X=Location of crank shaft center (CC) from lower edge of boat bottom.

Yeah it is confusing. I misused "x" a number of times.
Now I say "prop to pad" or "propshaft to bottom of boat" etc. when talking shorties etc.

Raising or lowering the engine a couple of inches in the boat should not change handling AT ALL. Moving the engine forward or backward can have a huge impact on handling.

IMO, not worth the $$$ invested at all. You may not gain another mph and might have to spacer it back down. 6.25 is deep, but not extreme. Plenty of straight V's run that deep. Being deep gives leverage and bow lift.

Thanks. Saw a couple of threads on smaller V hulls like mine where people were talking 2.5in or 3.5in, with 2.5 being too shallow. I haven't seen anywhere where anyone went up from over 6 inches and regreted it. Although, I think I am going to leave it where it is this year. First I've got some bottom work to do this fall, including removal of some wedges, and minor straightening. We'll see what that does for me, then look into rasing the drive with an extension box next winter.

One thing to remember is that I consider this boat to be one big experiment. I'm trying to learn all I can and experiment as much as possible (and do all the work myself). Yeah, I've put a lot of effort into a $20K boat, but hopefully I'll learn enough not to ruin a $200K boat in the future. Yeah, I've made a couple mistakes, and spent a lot of my time, but slowely but surely this boat is inching up on "fast" territory and I'll come out a lot more educated.