Cattitude

There's a general rule often stated on the board that it takes about 100 ponies to pick up 5-6 mph.

I just wanted to share that I found the same speed gains by leaving the engine alone and playing with Imco shorties and merc labbed props. details can be found in the eliminator forum. There's likely a few more MPH to be had when I burn some fuel off and try a labbed 30. This may not work for all boats and it does take some trial and error.

Often we are tempted to keep throwing $$ and man hours at the engine to net similar results. While more is better, it does come at significant cost and a bigger load on the Bravo. Through the set-up route there is no greater load on the drive, I actually upgraded components and reliability in the drive while making performance gains while leaving my "mild" 454magefi with Whipple in stock configuration.

I just wanted to remind all not to ignore what there is to be had in set-up.

Oh yeah- I'm in 90mph club now

Advantage_Rob

Cat, I'd have to 100% agree with what you are getting at here. From new, On my stock 502magEFI's I set my timing, to where it was supposed to be,(Merc was 10-12 degrees off from thier own recomendations) changed the tow of the drives from zero to 1/2 out, tried lots of props, set alignment from good enough to spinning freely, and picked up about 6 mph from where I started, and only thing that cost me were props I still am out to lab the prop's, I'm sure that will increase the gain, but a cat is so much more efficient in the faster it goes the more efficient it gets. The numbers on getting a cat dialed in just right should be even better. It's a pretty strange feeling when I first tried a bigger pitch prop and the boat picked up 3 mph, it doesnt sound like alot, but it rode different and felt noticibly faster, I didn't think that small gain would feel that different. Now a whipple's gotta be a rush the first time you get it going out on the water...