The boat had a 21 pitch prop stainless and for life of me can't remember if it was a 3 or 4 blade and boat ran wide open at just under 5000 rpm's on tach and gps'd at 55 max but was a mutt outta the hole. Guy said that towing a tube or anything behind boat would sometimes have to have a person up front to help plane out and that was with his other 19 pitch prop aluminum. Sounds line something was up, oh and no hour meter either which in researching these 208's it's doesn't look like a lot of them had hour meters so no way to tell how much it had been used. Was a river boat so my guess was used a lot for some long trips as guy would make runs on weekends from omaha to Sioux city on Missouri River which is about a 110 mile trip via river.

your PM box is full.

Just to clarify: The old 454's (7.4 litre--NOT mag) were originally rated at the crank. So the 330 you keep referencing was crank HP--310 at the prop. Around 1994 mercury changed the way they reported HP and everything was advertised with PROP HP. So the 7.4 litre became 310 HP--PROP, the 454 mag efi was rated at 385 PROP HP. The 502 was rated at 415 HP at the PROP.
Just like everyone else is saying going with a longer boat and more transom deadrise will give you the best ride. At a minimum you want 25 ft and 23 degrees of transom deadrise in order to get a reasonable ride in 1-2 ft chop. 385 hp will get you to 60 mph in anything around 25 ft-27ft.

Tried scanning the 97' engine options in the back of the brochure. A little fuzzy but you can see there were allot of options that year.

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Sorry about that. I cleaned it out now

Agreed that's what I thought was that it was prop hp and not crank. Appreciate the advice!

Boy oh boy I'd say thanks for info I think I am gonna hold out for a 212 islander no older than a 98 with a 454 mag. Seems to be the boat that would fit best for what I am trying to do.

I have to say that being new to this site you guys are awesome for info on anything to do with these boats! Has helped me really narrow down my search and look for things I normally wouldn't look for. Thanks a million!

You will prob wait a long time to find 1 with a mag, not many out their , id say it was a lot more money new and most didn't opt for it.plus your only talking about 2 or 3 mph more. My 208 pushed a 24 pitch turbo prop (3 blade) to 4800 rpm so the 1 your looking at not being able to over rev a 21 pitch don't sound right . most would have came a 23 pitch from the factory.

There is still a 310 HP 7.4 MPI and a 330hp 7.4 LX mpi model in addition to the mags.