Ned- what year is your Heat?

I am out of town for work but I will measure my x Deminsion when I get back and let you know

2000. first year of the step hull. which i believe is still the same mold on the new models.

Thats crazy, I aslo have a 2000 and no stepped hull w/open bow. Do you have the light pole holder infront of the wind shield? I was trying to figure out if the x dimention was different between the stepped and non stepped. Being that I was told that 2001 was the first year of the stepped hull.

weird, my title and VIN both say 2000 and i do have the light pole holder in front of the windshield. (have you checked ur VIN? last 2 digits are the year)

maybe urs was an early 2000 (or hold over from 99) and mine a late 2000? who knows.

AND, just to throw another twist into the mix, Jay Gadsby's heat is a 2000 and it has power rear stern light AND step...

sounds like Nordic had 3 different hulls for 2000.

The X dimension is usually much less in the non stepped heats.

open bow\no step is why you are only seeing 75 w/ the same HP as mine,I would suggest trying a 2" shortie IMCO if you can get a hold of one. mine runs 5400 RPM w/ 28p @80

I just measured my "X" dimension and it measures 4" using this guide I found in a google search. I did check the last 2 digits of the hull# and it is 00. I believe that the 4" x dimension in a lil shallow and should be around 5" for lower prop slip numbers.http://www.rlcperformance.com/images...x_demesion.jpg

i would PM steve zuckerman and ask him what the X ended up being on his friend's 96. i don't have any experience w/ the non stepped hulls. sorry.

Hi Guys,
I hope I can help clear this up...from memory, the closed deck 2000 Heats were step hulls. To my knowledge, the open bow boats were not.
All 2001 hulls, I believe were step hulls. The 2000s were transitional boats. The hard deckers I have seen had the new hull, new deck mold, new lower profile windeshield, but still had the plug in deck 360o light.
Regarding Butch's '96 pad vee XD, I believe it 15.5"s, which is really deep. BTW, it is measure from the crankshaft centerline to the bottom of the pad. So, by installing a 2" IMCO shorty, it has an effective 17.5"s XD. Think about this...mine was 19.25"s, and I added a 1" downspacer to a stock dimension IMCO SC lower. So with a 1" down spacer, my propshaft is still .75" higher than his. Conclusion, the pad vees were too low, and the early step hulls (mine is a 2001) were too high. 18" to 18.5" seems to work well on most step hulls. You can run higher with big power and 5 blades.

I did go back and measure the XD crank center line (center of the trim sender) to the bottom pad and it 16"+/- .25". And the depth of the prop center line to the pad was 4". I believe you are right Steve, a -2" lower unit would benefit me more. I just have a hard time spending 5K on a lower unit off hoping it will help and not knowing for sure. Just trying to do some homework first.

Mine is a 2000 closed deck, stepped hull and has the plug in light holder in front of the windshield