Extention Boxes on a Baja 36 Outlaw
 

Cheers XT, thanks for your help so far, if you could pm the price of the front vee cushions and cockpit cover.

Also a bit of advice... i have a pair of 502 mpi gen 6s to go in the baja, they have had a ground up rebuld inc, fully balance, bored out '40 with had everything done the machine shop internally, also new wisco pistons, a wilder cam edlebrook marine heads, fuel regulators and new roller rock gear too. with these engines i was wondering if it maybe worth running with imco extention boxes and bravo with imco 2" shorties which i have from my old boat, any thoughts!? the boat coming over has the standard drives with it too

Any advice would be great if anyone has tried it:coolcowboy:

they seem to help running in the rough water the most,,,with a five blade prop ,,it stays hooked up in the water ,,,that's my experience with them:drink:

thanks twin spins... is that with imco shorties too?

any advice welcome

do one thing at a time,,,get some base numbers after you change something,,,if you put boxes on,,,run it with the drives you have,,,so you can see what is working for you

+1 Make one change at a time. You will thank us later.

Thanks for the advice, will run with stardard drives without extention boxes to start with.
I was hoping someone may have tried the set up and be able to say it does/ doesn t work

From my experience and that of Crayola Crazy you will NOT have enough horsepower to make a 2 inch shorter drive work.

I reworked my 500 EFI's to 575 HP and tried 2 inch IMCO shorties and it was a bear to get on plane even with 5 blade 28 pitch P5X Hydromotives and I lost top end. You will need to be in the 750HP and up (more up is better) range before they will help you any.

I have spoke to a lot of guys at Baja about extension boxes on the 36 and for the most part they did not improve performance. However with that said they used them a lot with stock drives back in the late 90's with the lower "X" dimension.

Your best return on your performance dollar is spent on the engines in HP and torque. Then expect to follow up real soon with more $$$ for improved outdrives because the big heavy 36 with sweet HP will EAT your stock XR drives for desert.

Just speaking from experience. Your results may differ. Do not try this at home "I am a professional".:evilb:

Good Luck

Thanks Dock for the reply, now i know not to go down that route and save my time and dollar!

Dock has tried most everything, HP is the only thing that helps.
I have boxes and 525's had to replace both drives last year with about 100hrs on each. I see 76-78 mph with boxes, most without see 73-75, alot of money for 1-2 mph. I wish I had gone with more HP and better drives, I really like my 36 and plan on have a few more years great boat. one of the best wave crushers around. take care

Cheers BOSS302....Well i already have the boxes with imco shorties and must be on the good side of 500 hp per engine so it would cost no more money as such buying the parts, so whats your thoughts...

go ahead and put them on, I hear the shorties dont work will with HP below 750 per side. let me know how things go. if you
can get on the plane and see a better top end let me know. thanks

I don't know on a 36OL, but on my 302 it's night and day with boxes and shorties.

I had a 302 with 500's it was new in 01, the boat was a hand full, above 80 it would chime walk real bad. maybe with boxes that would not happen. how is it above 80-85? I could have put
600's in it ( the 36) for about the same money, I now wish that I had went that way.

Okay we finally got out on Lake Norman yesterday for the first time since the boat was completed. First we checked the Throttle Position Sensors, then the timing and did some fine adjustment to the throttle cables to get them completely equal and mirrored to get other.

I put the 32 pitch 4 blades on that we have been running with the new engines and idled out to big water. The IMCO SCX drives only come 2 inch shorter and with the IMCO extension boxes it brings them down about 1-1/2 inch. So overall we raised the "X" about a 1/2 inch.

Much to my surprise the boat jumped up on plane faster than I ever remember it doing before. It hooked up and went! We ran it about two miles until the oil temperature came up and I got into the throttles. The down side was the very smooth flat water we had which scrubs speed bad off a true Vee hull. I quickly came over 70 mph, then 75 mph, all gauges looking great. I pushed the throttles a little more forward and started to hear the blowers singing a beautiful melody, it came up over 80 mph quick and right to 85 mph where I backed off and slowly shut her down to inspect everything under the hatch. All looked great and we made another run hitting 87 on the GPS. In the flat water that was about all she had without pushing the new outdrives harder than I want to until they get some break in time.

My thoughts on the extensions boxes:

1) They look really cool.
2) I no longer need to use the ladder to get in the boat.
3) They along with the drives made getting on plane easier.
4) The wake is really cool. Not a true rooster tail but cool.
5) Making a tight turn at speed felt much different than before. Not better and not worst just different. It will take a little getting use to.
6) Did I experience a performance gain? NO

I've heard that the SCX drives can scrub speed due to the larger foot print and the added horsepower required to spin them. I did not see that at all. Pretty much exactly where I was last year with the XR drives on flat water. I cannot get back out this weekend but look forward to getting out next weekend in rougher water and seeing if we break that 90 mph mark again.

I hope this helps a little. I did borrow a pair of 30 pitch 5 blades and we plan to run them next time and try them both spinning in and spinning out to see what she does.

Thanks for all the help guys, you know who you are!

P.S.

I have the original RED cockpit carpet with the Baja logo in it that came new in my 02 36 OL for sale. Good condition. I also have a BRAND NEW never out of the box original Baja full mooring cover complete that I would like to sell. I have two of them and almost forgot about this one. Let me know if interested in either. Thanks

Dock,thanks for the update it has been great to follow all the changes you have made and the results, keep the info comming.

Cheers for the update dock great hearing about your boat and your passion for it too, looking forward to getting mine back even more now, will stick with the stock set up to start with and go from there, cheers for telling me about your cockpit carpet but my boat is dark blue/purple, all the best,
Charlie

Cover?
 

Dock,
I don't exactly need a cover, but I do know these are hard to find. Maybe PM me with what your asking for one. And what color it is. I have white with purple. I have a mooring cover now in nice shape, but never hurts to have a back up.