As far as getting up on plane, try removing the vent plugs in the props. Gotta remember these 2 strokes don't have the torque like a big block and need to spin up a little bit getting on plane. A little cavitation on take-off is not a bad thing.

If you put a good set of reeds in 'em and remove the oil injection (which may have already been done) you can spin those motors into the low to mid 6k's and they'll be just fine. With 23's you're gonna have to turn em' min. 6500 to see 70.

Talk with Jo, he should be able to help you on motor height in relation to the bottom. Once you get the jackplates set, mark 'em and they really should never move once right.

Good luck. We run Tampa Bay at least a few times over the summer so maybe we'll see each other.

Dave, as we talked about on the phone tonight, the sweet spot for the jack plate is about 5 inches up. Also, full throttle it to get on plane. You'll feel after a few seconds the engines start to spool up and it will jump out of the water. Don't take your time with the throttles like you do with your big block set up.

Sorry again about the bad luck with the mid section. I've never had it off and will talk to my service guy to see what he did. When I first bought it I had them go over the engines thoroughly for piece of mind. The last time it was serviced was winterization last fall. I'll call them to see what exactly what they did. It's very discouraging to know that two nuts were missing since they had those plastic lock nuts things. I never ran it with the jack plate all the way down and that's what probably made it finally fail with those missing nuts. I'll look around this area for a used mid section for ya.

How do I contact you when you're offshore?

Look at the bright side of things. You bought the boat right. Put a little into it and it ought to be a great rig.
Good luck!
Greg

Just look for one of his previous posts on the Pantera owner's forum under "for sale cheap".
I know it ends with "wildwell.com"

Exactly the way I get mine on plane, sticks to the dash smoothly, but fast, dont jam them, then back off, set the trim, back in the dash, and run it like ya stole it

Here's a mid section...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MERCU...ssoriesQ5fGear

Thanks, I got your email as well. Someone had mentioned that there were different trim ram setups for the mids, I'm offshore now and not near the boat, anyone give some guidance on what questions to ask to make sure it will fit?

The stock motors have the 3 ram integral trim, which I believe is what you have. These have the trim motor integrated within the clamp bracket. The high performance and offshore style mids only have a single ram and the trim pump is mounted inside the boat.

thanks for the help, I contacted the seller of the one on ebay and it looks to be what I need. Should get it in some time next week, I will be offshore for another 3 weeks but I plan to get it in as soon as I get home.
In reply to a previous post, I am in Albany, Ny