Ok, thanks all. Agree center of gravity is a great idea but already moved everything that can be moved to the back. My thinking is the G propellers doesn't look very sexy and are designed for a wide range of applications. My buddy run a very heavy boat with lower top speed with the exact same propeller design but different pitch and gearing obviously. The DPR drive has a much more appealing prop design from the beginning. But hear what you are saying and will ask them to be less aggressive in terms of reducing blade area. Peter, on the gear teeth wear. Are you saying you adjust the size of the front and rear propeller according to the wear of the gear inside the gear housing?

Sounds pretty advanced to me! You should open up a special Volvo Penta customization shop!!

of course you did that is the only way to do it, we wouldn't have expected anything less from you. I have to say I am extremely jealous of your selection of fantastic shop equipment and more importantly your skill set to use them all! How does one go about machining elbows and barbed and threaded fittings???

Hi Gustav,
Having so many hours on the drives has enabled me to monitor gear teeth condition and load patterns. On dpr drives i have found that the front propeller was taking much more load than the rear, as the engines were sitting on their rev limiters with the largest propellers that volvo make i knew i needed more pitch so gradually over a period of time i reduced the blade area of the front prop and increased the pitch on both props, i also run much more cupping than standard and i now have equal load on the gear teeth but i will probably have to make more adjustments on the new setup.

Regards
Peter

Hi All,
Virtually all the rigging is now complete in the engine bay the only wires left to run are for the steering transducers which won't be installed until after the drives go on as i don't want any joins outside of the boat. Have now started wiring the dashboard end all the canbus is in just the fuse board to finish of, takes me a little longer as i am not an electrician. Also finished shaping the carbon fibre nose cone and hatch cover these are now ready for lacquering , engine air intakes have been weathering outside for nine months and have now been lacquered.


Peter

A few more

Peter - Nice work (as always).

I have a question about the permanent magnet motors on the trim pumps. Looking at the OilDyne literature, these seem to have a lower flow rate than the traditional series-wound pumps for the same pump size. Did you go to a larger pump rotor?

Hi Chuck,
The pumps in the volvo engine boat are standard volvo issue which are oildyne 108 series the ones we supply for Ilmor indy drives and merc number 6's are oildyne 165 series with a larger pumping element. The permanent magnet motors seem to maintain better flow as the pressure rises so they must have a fair bit more torque.

Peter

Hi All,
Made lots more progress with the wiring very time consuming but i am actually beginning to enjoy it. Trial fitted the trim tab mounting plates these are now back at Carbon Weasel for lacquering, i also made all the hardwear to mount the steering transducers to the drives, there is a left hand and a right hand set, transducers are submersible to 2 metres.
This will be our last post for a while as we leave for Key West tomorrow.

Peter

Nice maloo ute! What made you import that one?

Thanks Kurt,
This is my 3rd maloo in England they are classed as a commercial vehicle and as i use it in my business as a daily driver the tax is only about £1000.00 per year with unlimited fuel and you can claim back the vat tax which is 20% the one in the picture has lots of modifications it runs bilstein suspension with poly bushes and the motor is supercharged with a cam and large injectors it runs 630hp at 6200rpm and a very flat torque curve peaking at 550 ft lbs at 4000rpm so you get supercar performance for not a lot of money and it's a real fun drive.

Peter