I may take you up on that...I am working 6 days a week 12 hours a day from now until the middle of may...not a lot of free time unfortunately lol

Got the transom pretty much all stripped down to make way for the new steering and tabs...figured I was this far screw it just pull everything fill and gelcoat the whole transom and start from scratch

What are you planning on doing for steering? Mercury ITS or maybe imco gimbal? Myself personally don’t like seeing holes drilled into the transom for cylinders and hoses...

love the exhaust routing centered above the drive!

Now you’re going to tell me you’re changing that...

Hahaha oh no exhaust is staying!! From what the factory told me this is the only heat in existence with that exhaust...the guy special ordered it to be louder because normally they are at or below the waterline at idle....she sounds mean even idleing!!

I should have gone ITS for the reasons you said and the advantages of the standoff box...Had to go with what I could afford and am going dual ram Latham that I got used from sick stinger...never ran across an ITS gimbal in my price range unfortunately and at this point I do NOT want to pull this damn motor again to change it anyway...however I am getting pretty good at pulling the motor hahahaha

Yea I thinking that before even finishing reading your previous post that a motor pull is probably a slow Tuesday for you! Lol. Either way you should be able to get it running right. You have to keep in mind that the ITS is 7” of set back witch can add quite a bit of water to the prop vs right off the transom, especially on singles.

uuggghhhh I know I know...now I'm browsing for ITS assemblies thanks a lot!! hahahaha

It's really not a big deal to pull the motor especially right now as everything is still wide open lol

I think what IGW meant wast that when you add standoff, it can add the same effect as placing the drive deeper in the water, so if you go with a bunch of standoff, you may consider a shorty or a raised X. I realize there is some spatial distortion because of the angle you took the pik etc, and it also looks like you have a notched transom (which works as a setback in its own way) but from the angle of the pik you look pretty deep as it is, So a box/its may not be what your looking for.... The its system is a really clean setup though.

There was a loose formula, but I have forgotten it over time with setbacks, the every so many inches back equals an inch up. A rough guess is that with the shorty you will probably pretty much break even. where you will notice the effect is in trim, moving the prop back changes the leverage point. So you will be able to carry the bow with less trim, which should help efficiency, as the less energy it uses lift the more it can use pushing, I now my boat likes neutral trim on the drive and a touch of tab if I need to bring the nose down, You have to bring that thing over here this summer,,,,

That actually may be worth it totally then if in fact it does have that effect on the trim...I have been talking to brett at bblades about getting more bow lift out of a prop at this thing rides pretty wet and porpoises especially at cruise...if I could get some more bow lift out of the extension it may still be worth it even with breaking even in the prop depth stand point...hmmmm

Where do you boat mostly?? I see you're in Toledo....I plan to do some traveling with her this summer once I get it dialed in....I haven't used it in like a year and a half so when its back on the water I'll be like a horny virgin on prom night lol