I believe the imco scx lower uses just one hole correct? I don't have a lower yet, my upper conversion kit showed up Friday

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I know I can't fill the one hole because the drive uses it for cooling itself. I get what you mean about it slowing a boat down, disturbing the flow of water around the lower. So you think I should try the drive as is alone before the thru hull? Should I even try opening the hole in the lower at all or just leave it alone?

And as far as what lower I'll be going with, I really hope I can get one of the SCX lowers to work good on this hull for reliability purposes. I'm not putting this motor and all this work in to the boat to have to baby the throttle.

But then there's 3 different scx lowers! Ugh

So tell us how you like the "horizontal" trim tab alignment. I have read pros and cons to both schools of thought. Thinking about this horizontal tabs would make leveling the boat in pitch more effective (trim vs. drag) but if roll control is more of an issue aligning the tabs with the hull would be more effective. Did you notice a difference one way or the other? I suppose the big difference would be just moving to a much better (faster) tab than the original Instatrim.

You might be able to get away with an SC lower which would be faster. I understand though going with the SCX lower if dependability is the main goal.

So far they've worked great. Yes there are lots of theories both ways on mounting the tabs. I can't compare theses to the original insta trim tabs, the livorsi 1050s are 22" compared to the insta trim 12". A couple of occasions on Lake Michigan we wouldn't of been able to of gone a mile when the with these tabs we were still able to go 25mile trip each way, not very fast or the funnest but it was capable.

The way I see it with them mounted horizontally they should also be able to provide help with chine walk at high speeds with less contact with the water. The outside corner of the tab would touch the water first and correct the roll or sway rather than the whole tab dragging in the water. I think this only works when the tabs are relatively large for the size of the boat. Again this is just the way I see it working.

There was a article that wildcard 09 told me about in powerboat I believe about a test bob Teague and others did on some factory race boats. One was a 25 outlaw with a Merc hp500. They reported that the outlaw did have some chine walk at the top end and their suggestion was mounting the tabs horizontally rather than parallel to the hull to correct it.

I think what I would like to do is at least test an SC lower at see where I'd be at with that lower and then go to a SCX lower. I don't want to have to worry about givin her too much out of the no wake zones or airing it out too much. If I was way slower with the scx then I'd run the sc but if it's a couple of MPH I'll give that for worry free

Interesting. If you find that article, please let me know.

Dan

Got a buddy with an Eddie Young blown 540 in a 26' AO cat running an SCX upper with an SC lower. SecondWind here on OSO. He's been running this setup for a couple years now with no failures. He doesn't baby the boat. He just went back to Eddie this winter for a head swap (aluminum vs. iron) and a smaller pulley to up the boost.

The article is quoted in this thread:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/n...ngle-heat.html

Did not work out for the original poster, it seems.

I don't think that is the article that I was told about. It was an article on 3 factory race boats, the 25 outlaw, a Panera I believe, and another one. I've asked for wildcard 09 to send the article over if he can find it.