2003 26 ZT, what to do?
 

Looking to pick up a little bit on MPH but im not looking to spend a pile of cash, its a 496 375 hp i was thinking porting the t-body and getting the K+N flame arestor to grab a little, and i was thinking of a computer tune for 87 octain (id run higher but i cant always get 89 or 91 or 93 so to be safe i would have to stick with 87 tune.
what parts would work best? who would be the best to tune this?
boat right now runs 60 mph on gps with 2 guys, no gas. with 4 people and full load it runs 57-58.
id like to be able to run 60 with a full load and maybe 62+ light.
i have a 4 blade and love it, so prop is out of the question.
i was thinking lab finish, but thats allot of cash, and i do allot of beach stuff and im sure it wouldnt be long befor the prop touches sand a couple times.

thanks

Your best money spent would be to upgrade the motor to the 425HP MAG HO version. All this requires is a cam and ECU reprogram.

and throttle body.......

you might as well skip the HO and do some raylar stuff. aluminum heads and intake would be nice and lightweight.

i do not want to get into the motor atall. i want to bolt on only, i dont want to spend allot, and i dont want to rip into the motor. we may be trading it in next year depending what Baja does for upgrades to the boat.
im very happy with it, but im hoping Baja will throw some of there little tweeks to it if they do we will be going with a 28 ZT or 27 convinc with a single ho, or maybe the 525. not sure yet.
i just want small bolt on stuff that is easy and effective, i know i wont see huge gains from anything unless i go nuts, but i would have to guess 1-2 mph should be doable

Take out the turbulators in the exhaust. That should get you 1+ mph and its free, quick, and easy. Lab your prop if you want also. I wouldnt waste any money on a k&n...it wont do anything but look better. There isnt any other secret to speed thats free or cheap. The raylar heads are bolt on, will bump hp considerably, and are 100lbs lighter.

Whats all this baja talk....thought we were talking about a check

yea, i want to pull the stuff out of the exhaust, but when im on the lake we have sound we have to follow by and the fish cops are hard to deal with, so thats out. what about the tuning, ive seen a few places that will retune the stock computer they say that picks up a little bit.


im talking check, but baja bought checkmate, so im waiting to see what baja does to the checkmate. its either going to be good or bad, im hoping its good, and we will trade the 03 for a new one.
we'll see tho

I thought Baja was just bought by Fountain?

correct. brunswik bought baja, fountain bought baja off bbrunswik (brunswik had no time to kill baja)

i spoke to checkmate last week, i spoke to the "owners" son

he told me that the old owner of baja bought out him and his father.

Well the turbulators wont do anything to sound. They are good for 8hp and a mph or two. If you are already running out your transom you wont notice anything in noise. I would be hesitant to mess with the PCM555 on your stock motor. Very easy to mess up and only a couple of places can legaly mess with them. Usually only good to clear up black soot on the transom. Labbing your prop and removing the turbulators are about as cheap as it gets for a mph or two....maybe better if you prop is way off for your hull.

how much is it to lab the prop? and who does a good job?

i saw some place that said $180 bucks, my buddy said its like $150 per blade, not sure which one it is?
if its 150 per, that a $600 mod to an already $600 prop, and the first time i brush a sand bar im screwed. if its $180 for the hole thing, i will send it out today.

as for the exhaust. it runs threw hull but has that quick and quite from Corsa so it has the Y style pipe that sends the extra threw the outdrive.

if i remove everything inside it wont make it louder?

not sure on the exact price to lab so check with bblades on this website....but im betting thats your biggest bang for cheap $$$. your exhaust turbulators are located inbetween the manifold and the riser. Its just a metal plate that resricts the exhaust hole a bit and is meant to catch reverted water and boil it off b4 it hits the heads and rusts anything. you dont need those in there if you dont keep your boat sitting in the water 24/7 and it is a proven 8hp. Has no effect on sound. B sure to get a new gasket for each riser when you remove those.

no kidding, i didnt know that was in there! i do however keep my boat in all summer long.
it comes out of the water maybe 2-4 times a season, i wash and wax the hole boat and bottom thyen put it back in, so i guess thats out for me as well.
does the older 454 mag have these as well?

nope...older 454's dont....only the 496 engines. If you look at the manifold where it meets the riser you will see a gasket, a metal plate(the turbulator) and then another gasket.

There are quite a few threads on OSO about these, and many people have them out and probably leave the boat in. I think it really depends on your exhaust routing if it is prone to reversion. The 375hp 496 you have has a very mild cam so it wont be sucking anything in there. I wish there was more cheap HP on these motors...but there isnt such a thing. Ive looked.

cool, i will have to poke around on that then and see what i can find, if i can do it, i will.
thanks allot

ps, these things are not like cars.
i can get so many cheep easy bolt ons and make power. these things come pretty much maxed unless you change big stuff.
just a tune in a stock camaro will gain a good 10-15 rwhp.

well.......you can get 10-15 hp on these motors for very little.....but.....that aint really enough to do chit for speed. It takes an increasing amt of hp to gain $peed the faster you go.

good luck

very good.
im going to call BB today about doing my 4 blade up.
if i can gain 1-2 off that and maybe 1 with the exhaust mod and a few tweeks i'll be happy.

thanks for all the info

if the boat was here to stay i would do somthing big, either heas/cam etc or atleast a blower. but it may be gone next year depending what the new ones look like

im just looking for that 60 mph mark all the time. with 2 people and little under 1/2 tank the boat was 59.7 gps it was 90* out side.

im on the fence about buying the boat fully, but we'll see.

if i do, im going to lab the prop and rip the exhaust apart for sound and maybe a little power.

I'll make you a deal on a HO CAM & ECU w/ ~40hrs. PM me if you're interested.

thanks for the offer, but i do not want to rip into the motor. i want simple bolt ons and thats all. not looking to spend allot or do allot. i just want her to run good so i can enjoy her.
if 60 is all she gets im ok with it. i'll get a bigger motor on the next one:drink:

Call Brett at Bblades, he will get you there. My old ZT 280 runs there with a 500efi and his labbed 26.

My buddy got a prop for his Baja from bblades. it was way way off.
he ordered the prop and paid big coin to over night it, put it on the boat and the boat vibrated big time, didnt pick up any mph. he called some one there, they said they would fix it, but it would be a couple weeks and he wouldnt pay shipping. well a couple weeks is out of the question in a couple weeks our boat season is over.
so he took it to a local place, they said it was way out of balance, they fixed it, made some adjustments to the cup (they said the cup was way off) refinished it etc he put it back on the boat and picked up 2 mph and no more vibration however he know has a $1400 prop that one scuff on sand will kill it. lol
no thanks on a bblades for me:eek:

Sorry I don't buy it. :grinser010:

yea, its because i made it all up:Whatever:

I can only tell you what i know for fact.

we put the prop on, put it in the water it vibrated like mad.
we took the prop off checked everything, reinstalled is vibrated like mad.
he called the guy, guy said its normal, we didnt buy it. he brought it to a local prop shop here in mass to have it checked, they said balance was way off and the cupping was off from blade to blade.
from there i was not involved. my buddy (who i have been friends with for 10 years) told me the guy wouldnt pay shipping on it and it would take 2 weeks to fix. the local guy said he didnt want to fix it send it back. my buddy didnt want to wait and paid the local guy extra to fix it.
he then put it back on the boat (i have not been back on t yet personally) but he said its no more vibration and picked up.

the top part is fact, i have no reason to lie, make somthing up etc, i thought it to be strange after seeing all the good things about them, but with this i personally wouldnt buy one, i was iffy befor spending the cash, but after this its even more iffy.

like i said, i have no reason to lie or anything, and i also know you cant please everyone, so one out of 100 props where bad, it happens, but i know i would have jumped that prop right to the front of the line to get fixed and i would have eatn shipping. thats just me tho