Kind of long but I just thought I'd give a preliminary update to fellow Flame owners with a couple water tests following some over the winter upgrades. Changes were all done at once which isn’t my testing style but what the heck.

5/8/2010 (4400 feet, 58 degrees, 10” chop)
Changes made were the switch from 4150 carbs to Dom/Victor setups, 380 K-Plates from 280s, prop tweak from BBlades and some nose cones. The results are actually pretty fun, real, and point directly to the induction in my view.

No dyno results but real live boat testing should do the trick.
Last year I could run 87-89 at will in any temp or condition and on occasion touch 90 pulling 5300-5400 rpm with pseudo lab 30s or stock 28s. When approaching the 90 mark things (handling) always got very interesting

I installed the ProSystem’s 1100 Dominators on top of the port matched and blended TD Victors. Motors fired right off on the hose and idled perfect.
Grabbed Jon (DesertMirage) and another friend filled the gut with fresh premium and went to the lake. Backed it in to the water and was ready to mess with the in/out of gear situation. Put it in forward on the trailer and it dropped from 900 to 750 with no issue at all.

After confirming timing "again" and preliminary runs to 4500 rpm with the A/F meter in hand we determined we were very safe (rich) and proceeded to mess with the new tabs a bit to see what it liked. Running parallel it started walking all over again. Obviously it liked more tab when over 80 so I dropped them and gave it a good hard run. First hard pull stabled by the tabs just below the running surface netted a 5800rpm run with the BBlades 31s and just a touch over 95mph and the shoreline coming quick So much for the tabs scrubbing speed

The carbs are pretty good all over but pretty gurglly and sputtery between off idle and about 3000 rpm when they clear out (A/F was in the mid/high 10s here). It was also pretty rich up on top at about 10.8-11.0:1 so more power is still hanging around in there
The great customer service with ProSystems is calculating my air bleed and jetting changes. Hard to hit a high altitude marine setup right out of the box I suppose.

As far as idling and docking with the Doms, I was able to change my Crane box from my 24/34 curve back to the easier starting 14/34 curve with no issue at all so far. Apparently another myth about Dom’s


5/25/2010 (5000 feet, 58-60 degrees, dead calm snot water)
Changed out idle air bleeds and successfully leaned up the off idle area.

Wondering if maybe the previous run was a fluke of some sort, I ran the 31s again on the very sticky water and higher elevation and was able to pull 93@5600 pretty easily. Put on a set of BBlades 33s and ran just over 94 at 5200 and you could feel the sticky water sucking her down.
I’m thinking ~96 on some (any) chop is very attainable with the 33s though the 31s are the most fun in the acceleration department
Still working the carbs a bit at this point as I’m only making one change at a time. Once I have a few spots cleaned up at upper cruise I’ll be able to make a jet change to get around 12.2:1 at WOT. Currently still at 10.9-11.0 and leaving some substantial hp in there

More data to follow as we continue dialing in…
So far my perceived view is that:
-These big inch motors need much more than what the standard carb calculator says. Let'em breath!

-The 380 tabs on the Flame are absolutely incredible and have allowed me to run these speeds with absolutely zero movement which has been the best part of the whole ordeal! I can actually sit and watch every gauge at these speeds and there’s no indication this will change with an additional 10mph… Can't wait to come down to your low elevations

So far I’m satisfied with the results from a couple of lowly naturally aspirated motors
For a comparison, two years ago this boat with 496HOs would run GPS 72 at 5000 feet and right near 80 GPS at 600-1000 feet.

I’ve attached a few pics of the tab position to show where the position is during the hard runs.

Hopefully there is some useful info here for others…
Dave

Nice work Dave! Sounds like 100+ is just lower altitude and/or A/F tuning.
Your motors look great! Did they fit under your stock hatch, or did you have to modify it? I noticed it's off in the pics.
When are you going to Havasu? The NR is this weekend.
Best Regards,
Steve

Thanks Steve...
No they didn't fit so I had the hatch modified (2X).

I wish I was going to the regatta but we'll be out of town

Yes, triple digets will be easy at Havasu or similar. I was nervous anticipating the handling when I finally do get to go but I'm very confident that the handling issues will be a mute point now.

Dave,
Looks good, wondering when you going to post some stuff here. Be safe, things happen over 100. Heading to Sarasota tomorrow for a weeks Vacation then back for the 4th. LLH

I have an open seat (1) for Jammin on the James for July 10th if anyone is interested. Just me, Steve & Suzi.

Absolutely awsome results!

Chris

Thanks Chris, I think I remember someone telling me I would like the Doms better

I think I mentioned the Dominators as well. 588's are fairly large for the small carbs, we saw a difference on a 540.

Yes that did come up in our many conversations

Maybe you guys have some ideas here. I'm still having a small problem with a lean area around 4000-4300 rpm (13.3:1).
Not when I'm powering thru but when I just hold it there. Seems like it just goes back into vacuum far enough to close the PV there. As soon as I touch the throttle she goes rich again which is good. I'm hesitant to fix my rich cruise and WOT until I get this resolved.
The original jetting/PV setup was 82 square and 4.5PV front/rear. The mfr suggested I try 6.5PVs to see if it kept it richer there but it didn't help.

I thinking of going back to the 4.5 PVs with 82 jets in the primaries and plugging the PV and install 90s in the secondary. Just a thought...

What is your throttle position at the lean point?

Chris
CB-BLR

Just into the secondaries... (I can feel the secondary spring)