will the imco shorty's help or not?
 

I have a 1996 32 fever that I have repowered over the winter to 600hp a side. I am replacing the outdrives and was just wondering if anybody had any knowledge of the speed gain with -2" shorty imco lowers? I read on another thread that somebody picked up as much as 5mph with a similar hp application.

With 600 hp in a 32 you should be at 90 +/- and at that speed the Imcos should be worth at least 2-3 mph over the std Bravo lower. The -2 set up could go either way, but likely would add another couple. The X in the late nineties was more conservative than it is now so you could see some real gains.
A 32 at 90+ is a real blast.

be carefull of running the imco on the 32. the nosecone design didn't work to good for me. had a hard time proping the boat too. i ended up going back to bravo drives.

Talk to EWB.

He has a 99 35' with a small step and he went with a -2" shorty and a little more power and is over 100. His X dim on the "fun" sheet from fountain was 16 3/8 or 16 5/8 or something close to that and he went with the -2 and it worked great.

I've heard that a 35 with the same power as a 32 will go faster than the 32? Is the balance that much better on a 35? Not that it matters, my budget and slip restrain me from moving up.

Yes, the balance is much better on the 35 than the 32. What is your X dimension.

not sure, I think it is very conservative. last summer I was running 27 pitch hydromotives and didnt need tabs to get out of the hole. With the tabs down I can get up on skis behind it

1200HP in a 32 has to be a handful...I would worry about stability going to the shorties.

Had two friends that had that much in 32s. One with beefed up 525SCs, the other with modified Bulldogs, one just under 100 mph and the other just over. You need to know how to drive, but they ran well.

I'll agree that the 35 is a much better platform for near/over 100 mph endeavors. I had a 32 Velocity that ran just shy of the 100 mph mark and the 32 Fountain is a better running hull at that speed, hands down.

I had a 26 american offshore that ran 100mph. Im hoping for mid 90's with this setup. The boat drives itself at 78, but I am going to take my time and see how she does getting up there. I do know one thing, spring cant get here soon enough!

i would add the stellings ext boxes and run then in the raised position, the extra length plus raising the drive will help speed and stability

You are going to need 5 or 6 blade props. My friends 32 would not come on plane with the -2 shorties and bravo one 4 blades no matter what he tried. He ended up putting the stock lowers back on because he did not want to test props.

I run hydromotive 4 blade cleavers and it comes out of the hole great.

Top End,
I think your approach to this is a good start. See how it handles and performs with your original props first. When we went to 600HP from 500HP's, we put back on our 28 Hydros for baseline testing. Handled well, but hit the rev. limiter fast.
Tom at Hydromotive was able to repitch our 28's to 29's. That may be all you will need as well after the shorties.
Carder

carder, did you change gear ratios in your outdrives? I'm going from 1.50 to 1.36. of course I'm going from 415hp to 600. I was on the hydromotive website and they have an exchange program also. That sounds like the way to go.

with the -2 lowers?

no. standard bravos. of course that was last summer when it was a stock 502 boat.

topend,
We kept gears at 1.5's. Because of that, we ultimately ended up with 31p 5 blades, which is equivalent to going up 4in in pitch. Our new peak HP ended up at 5600rpm, vs the old rev limiter that was at about 5150rpm.

Going down to 1.35's will help get your original props closer to your ultimate RPM goal once you determine your peak HP/ peak Torque ranges.

There's nothing better than dialing in new horsepower!!

Carder

did you recalibrate your ecu's?

switched to MSD's w/ carbs. Tyler Crockett dialed us in. If we would have had EFI's, he would have remapped the ECU for us.

my 2001 32 fever with a single step runs over 100 with -2 imco's...4 blade labbed Bravo 1's and 1.36 gear ratio. Comes out of the hole easily with tabs down. I say go for it! It works great on mine.:ernaehrung004:

I have a 35 fountain with imco 2'' 1.5 and 675 hp efi Ron sporl built and mark at precision marine maped and dino. Have had no problems>

I have had every hydo prop on that boat u can think of

runs rite at 100

The boat is at fountain factory as we speek getting a windshield installed and some other goddies.

Brian at Fountain said one of my biggest problems with getting on plain is I have 15'' diam. props and I need 15.5 or 15 5/8 (5) blade to get on plane and remove the 1'' spacers. He recs. max 5 blade props

I am going back In several weeks to spend a week trying to get this 102 or 105 mph bryan said we could get out of the boat and improve getting on plain.

It may take a little while because I am finially getting married after being a 48 year old bachlor. She might slow me down a little.

After my funeral is over I will let you know what happes in washington NC :cool:

Do you know what your "X" dimension is?

I tried some 15 5/8's Maxes on my '06 35 Lightning last spring and the on plane was marginal.

Please keep us posted on how you make out at Fountain, would be interesting.

Cyberuss,

Where do you have your tabs set when running that fast? On my 2000 anytime I raise them up past 3 the boat wants to chime walk bad, even when only going 70.

Little over 19 I have 6 blabe hydo 15x32 and dam hard to get up but runs almost 100

Once I put shorties with nose cones that stoped on my 35 but I could not get on plain so I had to install a 1'' spacer to let us get on plain

My boat is set up with a 19" X with a 34" center on the engines. Those numbers seem to be the norm for any '06's I have seen and most '05's as well.

Is the 19 on yours after the -2" drives and the 1" spacer are figured in? Or is it the factory std bravo dimension making your actual X higher?

After the 2'' and with the spacer and what does 34'' center on the motors and how do I find out what mine is.

So essentially your effective X is the same as mine, if I'm following what you're saying.

The center deal is the distance from the center of one engine to the other. Easy to measure, go to the transom and find a point on one transom assembly and measure to the exact same point on the other. Or, call Fountain with your serial number and get your perf report, it is right on there. I don't think the center line effects the boat that much, although the closer to the keel center line the weight is the better the boat will handle, ie. the advantage of staggered set ups.

Be real interested to see how you make out with Brian @ Fountain and what he comes up with for you. I would think that with your HP you should be over 100. I've seen as much as 94 with some 5 blades on my 525 boat.

I will keep you posted> You know if brian can get the spacer out and get that boat on plane with 5 blade 15.5x33 man will that boat fly. It dosent chime walk at all now. I can turn 32x15 6 blades 5500 rpms now.

I have -1 Imcos on a 38, with stock 525's they were one of the needed steps to get the boat where the Fountain performance report said it once was. Tried stock 5 B Maximus props, it hooked up like backing a screw out of wood, but the top end was down. I was actually worried about taking the upper gears out again. Back to B-Blades to remove the cones and do the lab - back to 90.5.

I remember when talking to Brian he mentioned that the 35 would sometimes go thru a chine walk deal between 90 ish and 100, then after 100 ran straight as a string. I've never seen it, only low 90's here but this thing runs like it's on a rail in pretty much anything. I've got BBlades doing some more work on the 5 blades to see if we can get the speed back that we lost with the lab job. If not then it's back to 4's and work them or try Herings.

Idle curiosity here, what's it cost to get Brian @ Fountain to dial the boat in?

You dont talk money with Brian.

Be thankful he has anytime at all to work with you and just pay the bill.:eek:

Wildman,

My 2001 32' chines pretty hard around 73 to 78....that is with tabs all the way up....as soon as it starts I drop them to 2 or 3..stops the chine...continue with throttle up and then raise the tabs again......It absolutely feels like its on rails at anything above 78-ish......700 h.p/572's....bravo uppers...-2" Imco's 30 pitch labbed bravo props......going to experiment with different props this summer..

Good luck,

Russ

Thanks Cyberuss,

Mine walked so bad around 70 I never tried to bring them up past 3 again (Level on my boat), then again it only runs about 82-84. I still have the stock B1's and 4 blade hydros.

Was thinking of trying BB blades this summer, that is if I find a job.

RUSS!!! Since I can't PM anymore, I was hoping you would pop back up on here sometime. When I was in the Tri-Cities, I went to that outdoor store by the mall and heard one of the bearings in the old truck making a bad noise, so I took it back to W.Richland and parked it and was gone back to Fl the next day. Then, my dumassss lost your number. Hope to come back up this summer. You can email me at [email protected] if you want. Hope all is well.