Thanks guys. I will see what props I can round up. The ones I know of that might work are all Bravo 1's; labbed 30, stock 28, and a labbed 28.

When I borrowed :evilb: the -2; I pulled the spacer, studs, and the splined collar that mates the vertical shaft. When I run the drive without the 1" spacer should I use the stock collar out of my current drive setup? I haven't split my drive yet to see if the collars are different.

Thanks,
Jon

Hi Jon,
Seems like we used the stock coupler on Mayor Mccheese's -2" Imco lower. Measure the vertical height of the driveshaft above the mating surface on both lowers. If they are the same (I think they are) the stock coupler will be fine.
Good luck with the testing.
BTW, have you measured your current X dimension or prop depth?
Best Regards,
Steve

Steve,
You are correct! It appears the Imco lowers are set up with different vertical shaft lengths so they match the stock mercury shaft length. The spacer kits come with the extended couplers to account for the spacer thickness. I mounted the -2 with the spacer tonight and used the longer coupler. With out the spacer the stock coupler will measure correct.

Stock X is 5.5, first run will be at 4.5.

Thanks,
Jon

Jon,
I think you will be pleased with this test. Theoretically, the shorter, lighter Rage should need need less propshaft depth than our longer, heavier Heats. 5.5" is pretty deep. The factory may (?) be doing this XD because there may not be as much vertical space in the Rage engine compartment (as you have run into with your new bigger/taller engine).
I think you'll see a nice improvement in handling too.
Good luck with your testing!
Best Regards,
Steve

Jon,

If you wanna try a 28 lab or 32 lab, I'm in SLC & have both. I want to get rid of my 28, too small need a 30. Your welcome to try it. Boat looks great!

That is very generous. I’ve already got a lab 28 and I think your lab 32 would be too much at this altitude. I would really like to try a Merc lab 30 and a Hering with the Imco lower.

We briefly met in the Nordic booth at the SLC boat show earlier this year. Not sure if you remember my face… Thanks for the offer 90mph, it would be great to see ya on the water sometime.

Looks like lake will be freezing over soon, but if you get your hands on a 30 or Hering I'd like to give them a shot also. Good luck, keep me posted.

Here is the first of the data... I realize this isn't apples to apples due to the temp difference. This is at my local 5000' elevation lake.

With my stock Merc lower at 5.5 XD and a Merc labbed 28 bravo 1 I can run 83gps @ 5600 all day with gear and two people. Temp was mid 70's, boat was very stable.

Today I ran the Imco -2 w/ 1" spacer for an XD of 4.5. I ran 84 @ 5700, no gear and two people. Cruise was 44 @ 3200, temp was 54, boat started to walk, not bad, but soft walk back and forth. Did I gain 1mph from the xd / nose cone or temp?

I tried a B1 30 and ran 82 @ 5200. This did have a killer cruise, 51 @ 3200rpm.

These are not the results I was hopeing for, but good info. My question now is: Should I bolt the stock lower back on and go for a compairable run (temp/load)? Or, since I have the opprotunity, remove the spacer and see what happens at 3.5 XD? It seems like this would be the wrong direction, but don't want to miss the chance.

:eek:The bulk of your winter jacket probably slows you down!

Your slip only went up .5%... and you only gained 100 rpm.

I would try taking the spacer out and going for another test run... then report back.

Chris

p.s. my boat is the fastest, and handles the best at 3.0"- 3.5" of propshaft depth with a good 5 blade prop

Chris,

That's very encouraging! How does your heat do at 3.5 with a bravo style 4 blade? I'm just looking for comparables.

Thanks for replying,
Jon

Jon,

I have trouble hooking up a four blade on the bottom end at anything less than 4". But, the Rage is lighter, and might not have the same problem. As I said above.. my boat is the fastest at 3"-3.5" with a five blade. Also, the shorter I went, the less chine walk I had at top end, but gave up some low to mid-range cruise speed. At 2.5" my boat handles like poo at all speeds.

Every boat is different.. I have come to realize that my 600sci is the heaviest motor they have put into a Heat... well, untill they put the 700sci/NXT package in the red boat.. but they are still trying to sort out the handeling on that boat.. I think

Anyway.. keep going shorter until it just doesn't work.. the boat will let you know when it is in its "happy place".

Chris

Try the -2 Jon while you have the chance. You never know for sure what will work until you try it.

Do you have access to any five blade props of appropriate pitch to try with the -2? Just a thought based on Chris's experience with low X dim.

Chris,
You were right on the money! 5.5 wasn't much different than 4.5, but 3.5 rocks! I got a best of 86 @ 5700 with the merc lab 28 B1. The boat was slightly slower to plane and the prop wanted to blow out if I got on it too fast. It liked less trim, but felt great at WOT. With this lower I didn't have a cavitation plate, maybe that was why it wanted to slip when coming on plane. It feels light and throws quite a roost even when cruising.

Told ya... :evilb:

The roost is because you are now surfacing the prop.
Handeling should be more stable on the top end because the prop does not have as much "side to side" leverage on the boat.

The cav plate will help getting on plane.

A 27 P5x will hook up like glue on the bottom end, and probably give you another 1-2 mph on top.
A 15" 27 pitch Hering will come on plane about the same as the Merc Lab 28, but will be about 2-4 mph faster than the bravo on top.

Chris :ernaehrung004:

I almost bagged the -2, glad I didn't. Thanks for the support! I found a 27 P5X, but didn't have time to borrow it and thought it might be a touch too steep.

Chris,

I thought a lab 28 would be around a true pitch of 26. Compare this to a 27 P5X I should lose 300rpm for pitch and then another 300rpm for the extra blade. I am thinking I would only spin it around 5100. Does this sound correct?

Yes, it did settle the top end down. The boat felt stable, nose high, like there wasn't much in the water.

I just edited my post above for you.

You are correct... a 26 might be better, but a thinned and sharpened (labbed) 27 would probably be best.

See if you can try both a 26 and 27

Hydromotive will let you demo them for $50.

Not requiring as much trim is a good thing.

Your slip is down because the lower is running more parralel to the boats bottom, and the hull is carrying itself instead of needing excessive trim due to the lower unit dragging in water and leveraging the nose down. Your boat is now going thru the water like it was designed to do.

Chris

This is awesome information! Thanks for sharing! You definitly know your stuff.

So, it looks like I have got my winter shopping list. -2 Imco a cav plate and then some demo props from Hydromotive in the spring. I will let ya know what I end up with.

Thanks for adding the bit about trim, that makes sense. WIth the standard lower I would run at 6, at -2 anything over 5 I would lose speed.

Thanks,
Jon

Jon,

You are welcome...

You are headed in the right direction.

I think with some more tuning you will be knocking on 90 by mid summer.

Chris

Hi Jon,
Sounds like you are getting dialed in. Congratulations. At your altitude, these are impressive #s.
Your holeshot will be fine with the cavitation plate installed, and even better with a P5-X.
Great information for our fellow Rage owners on the Forum.
Best Regards,
Steve

Unbelieveably fantastic results. Congratulations!

Just thinking, you already have th -2 bolted on why not borrow the 27 P5X and try it now. Just a thought.

Did you try the labbed 30 with the -2 Imco?

Jon, You will lose 150 rpm per 1" of pitch. Your 26 was measured at 26.2 and turns the same rpm as your 28 lab so you will lose 150 rpm with the 27 there and the extra blade is worth another 100-150 rpm reduction so you will only lose 250-300 rpm. You should still be able to pull 5300-5400 rpm. If it is my old 27 P5-X it has been tuned by Throttleup so that may skew the rpms a bit. Sounds like it will be a good test for sure :D

Also, keeping it real here. The standard lower with the lab 28 would turn 83 pretty much like clock work on a 75 degree day on smooth water and not a hint of chine walk. The 2" shorty hit 86 on a day when the temp was 43 degrees, windy with a 1 foot chop and walks a bit.
I'm not so sure that your standard setup would not have performed the same with no blow out issues and better handling under these same conditions. Just a thought before you lay down a bunch of cash :drink:

The 27 P5-X test would be very benificial and interesting at this point as would running your stock setup on a cold, windy day.
Maybe you did this yesterday and already have us some results :drink:

It's amazing the difference a hull makes :D
I was a bit disappointed in the motor when it was in the 23 foot Mirage and ran 72-74 mph around our parts. With the Rage hull she is now performing as designed :evilb:

Dave

The weather on Sunday was too poor. I never made it out to try the P-5X.

It’s true there are a lot of variables in the mix, but overall, the -2 felt great! I think at this reduced XD it would require a different prop and setup right with a cav plate.

The Friday to Saturday runs were a good comparison, both cold windy days. The truck read 46 when I launched, I don’t think that 8 degees gave me 2 mph. It’s too bad the summer ended so quickly.

Just FYI, I plugged some numbers in a dyno run on a similar engine. Reducing the inlet air temp by 30 degrees was a 40 HP increase! That would equate to over 2 mph itself. Another thing to keep in mind. This test was on a good chop, which usually doesn't require as much trim as running on glass to achieve optimum speed. The difference might not be as much in that condition. Just more food for thought.

Another thought is that the Hydromotive props are stern lifters which is a big plus with the Heat but I wonder now that will play out on the Rage.

I find the p5-x props to be bow lifters. They generally require less posative trim than Bravo's

Chris

It just proves that there is soooo much difference between identical boats :confused:
When I first purchased my 27 P5-X for my old Heat I had to send it to Julie at TU to add some bow lift because I couldn't get the nose up off it's face like my Bravos. (I didn't have a spacer)
This is the one Jon will be trying so it does have enhanced bow lift added into it.

I would think your open bow would be worse if it's true there is more weight in the nose.
Just goes to show that this is exactly a non exact science :drink:

Dave

I'll get ahold of the local guy with the P-5x and see if I can take it for a run this weekend. The -2 is still bolted on, so I've got nothing to lose.

No, the 30 was labbed at a local shop and acted like a non lab 30. It pulled the rpm down too much.

Actually, they make both. The P-5 is a stern lifting prop. The P5-X is a bow lifting prop. We run the P5-X on Heats. In general, pointed ear props are stern lifters, and round ear props are bow lifters. There are many more variable here too (rake, cup, blade area, # of blades).
Regards,
Steve

I finally finished my hatch mod. Last spring I forced the original vinyl cap back on so I could use it for the year. This winter I built a new upper upholstery piece, had it recovered, and painted the underside metalic white to match what I did in the bilge.

I thought you guys would like to see what I came up with!

Perfect! I wouldn't expect any different :evilb:

Nice work Jon!
Regards,
Steve

Awsome looking!

Great job!

Chris

Wow, looks good Jon.
When are ya gonna go play in the water? I'm shootin for Sunday if the weather holds.

Looks great, who did dthe upholstery work

Thanks for the compliments guys! It's good to have it back in shape.

I had ARKO uphostrey in Havasu recover it. They were able to match the factory vinyl.

Randy, Sunday is looking better and better. If I go out it will be Pineview. What's your plan?