I ran a 26p on mine, and bounced off the limiter at about 50 mph. Formula told me a 28p was the correct prop, and with it I ran at 5000 62 mph. But I've NEVER seen a 271 with a 502 1.65 drive running a 28p Bravo 1 (except mine)

That's weird!! Maybe your "X" is different or they changed the bottom? Your speed is the same...yet we were using a 26 with the 1.65 at 5000. It seems there's more slip on your boat for some reason.

Even weirder is the fact that the boat will turn a 30 Bravo left hand prop but not a right hand....that still has me baffled!!!

Mine is also a 1.65 drive and I run a 26p Bravo at 4900 rpm. I don't think I could turn a 28p.

My 271 started with a 1.65 26" Bravo and similar speeds. The drive got stolen while the boat was in the lift and ended up with a new 1.65 and 26" Bravo - couldn't get the speed back. Ended up lab finishing the 26" to make it perform like a 28" and everything went back to like it was - never did figure out why - weird huh?!?! btw - its a real SOB to get a boat out of a lift with no drive and the corresponding hole in your transom.

I've been confused by the 26 to 28 deal since the day I bought the boat. I measured on other new 271 at the dealer, and the drives are in the same place. Equally strange is why the guys at the Formula tech group told me to run a 28p

Chase910,

There was a letter someone wrote to Powerboat asking the same thing about right hand props. Teague didn't really give him an answer but the guy gave the reason that Formua said that the boat was more stable with the left hand prop. You didn't say you had a problem with the boat being stable, but you said you had prop blow out. When you say that the 30p just blew out while on plane, do you mean that you were just running along at say 50 mph, and the prop started to slip? That sounds wierd to me too.

when you put the new 1.65 drive and 26p on, and didn't get the speed, what was the reason? were you hitting the limiter at low speed or it wouldn't wind up to 5000 RPM or ???

Sounds like tons of fun getting a boat with no drive out of the water. That sucks.

I got part of the story wrong - we put a lab finished 26" on when we went back together and it bounced off the rev limiter and would only run 60 - 62 on the speedo (like everyone else mine is 3mph happy). Consensus was that because of the increased efficency of the lab finishing the prop was spinning up to fast and we needed to either go to a standard 26 or send it to Mercury Racing and have it "tuned" to a 28. "Tuning" the prop to a 28 ultimatley worked so I guess the advice I was getting was right - but I'm not a prop guy so it could have been a bunch of BS.

I can't imagine how the guys that stole that drive did it - they must have balls the size of boulders. We borrowed a drive, put three guys in a boat and tied off underneath the transom - it sucked!

futz991,
yeah, running along at 50, any more and nothing but slip...all you saw was water coming out sideways from the rear of the boat from the prop slip! There was literally a rooster being shot out the side of the boat everytime I accelerated past 50. It was like the prop was exiting the water!

If I understand labbing. (which I might not) if you lab a 26, you gain RPM that the boat can run, so you can put a labbed 26 on a boat that wants to turn a 24 and get more speed. Sounds like you ended up with a labbed 28" from Mercury when you were done, which would equate to the speed from a 30p, with the pull of a 28. That would be a good thing. Plus its more in line at least with me running a 28p at 5000

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I can't imagine how the guys that stole that drive did it - they must have balls the size of boulders. We borrowed a drive, put three guys in a boat and tied off underneath the transom - it sucked!

I guess you can never figure out a thief, but there had to be an easier Bravo drive to steal than yours. But who said that crooks had brains

That had to be the wierdest thing to see. Sounds like the B1 prop was giving you stern lift instead of bow lift. Did drive trim affect it in any way?