42 Lightning whipples on 525's, water flow/oil temp
 

I put whipple's on my 525's over this last winter (2003 42 Lightning). Arizona Speed and Marine (Now defunct) handed the boat back to me after essentially bolting on the whipples. Problem now is inadequet water flow to the engines due to the extreme areation caused by the "positive lift" stepped hull resulting in very excessive oil temperatures running for any period of time at or over 4600 r.p.m. It has bravo XR's (1.5:1); sea strainers, adjustable keelpad pick-ups. Certainly somebody has dealt with this before--PLEASE HELP, IT'S JUNE!!!

The water supply for the engines should not have changed. The only new pickups should be for the innercoolers. What kind of oil temp are you seeing. Any extended period over 4600 rpm with whipple'd 525's is asking for problems anyway.

What is your water PSI?

I really hope you are watching fuel PSI too. It is VERY important on that setup!

The boat actually got re-plumbed (briefly)--sending the water from the out-drive to the innercoolers, with no efftect on oil temps as high 260 F (would keep rising if I didn't come off). It is now back to pick-ups to innercoolers. The water pressure gauge has the bounce all over the place thing happening (presumably due to the "foam" that is present under this part of the boat), baseline pressures are 18-20 ish. And Yes, the retrospectoscope has taught this non-mechanic very much about messing with things that shouldn't be messed with. And the "oh sure, done this a bunch of times, works great" advice at the beginning forced more air into the fire---I'm looking for anything to chuckle at these days! Thanks for your help!

I know someone that had similar problems with their whipple setups, so he removed the fresh water cooling system and went to an open setup.

Again, non-boat mechanic, I'm not sure what that ("open set up") means---can you tell me more?

Here are some things to look into:
1. Try putting a ball valve just before the overboard water dump on the intercooler. If you have pressure with the valve completely shut, you can start opening the valve until pressure starts dropping. You may want to invest in the Rhinda software that allows you to data log the ECU parameters. If you can maintain pressure, make a few passes logging your Intake Air Temperature. As long as your IAT's are below 150*, you should be fine. The lower the better, but it will live at 150*. You will need to keep an eye on your oil temp / pressure.
2. Upgrade your oil cooler - this is a must do
2. Check out the pickups the factory uses on the 700sci boats. They actually channel the hull to get clean water to the pickup. They are about $1000 each, but draw a lot of water.
3. You may want to go with IMCO lowers. They pull a LOT of water. Most people use pop off valves to dump unnecessary water, but that should not be a problem for you since you have closed cooling. May be able to find some of ~$2000 each
4. Pull the whipples, put the boat back to stock. sell everything and get a 42 with a 700sci's / #6 package. Not being a smart ass. Had a add-on SC boat, broke everything - engines, blowers, drives. My boat is completely turn-key and runs 110mph any day of the week. It was the best move I have made.

#4 is very much in play at the moment--thanks for ALL of the advice.

These kits ARE bolt on kits. You bolt them on, then the real work begins.

You got to love the single carbed 600+HP engines.

The 525's use antifreeze. The guy who built these whippled 525's had cooling problems so he got rid of the antifreeze system for an old-style open cooling system, meaning raw water flows through the block instead of anti-freeze. He beefed up the other cooling components as well if my memory serves. These motors were for a raceboat, so they lived well above 4600 rpms while in use.

However, I must highly agree with atx about putting 700's in the boat. Everyone I know that has whippled 525's has had some serious issues, including longevity.