Just purchased my first cat, 84 excal wellcraft. Would like to know what the boat is capable of.
Twin 500hp bbc
kaama surface
30 footer
7800lbs????
cleaver 36*
Had up to 80 with very little chop on test run rpms hit a wall at 3900 rpms.
Motors are high lift cams roller valvetrane and looks to be stock intakes, dont know why.
Am also looking for an alternative to holley, just hate them.
Please help!!!!!

Kneeslider74,

Congratulations on your new cat! If you have some pictures please post them. I also have one, bought it several years ago and love it, unfortunately I let it sit up to long and now I am going through it before I put it back in the water

36 inch wheel sounds like alot of prop. Which gear ratio is in the drives Bruce

I am tring to figure out what pitch prop are on the boat. All I know is they were 4 blades and port had a 2 inch hairline in it with a stamp of KME 986// J 655 & J 340. The Starboard prop has KME987// J 340. The ratio is 23 outer- 35 inner on port and 26 outer and 35 inner starboard. They are counter rotating but not a clue why they have different ratio.

Bruce, how R ya doin ? this 1 is going to take some time ! j Knee how did you come up with the 36 pitch that is huge. I do not think Kiekhaefer Marine ever produced anthing over a 34 or 35 pitch to confirm ck with Bret @ b-blades. The Kaama has a 19 spline shaft which is also used in both the #3 & #4 Merc. drives. Knee the plate on the side of the drive should indicate its ratio allthough it could still be different if someone changed the gear set with out remarking the plate. Knee if that boat is doin 80 @ 4K it will be in the tripple digits @ 54-56k rpm. any thoughts guys ?

Well those are Kaama wheels mine are also stamped KME. Best to take them to a prop shop and have the blades looked at to se exactly what you have.

I"CE i agree with Bruce on this that 36p is a TON of prop for that boat.

Now with that being said i did spin 17.5 x 34 6 blades 4400 1.1 gear ratio WAY too much wheel but went the fastest YTD with them

KME Stands for Kaama Marine Engineering. I am a little confused about the gear ratio. Are you talking about the number of teeth on the gears? Kaama gear ratios are typically 1to1, 8%, or 13%. They can be over driven or under driven. The drives are not counter rotated. Counter rotating is done by running one of the 502 gears in reverse.

offshore2 100% correct 18% over or under was also available infact I have seen some special gears cut at near 19% with bigger cogs on them. Casale Engineering in California will still cut gears and produce shafts. It's the housings and boots that are out of production. If you need internals ask for Andy @ Casale. Bearings and seals are off the shelf type items.

Car Biz, Lookin good you still have the spare set of props we spoke about some time back ? Went on break this year. What size were they ? So "knee" whats ya ratio plate indicate and how many blades on the props ? Ps CB those wheels ya have 19 spline or R ya using a shaft/prop adaptor for the 3A 5 or 6 drive, 26 spline.

ICE the spare set are the only ones i own

They are 19 spline 16.5x 24 4bAnd are for sale I borrowed a pair of adapters from Bruce and Ran those 6b's as a test. I am still in search of some props that will work for me.
CB