Thunder - How hard was it to knock the nosecones off your lower units?

Jeff

brauer

You install them with marine tex. Removal will sound scary, but its real easy. Go into your tool box and get a heavy hammer and hit the cone on each side a few times and it will break the marine tex. On install all you do is sand the paint back, so when removed all you have do is sand the marine tex off and repaint. I was able to knock the cones off, prep the drives and shoot them in awlgrip within an hour or so. Make sure to etch prime and repaint with awlgrip, its the only paint I've been able to keep on. Second choice would probably be quicksilver phantom black if a spray gun is unavailable.

The cones are really cheap(around a $100 or so). I really think anyone considering a nosecone should try the hydromotive nosecone. I am not affiliated in anyway with hydromotive, I've tried a few cones over the years without much success until now.

Gotta get, I'm getting ready to make my way over to the Miami show


Good luck,
Mike

Great story. I get a visual when you said, "when home and hammered them off" ! EEK!

This might be a dumb question, but here goes. I have the XZ drive with low water pick ups, does the nose cone affect the performance of the water pick ups?

So what do you guys think one would see by putting nose cones on older bravo's '89s? I believe that the old bravos had a blunter nose. The boat only see's 64 mph now. Would this be a waist of time.

Russ

I'm not sure, but I don't think anybody offers a glue on cone with the low water pickup. I has to do with the water passage connecting between the cone and the drive.

I installed a Hydromotive cone 2 years ago. Unfortinatly, I also didn't have a before-after comparision. I can tell you that it's a real joy trying to blend the cone into the body of the drive. You have to sand a compound curve and it's hard to get the shape just right.

Russ-I believe the older bravos didn't have enough body length. The newer ones had a shape changed that corrected this. Hydromotive does have a cone to address this, but I really don't think you'd see a benefit.

My drives are off now for new paint, now would be the time. Would the cones help with highspeed stability? Is there any differance seen on water pressure. I mean by changing the flow of water around the drive will it change the flow at the water pickup?

Russ

Unless you were planning on going 20mph faster or wanted the look of the cone, I don't think it's a worth while investment.

Thanks Cord

Well that saves me a little money

Cord, I'm with ya on the compound curve. I think I gained 2 inches on my arms hand sanding that with 80 grit paper and a flexible file. I didn't expect that, but it looks better than almost every other cone I've seen.