Had bad alternator that squeled. Took me awhile to figure out.

Have you tried running the engine (under a fair amount of load) on muffs, with the engine hatch open and having someone listen to where the squeal seems to be coming from. I can't believe you can't detect, or close to, where the issue is.

i am going to try and diagnose it sometime this week. i will let you know what i find. i had it on mufffs earlier in the ear on the old belts and it was fine.

I would not run the engine above 1,000 RPM's for any length of time on muffs. You'll risk tearing up the water pump and over heating. If you want to run the engine under load, do it in the water.

Gotcha. In that case it might have to be done in the water. Bummer. Let me know what ya find......

I tried searching but found nothing on the forums...Does anyone know if the latham power steering system on the Formula Fastech's only uses one hydraulic steering pump? I have hydraulic pumps on both engines but only one seems to be plumbed in...I have a lot of squeeling from the port side pump and instead of replacing it, i am looking to just buy a smaller belt and skip the pulley altogether. any input is appreciated.

just looking for a quick fix for vacation until i can replace it...

In all of the applications I have seen, Formula only uses one of the pumps. Usually on the starboard side, the other pump is sometimes left on the opposite motor with a hose that connects the in and out as a loop thru. I would shorten that belt and leave it that way. There is no reason to run the spare pump.

Dave