it dose not have a recall on it so he has to stair at it to see how fast we are going. I had the boat trimmed high and she was riding very loose. My wife got scared and instead of focusing on the gps she decided to smack me in the chest to slow the hell down. I never got to run the boat for a long time to really get up to speed. She said she seen 76.5 mph and that was enough for her.. I guess.

If the weather was better and I had 1/2 a tank of fuel or less I would guarantee much better #s. I and lose as much as 300 rpm on a hot humid day.

To get top speed out of the boat I have to trim to the point that the drive starts to surface. The faster I go the more I have to trim up to get top speed. What starts to happen is the boat becomes very loose and flighty. sometimes it feels to loose.

We tested the 2" shorty on it and immediately we noticed a difference. We were cutting through a 2 1/2 + ft chop with out making the wife feel un comfortable. She noticed that the boat road better right away. We could cross boat wakes at 65 mph like never before. Cruse and mid range speeds increased by more than 5 mph. top end was about the same if not a bit less.

3300 rpm 43 mph
3800 rpm 57 mph
4200 rpm 64 mph
5300 rpm 76.5 mph.

the Temp was about 85 and humid. the water had a slight chop and we had 1/2 tank of gas

Again we had no recall on the gps but I did see 76.5 on the screen.

The boat did not get loose at WOT and this time the wife did not get scared and slap me. I didn't have the trim to its max to get her to run faster.

At first we decide not to keep the drive because I didn't get the top end we wanted.........But ........... after running the pirates run this weekend we were wishing we had the drive still on the boat. The better handling maked Jessica more comfortable. Also I don't like to run my boat at more than 4300 rpm during a poker run or for a long extended period of time. The increase in speed at those rpm will help a lot in a run.

I want to try a hydro-motive prop to see if I can get the speed up again.

for now we decided to sacrifice top end for better handling and better cruse speed.................And to keep the wife happy

For now



I also re designed the interior. everything is new. We now have high back sit down bucket seats like a cat. When I get a chance I will post some photos.

Paul

[Scarab28]

Paul - what prop were you runing. I tried a 32 B1 but could only spin it to 4800 RPM at 76.5 mph (Sound familiar). I'm runing a 28 B1 now at 5400. Same speed.

[Hot Boat]

Im running a Merc labed 26 B1 , with the standard drive I could spin it up to 5600 rpm. I dont know if the prop was re pitched at all . it has very little cupping in it. I got it from a friend that got it off the Internet. I want to try one of Stecz 26 hydromotive props. They didnt work well before but with the shorter drive and the 9" set back it might work well. I will let you know how it works.

I was also debating on taking out the hook in the hull. another oso board member in Massachusetts has a 28 and he said he was going to take out the hook. I would like yo get in touch with him and see how he made out.

I think we might take a ride up to Kingston this weekend. let me know if you are going to be around. Its surprising that we never passed each other on the river. But I dont get north of Newburgh much.

[Scarab28]

Thanks - keep us informed on how you make out. Look me up if you ever get on the South shore of Lake Ontario. If you've heard of our glorious Fast Ferry, I'm very close to where it docks.

[terrygar]

Paul, great looking boat. What year is your boat? I really like your colors and interior.

I have an 88 that I got in 98. My wife and I completely went thru it and I had a 502 efi put in along with silent choice in 2003. After getting all the wiring and new parts issues figured out, I put it in winter storage and only ran it once for a few minutes.
Then in 2004 ,I never took it out of the barn because we are moving to Ft Myers, Fl from California in 2007 and I spent alot of 2004 getting a property on the water where I could put a dock/lift and stop all this launching business.
Well last winter we had terrible snow storms in Tahoe and the vinyl barn that housed the boat came down onto the scarab! God was with us and the metal structure stopped within 1" of the hull. Needless to say I had to go up there after each spring snow to clear off the roof to make sure it didn't do anything else ( I couldn't pull the boat out because of the massive snow build up).
This weekend I finally pulled the boat out and brought it to flat ground so I could see what happened. All was well and I got a new battery and tired to start her. After 2 years she turned over and tried to start but was just coughing. I pulled the fuel line and it was good gas but the mechanical pump needed a boost. I sprayed alittle starting fluid into the efi air cleaner and tried again. It started right up and with the bravo ears attached ,she blew out all the antifreeze and ran perfect for 10 minutes. So now I can't wait till we take it out for real in 2 weeks. I put gaffrig gauges in and they all seem to be working also.

Where did you get the bolsters and did you replace the swivel seats with the bolsters yourself? Thats the thing I want for my boat. Please let me know. I'll get some pic's and put them in my profile soon.
Terry Gardiner

[Prowler]

paul,what did you wind-up doing with the 2" shorty?dave