Getting my 625s re-energised and upgraded to 7-10s
 

Just thought for everyones interest I'd let you all know how this goes.
I bought a 2007 Spectre 32 with a pair of 625s and Bravo 1 drives.
the boat is amazing. i never knew a boat could handle so well. When i got it a year ago it had 95 hours on each bank.

I thought I'd do the safe thing and strip the drives. Well lucky. Everything is twisting and the case hardening on the gears was coming off.

I absolutely cannot stand a day on the water cut short by a mechanical failure, so I bought the best I could find replacement drives that bolt straight on, no messing about.

I picked up a new pair of X-Power design drives and a pair of stainless gimbal rings. After quite a straight forward re-rigging it was time to try them out.

Holy **** they are good. Surface props set at the right height made the boat insane. But 30 minutes in, and only cruising along one of the motors lost power.

Long story short, a valve in the port motor jammed and took a nice beating from the piston as well as the rocker arm.

Fark this idea. Stuck out on the water after spending a fortune fixing drives thinking that Ilmors are the worlds benchmark of reliability.

No mucking around again, both motors out, crates and shipped to Ilmor. I love dealing with these people. they are amazing. Currently my motors are in bits and we are just working out how many years of blood ans sweat it will take to pay the next bill.

The interesting thing though, the motor that broke down has been rebuilt using parts from Pfaff. This motor must have had an issue prior.

I'm keen to see how well the boat goes with the 700HP Ilmors.

With the Bravo 1 drives, 625 motors and 34 x 15.5 hering props I was getting to 130 MPH quite easily.

I didn't push it with the X-Power drives because I was breaking them in gently.

I now have two sets of props for the X-Power drives.

16 x 31P x 16 5 blade Merc #6 props
and
16.25 x 35P x 16 Hering #6 props

I'm hoping the extra mumbo from the 7-10 motors can spin the Herings. Should be interesting. If you are interested I'll be keeping updates of the progress here.

that sucks about the motor , must have been a lemon with such little hour's on it .
I wonder if the motor's where turned up some way when the at ppaff's . 130 is a great speed for that set up keep us updated on the build .

good luck
mike

Let me know how you make out. My 625 will be going back next winter for the 700 upgrade.

Considering looking I to this option as well. Not sure what the rough cost on this is. I'm not a fan of the unknown.

if there are no nasty issues like cracks etc, it's about 20K per motor.

The team at Ilmor are fantastic to deal with. When we had issues with our merc 525s I found Merc terrible to deal with.

I thought the 625's and 710's had different blocks?

same blocks, just plenty of differences in the setup. The Gen4 motors which is the 725 are very different.

Thanks,
That boat should be awesome with 710's.
Good luck and keep us posted :)

Thanks for the info. Something to budget for. Hopefully mine make it thru the season.

will do. Waiting on latest news from Ilmor atm,

We're getting there! Should have more pics tomorrow.

The mini Cig with 700 hp! Awesome.

Where are you at on hrs? You running 625s?

Yes 625's
No clue on total hours. Was told 40-60hours during purchase process then later told 125-150hrs. So honestly not sure. No hour meters on boat so no way to know for sure. I've put about 4-5 hours of run time on the boat now. 2 hours last season and 2-3 hours this season. Motors run fine with no issues to speak of.
I called Ilmor and asked if the motors could be scanned and was told the ecm's on my motors have no hr parameter. So it'd be more for a piece of mind rather than to fix any issues.

I've seen the photos of the motors assembled and painted. woohoo !!!

did you get the motor's back yet ? and if so how are they running

They have been shipped and will likely be 6 weeks before I see them with my own eyes, but the photos sent by the team at Ilmor have me frothing. They look magnificent. The service and communication with Ilmor is the best I have experienced.

Not quite as sexy as the boater girl of the month, but pretty damn close

http://imageshack.us/g/1/10212400/

nice , and they don't talk back :)

very excited. Picking my motors up tomorrow from the docks. I think by the end of August the boat will be back on the water. Just ready for the end of Winter

Good Luck. Should be a great package !!!!

two weeks and its ready to test. starting to get pretty excited now.

so how does it run now with the 710's and X-power drives?

I've only just got it out on the water. It's amazing. Wow !!!

I'll put some more details up soon and photos / video etc. Love it !!

Update?

It runs like a Swiss watch. Just about to do the first oil change. You can feel the extra mumbo.

Why are you selling and what's next?

only selling because of speed restrictions where I live. 40 knots. thats 2000rpm in the Spectre.

Where'd the Spectre end up going?

It's running around on the Black Sea now off Northern Turkey.