bobl

The exhaust can be quited down with some down turns and mufflers. My old 28 was very quiet running over 900 hp. Get the exhuast routed out the back instead of the corners. It's much quiter inside the boat. Also you need to stay with a Bravo style drive if you plan on using it for any water sports, tubing, etc. The surface drives throw too big of a rooster tail and don't plane well at slower speeds.

CB-BLR

Rob,

The 600sci is about the same price as buying a 525 and putting a Whipple on it. The difference being that with the 600, you have a factory warranty and the smartcraft controling boost, fuel delivery, spark, and other things. Of those options, the 600 is the better way to go.

On the bravo drive issue.. IMCO's SCX drive is rated at 900 horsepower, and they have yet to have a failure. There are people putting over 1400 horsepower to this bravo style drive. The SCX upper has 5.25 inch gears, as compared to a bravo's 3 inch gears, and an internal oil cooler. The downside to SCX is that its lower is slower on a non-surfacing application. The SC lower will bolt right on. Using a SCX upper with a SC lower is what IMCO has on their 34 Nordic cat. John Lamont also has this combonation on his cat, and had no loss in speed over an XR with a sportsmaster lower. I will be going this route as soon as my SC upper sells.

Hope this helps,

Chris

jdscj8

My papers show as of this morning, the 525 merc and the 610 ilmor is the same price right now, they have a deal on the 610,
the 600sci with a xr drive is 12,500 more then the 525,
the 710 ilmor with (imco scx) drive is about 18,000 more then the 600sci

I talked with Tom this morning on here who has a 2009 checkmate 27 convincor mid cabin openbow with a 600sci and his buddy that has a 710 ilmor in a 2005 sunsation 288 mid cabin openbow, i can go out with them and their group this weekend to compare the two motors if i want to make the 750mile round trip. If i do go how do those boats compare to the 28 heat? JD

Linster

You have not broke any drives have you?

Strip Poker 388

iTrader: (6)

yes and yes,104 hours on a upper gear$$ Ive had a very bad year and the boat has been in paint since Dec 3rd,Aqua Fiberglass /Tracy Hipp screwed me for 9 months, no hours and no gas.Then I take it to Michigan and get it painted in 2 weeks.Dealing with a pro is stress relief.

Linnie you been riding much?
Rob


ALL bravo style drives has the pin pulled.

Pesky Varmint

You don't just add supercharger kits to engines.

At least not and expect turn key reliability.

Get the most factory (Merc or Ilmor) power you can afford, and leave it alone. That takes care of making the motor reliable.

The drive is another matter. It needs to be an XR drive or something better. In a 28 foot vhull like the Nordic, if you drive like an old man like me who's boat spends 80% of its time in cruise as opposed to full speed, you'll be ok. If you're a young kid with two throttle positions, well, it's a little more complicated.

I own a 35 with twin 575SCi (and the 600SCi is a radically different and much improved animal) and XR drives. 450 hours and 8 years of pretty reliable performance. Although, like I advocated, mine is bone stock.
And in past boats I have had personal experience with the "add a supercharger kit". If you have the slightest urge to do that, you just take your motor in to a professional builder and for twice what you though you'd spend you'll take home something reliable.

Pesky Varmint

jdscj8

We got back from our 1000 mile round trip, aliitle more miles then we were thinking but it was worth it. So how does the checkmate 27 convincor and sunsation 288 compare to the 28 heat? The checkmate 27 convincor with a 600sci was quicker off the start then the sunsation 288 with the 710 ilmor, both running 28 pitch props, but the 710 ilmor had more in the mid and higher rpm range. So after running both of this, how is the 28 going to compare. The sunsation seem more stable at higher speed then the checkmate. JD

Indy

For what it's worth, I had a friend who ran a Checkmate for a few months in the Sound and stuff started busting all over the place. I guess if you're in a lake environment it's ok but really the quality is not even close to the Nordic. I wouldn't even consider one after that...never been in a Sunny so I have no feedback there.

Steve Zuckerman

I agree on the Checkmate. Nice lake boats, resonably fast, but all their stuff looks dated and simplistic to me. I've owned a couple.
The Sunsations are nice well built boats. The pre-step 288s looked great, but some friends here never got them out of the 70s. I assume the newer bottoms are faster. How did the Illmore 700 boat run?
You know what I would do, buy the fast, pretty boat, which leads you back to .....Nordic
Regards,
Steve

jdscj8

The 710 ilmor had a scx upper and sc lower in the sunsation it topped out at 90 and from where i was sitting it looked like 6200rpms which is plenty fast for me, i dont think i want to go any faster then that. it was 80 deg with like 1' chop. From 40mph to 75mph the ilmor boat just plain ran away from the checkmate with the 600sci with a scx upper and lower which top speed was 78mph at 5800rpm, they told me the same thing that CB-BLR said, that the sc lower is a little faster but the scx lower is stronger and it was. Both boats had 2 people in them, we were all about the same size and with 1/4 fuel. I'm for sure getting a heat, but i have not run one yet. This test was to see what engine/drive i'm going to get, So i'm going with the 710 and scx upper and lower for reliability. It had a real nice power range and real smooth throttle response, and i don't need to build it anymore cause its fast enough as it is, I'll never go that fast but if i get a wild hair to go then i want to be able to go, 65 is a good speed for my wife, which shes with me 85% of the time, and if i go much faster with her in the boat she would probably hit me with something and drag me behind it, plus i wouldn't go that fast with the kids in the boat anyways. I sure hope the heat handles more like the sunsation then the checkmate. We will be on the river here and then down at LOTO every other weekend, so i hope it does well at these places, and i hope to see some of ya down there after i get it in April. My wife and i are excited to get it and are going to travel next summer to other states with it. JD