Rick,, my thoughts exactly,,, boat was in PA all winter getting some warranty work done... I REALLY should have run the boat first and made sure everything was A.O.K after winter storage, and then done the plates,, like you said I highly doubt one has anything to do w/ the other.. I want to get ALL the old gas out and see how she runs..

Chris, man, it really sucks you did not run the motor before pulling the plates. Now you're left pondering the problem until you can get some fresh gas in there and hope that takes care of it, diagnose another problem, or put them back in. Not in any particular order either! I feel for you dude.......keep us posted.

I took mine out about 2 months ago and ran the boat two times since. I also ran a new set of Hydro p5x's for the first time. All I can say is that everything ran great with no problems. I'd have to run on the lake instead of the river at wot to see if there's any gains. The props definitely gave the boat more get up and go, hopefully removing the plates had part to do with it also...

Chris288- I'm almost willing to bet it's the old gas, let's hope so anyway... Get some fresh in there, I'm sure you'll be fine...

Here is a quote from Ray at Raylar off the Hotboat site:

My suggestion for anyone with a stock 496 Merc engine is remove the turbulators, run 87 octane fuel and leave the rest of the motor alone until you are ready to improve the motor.

got mine out last nite, took less tham 45 min,was able to use the old gasket, the top one ripped.

For those of you that have removed the restrictor plates, do any of you have silent choice?

I do not have silent choice...

no

So, any ideas then as to how a silent choice or corsa quick and quiet plus might affect either the expected performance gains or the chances of negative results on the engine?