Would be interesting to see performance of say a 38 lightning w 600 or 800 Turbo Diesel's? Anyone heard of this set up?

I think even the lightweight turbodiesels are heavy which may cause a balance issue. In the 48 EC with surface drives, triple yanmars are offered and they seem to be about 10 mph slower than triple 525's. They are common rail injected turbos but I think they are much lower horsepower than the size you are thinking of.

fountain has the 480 hp cummins in a 42 with surface drives . team taboo use to race one . you can find bill on sbi site under team taboo . robbie 82 mph

Yanmars not cummings. Ocean Performance built one for a customer and it runs 75-78 I believe. They are 440's I think.

We ran 87mph in the race boat. Yanmar 440's and Arneson drives.. That boat is now in Greece and our 42' lighting with the 440's is in Miami that boat ran 81mph weighting 13,000lbs.

fountain has now gone to cummins because of merc .

Yes but I thought you were refering to the race boat which had yanmars.

i was refering to the new ones coming out now . but thanks anyway .

There is no question that diesels in a Fountain greatly reduce fuel costs.

In the new powerboat mag this month there is a 21' nordic with a 500ish hp marinized duramax. It ran 70-75 (from memory) and got 8 mpg at cruise. It ran some very high gear ratio through an IMCO drive and a 34" 5bl prop.

I can hear the clatter from here!