I have great respect for anyone seeing that sort of speed in a 27 foot sportboat hull. I can see a big difference in the few extra miles I gained with the 600. It is a balancing act keeping everything straight and smooth. It varies according to conditions, though. Some runs feel like the boat could handle more power, and sometimes it is hard to put all the power down........
But that`s just where I want the boat to be - a demon to be mastered......

Ho wow , i missed your re-powered ...great set up you have now !!! be safe please , this thing could fly in certain condition

The 525 was doing a fine job, but I was really hot to run a blower motor, and the 600 is just plug and play!

Did some prop testing yesterday. I gave Maximus another chance. Until now the labbed 26" that I have proved to be useless on the 525 settup.

The 600 really came to life when given some blade to bite on. The boat comes up on plane really quick and clean (quicker than with the 4 blades Iīve tried) even though I was going easy on the throttle (the five blade and a blower team up to give the drive hell). Once on plane there is so little mid range slip, lower revs at higher cruise speeds. The response and character of the motor is more aggresive than with the 4 blade and alot faster than the 525. The blower starts to whistle instead of wining (does that make sense to anybody?) and sounds like it is really delivering the torque. It felt great. Bow lift was good, as the torque seems to carry the bow.

The response when throttling through some freightship wakes was a very good, and sort of makes up for the slightly snappy way the prop affect the hull on reentering. The 31" and 32" Bravos were showing some torque reaction on the hull at topspeed(I had to drop a little left tab sometimes) but the Maximus lets the boat run dead flat.

The 15 1/4" x 26" was running into the revlimiter at 81 mph. The 28" was taking me up to 83 mph at 5300 on smoother water than I like. I think the motor still needs more pitch to get the revs down a little further, combined with a some lively chop, I see another good number coming up soon..........

stephen how is the boat running whats the new props turning for speed, have hit 87 or getting there. art

Steven ,I have a 28 savage by active thunder and was wondering what the water pressure is suppose to be at on a525max .My gauge only goes up to 35psi and at 3500rpms its already there .Thanxhttp://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/images/smilies/cool.gif

I was running a maximum of 42 psi @ WOT. Around 30 psi @ 3500, if I remember right. That was with a standard XR lower, with dual water pickup. I closed up the upper four holes on the side pickups because of the high x dimension.
The 525 should run 20- 43 psi @ WOT.

The 600/Imco lower shows less water pressure (about 35 psi @ WOT, 26 psi @ 3500) but stays within the parameters that Mercury Racing specifies (30 -50 psi @ WOT), and the Smartcraft hasnīt complained once, even when flying between waves.

Ron at Imco told me that fitting their lower sometimes results in the water pressure running too high for some instalations.

My mechanical water pressure gauge isnīt hooked up, but I get a reading over the sensor, through the Smartcraft monitor.

Stephen thanks for the info,I was a little nervous with that number at those rpms .If that what merc recomendsthen I should be in the right area,Istill dont know what it really is at wotcause the gauge is buried,next time out I will check it with the scan tool.Thank you Phil

Stephen how is the boat running and did you change the drive height or are you at 4'' under stock = 3'' box and 2 '' shortie plus 1'' spacer . is that what you are keeping? and how are speeds.

Any Think New??

Iīm still running the 1" spacer settup. That combined with a 28" Maximus feels good. I havenīt been able to top the 84.8 mph that I ran early in the season (with a 4 blade), but Iīm very happy with how the boat runs.
35 hours in, the 600 really is just as easy-going as the 525 was. No issues. I towed a buddy in last weekend. 8 mph and about 1600 -1800 rpm, loaded up for about an hour. No temp issues, and the motor hasnīt missed a beat.
A 350 mile round trip spread over five days, running at all speeds, including idling in no wake zones for hours, has strengthened my passion for the motor even further. This was the longest period that my girlfriend and I have stayed on the boat for, and we both really enjoyed it.
Art, lets see some pictures of that monster motor youīve got there?
Stephen