Crap, I CTRL Z'd my entire post away... Oh well, I'll just have to retype it..

Air Dog.

You want plenty of setback. I'm guessing 12 to 15" of setback. No kidding. You want to get both the weight and the leverage factor as far back as you can. You want to be able to carry the bow high and the boat loose at top speed with only a small amount of positive engine trim. This will allow more thrust to PUSH the boat forwards instead of a high trim angle trying to push the stern down into the water in an attempt to lift the bow...

Height: Propshaft centerline 2" below the pad sounds like a good start. Remember, though, that for each foot of setback, you can lift the motor another inch...

Prop: Merc 3-blade Chopper over-hub will most likely give you best topend. They have great bow lift and great surfacing performance. They also have the worlds most steering torque when jacked very high. You may find that a 4-blade Chopper gives you a more tolerable setup.

Lower unit: you don't need a low water pickup OR a nose cone. Very few applications under 75mph will see any speed increase from the cone. Most "miracle" increases with a nose cone are due to the raising of the motor height, and not due to the cone itself. You will need to make sure you are getting good water to the side pickups, though. If you have the plastic inserts in the side pickups, then simply replace the inserts with the performance inserts that have a metal plate over themj to trap the water at high x dims. If you don't have plastic inserts in the side pickups, then you may need to epoxy the top water hole closed and file a groove in front of the bottom hole to "guide" water to the holes from the bullet. In all cases keep an eye on your water pressure.

A good 15" jack plate will cost around $300. That's cheap for what it will do for you.

* An over-hub Chopper prop will behave completely differently than your current prop. You will need to come "out of the hole" at around 4500 rpm. There's nothing WRONG with this setup, but a lot of guys are freaked out about it. Once on plane, the Chopper will bite nicely. Try it, you'll probably like it. If you DONT like it, then you can swap to a Mirage Plus or thru hub Chopper style prop. They will behave more like what you are used to but you will give up some topend.

The screaming out of the hole Chopper is really cool once you are used to it..

You can ALWAYS add the nosecone if you insist, but be aware that I lost 3 mph when I added one. I also know a handfull of others that lost speed - they only gained speed when they raised their motors up where they should have been in the first place...

hey too yes,im tryin to postem but havin no luck,the pic is of my friends boat with a v-8 and i do have some pics of putting the deck on the hull and refoaming in the gas tank back in,wish me luck finding them,they are (somewhere). by the time i find them maybe someone will tell me the seceret of how to postem. but now for football and coronas,hopefully ill win some pools tripps

The carrera does 80 ish ..Twin 200's slightly tweeked so maybe 220 a peice.. Saving for 2.5 offshores ..a new truck.. a bigger house O sorry was I rambling.. The transom took me about 6 months but I am the master of procrastination and wanted to get it right.. Yes only on winni ..I have a place in Gilford.. Were do you boat ?

Pantera1

Wow 80's with twin 200's. Carrera's must be lighter than Banana's.

From what I hearing on this board, if I bolt another 200 on my rig then I will only go around 70.

I am usually out off the coast of New Hampshire in my boat. I have a high stress job and each wave I smash into is a person at work that pisses me off. My wife is from Cape Cod so when I am not in nautical therapy of the Isle of Shoals, I am slamming my way from Hyannis, MA to Nantucket or Marthas Vineyard. I find that if I scream at the top of my lungs while wave pounding, it has a more healing effect.

"Oh you don't like the way I manage my department? WHAMM! HOW BOUT A BANANA BOAT UP YOUR A$$!!!!. YA! YA! LITTLE PIGGY!!!

Sheesh, Air !

You don't need a jackplate!
You need a pole sticking off the bow of the boat that you can strap co-workers onto (like that second MadMax movie..).

Dunk 'em real good into that next big salty wave...

Dude, thats a good idea.

Hey by the way, thanks for your advice on tricking out my therapy chair.

Now I am looking at twin engine bracket / swim platforms.

Why just spend a little money right?

Ya thats why ive spent hundreds of hours , plucking fiberglass from my skin etc..
The stainless marine brackets are pricey but worth every penny..
You will see close to 80 with a pair of 200's and the right props , 75 anyway ..Then theres all the tweeking , nose cones, 175 heads, jetting etc etc..I started at about 72-73 and tweeking has got me to see 81.5 on the GPS..

What year are your motors?

I guess I will have to get two of everything when I do this, (dual shifters, steering, etc.)

What is a 175 head?

if you are going to utilize a bracket , the best money ever spend would be on a "porta bracket" i have one on my single v8 outboard 24' banana and a twin version on my own 28' and a tripple on our 31' all with v8's hanging on the back. fyi

Cylinder heads from a 175 merc.. They have a smaller dome and boost commpression a bit ..Ya two of everything ..it gets expensive ..Ebays a good place to find some stuff ..Ignition harnesses etc.. This board is also a great place.. I got a brand new zero effort twin throttle and shift with trim in the handle for a third of what I would have paid at the dealer ..