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88 Excel Nearing Finish Finally!

Old 03-11-2011, 06:58 PM
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Hot boat, scarab 28- posted pics of the completed boat on the scarab pics thread, last page. Since my last posts here, a lot has transpired... Done a lot of testing, and even more tuning! I have a TON of data recorded and answers to most of the questions I had before. Now the only thing I have left to figure out, is how to keep a drive on this thing, lol! Im taking it to Havasu end of April for the desert storm run and shootout. The friggin thing is a rocketship and handles great, but I did find the place where it turns from fun to terrifying...
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Old 03-11-2011, 08:36 PM
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Nice - the fastest 28' AND the hottest paint job. How much boost are you runing? - is that an M-3 or M-4? I love what you did with the dash also. Very nice. So you started with a 454 - what did you end up with? Gotta love those 3 yr projects, heck, mine was all together 3 yrs ago and now it's got parts scattered all over again - never ends!
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Old 03-12-2011, 01:13 AM
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It's 505 cubes right now with an f3r. The goal was to keep the low end torque down so the drive would live... Fat chance there. At 2300 rpm's, all hell breaks loose, which is about when it sees 5-6 lbs of boost depending on pulley size. I've run it with 32lbs a few times, but had issues. It's run it's best to date at 23lbs... Spun a stock 30 Maximus to 6800 in about a half of a mile with 9% slip, going up river in Parker. I'm gonna set it back on kill for the shootout, and try to set a single engine v hull record. Besides all the drive issues, I'm really starting to have a lot of fun with it!
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Old 03-14-2011, 11:33 PM
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The boat is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

Way to funny story, just because I am crying in my own heap of the same S#!+ right now.
I use to own a 29 EXCEL but decided to go bigger with a 34 twin engine.
WTF was I thinking? I have 2 times the problems & expense right now (without all the beautiful paiting & new dash you have done).
If I can get my A$$ together and make the decision between my 454s I took out just to do a ring & bearing job on and finding out how much water intrussion with little compression I had, to now a major rebuild throwing away those peanut heads or finding another 502 to match the one I have sitting I might have it ready for Havasu Deset Storm.
I already have the week off. One way or another I'm still going even if I have to take the family out in pops 21' Carrera.
The beer just doesn't taste as good when it isn't yours.
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Old 03-15-2011, 07:42 AM
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34- I think deep down in the back of every performance boaters mind, these stories bring back memories for everyone... Because I really believe that 90% of all restorations and customs start the exact same way... "I'll just freshen things up a bit", or "I could clean and repaint that spot, if that one thing wasn't in the way", or my favorite, "just a couple bolt on hp should be ok, it won't be that big a deal"... Lol, yeah freakin right! Were all suckers! If I had it all to do over again, I'd still do it, just maybe not in the same order... I love my little boat!
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Old 03-22-2011, 07:12 AM
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give us some spes on the final setup, like HP , x dimension hight, setback, did you do any hull work???

I would love to know.
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Old 03-25-2011, 11:14 AM
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Hot boat- first time the boat got painted, I had it up on stands for a few months. I straightened the bottom 6 feet forward till it was perfectly smooth, knocked out all the imperfections and factory hook. I smoothed the face edge of the ride pad and transitioned it into the hull rather than leaving the flat face, and I cleaned up the hook in the pad- wasn't bad, had an 1/8" that spanned 6". Still playing with the x dimension, but I've found that 3 1/2" keel to propshaft cl has been best for me. Tried running a little deeper, but on my higher boost setting, she got really violent as far as feeling like it was trying to roll itself over- especially in any kind of rougher water that allowed more of the hull to free up. It would get itself to a point that the prop would biting so hard that it wanted to twist over... Quite nerve racking at times. Motor has been raised 3" with a 2" short lower. Currently running a 35" Maximus which could be part of the twisting problem. Changing gear ratios now so I can pitch down a bit. Stringers were reinforced with an extra 2 layers of glass laid 10" out from the base on either side, in one piece, with the second layer laid bi-directionally. Motor went in with 1/2" 6x6" alum angle, trimmed for aesthetics, in 4 places. Front 3/8" billet offshore mount and 1/4" rear offshore mount as well as the bravo transom mounting bolts- essentially 6 point mounted. The goal was to solidify the stringers structure as good as possible. Rather than using stringer washers on the back sides for the mounts, we cut 1/2"x6" plates down and drilled with the main mounts for extra strength. Used 1/2" grade 8 bolts going through the stringers- 4 at each corner, and 7/16" grade 8 bolts at each corner for the actual motor mounts to stringer mounts. The wood bulkhead panel was trimmed to fit around the pulleys and blower belt, and the upper glass lip was trimmed to fit around the snout. To make things simple with engine install, I cut a 24" panel in the center of the bulkhead from top to floor, then glassed in 2"x 3/8" aluminum rails that I drilled and tapped for 10/24 screws so the panel could be bolted back in. Not overly thrilled with the sawzall job on that abortion, thank goodness the seat covers most of it. Beer n sawzalls shouldn't be used together- ever. As I said before, the motor is 505" with Merlin heads and an f3r Procharger with a huge air-liquid cooler. Motor makes right at 1000hp on pump gas at 5-6 lbs, and substantially more on race gas at 28-32 lbs. Engine combo is actually getting changed right now because the small cube combo is extremely violent coming into boost. Initially wanted to kill some bottom end torque to prolong drive life, but at about 2300 rpm's, it hits so hard that it's annihilating parts. Motor has a 3 stage ke water pump with a 1 1/4" bottom pickup feeding it through a dual basket Hardin strainer. Pump feeds the motor with 1 stage, exhaust with another, and the ic with the last stage. Ic and engine dumps are through the transom above the box and the exhaust dumps at the tips. Made custom bulkheads for the fuel, -16 pickup runs to an aeromotive prefilter, then to an eliminator pump, then -12 forward to the filter/separator, then -12 to the regulator. -12 return from the regulator back to the tank. I also have a pretty retarded stereo system in there, so there are 4 batteries, which I mounted under the cockpit floor- directly under the front seats to help balance the weight in the boat. If you decide to try this, group 65 batteries out of a superduty are the only ones worth a **** that actually fit in there. Had to make mounts so they could sit flat... This was a real motherfu**er, but in reality- was necessary. I used Dana hp1100 tabs flat mounted, but I've had to move them a couple times to take drag away. If you follow their reccomendation, they will be installed about 1/2" above the strake- DONT put them there! Even all the way up, I may as well have had them all the way down. I moved them up almost 2" from the bottom of the strake, and in about 1". If you run the Maximus prop, take the diameter down to about 15 1/4- 15 1/2" and remove about 3/4" from the ring. Otherwise they have a tendency to lift the transom too much- they were really designed for cats and twins in a near surfacing application. I'm gonna be doing some testing in about 2-3 weeks with the new drive and motor combo, I'll let you know how all that goes. Hope something here helps! If you ever wanna chat, gimme a call 702-604-5206, I'm more than happy to share anything I've learned.

Glenn
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Old 04-17-2011, 11:53 AM
  #18  
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Any updates - been a while?
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Old 05-04-2011, 12:30 AM
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Went to desert storm last weekend, met Paul (Hot Boat). Boat looked pretty good. Had a few problems early on, nothing too serious... Went with a B-Max drive. The new owner over there is awesome, his name is John- I can say that I highly recommend thisdrive to anyone with big power and a bravo setup. Day one in Havasu, hit the lower unit in the cav plate area with a grinder for prop clearance and somehow managed to shake the bolt that goes through the cav plate into the upper loose without noticing. Took it out for a break in run and the bolt backed out. Wiped out a brand new, fresh labbed 30 Maximus and bent the propshaft and wiped out the cav plate. Morning of day two, welded up the cav plate and went to the show. Morning of day 3, John from the bravo shop(bmax) shows up at my house at 7am to replace the propshaft(now that's what I call service). Head to the poker run... This was my first poker run so I opted to lag behind and follow so I knew what to do and where to go... Bad idea, these boats don't work well in water that's been churned up by 200 other boats. Finally find some clean water, get to roll into it with the new combo for the first time! Oooh wheeee fellas! First good pull runs 128.1 , started at a 46mph roll to 128.1 in just over 15 seconds and in about 2000 ft, shut down at about 5800. About an hour later I stretched it out again, this time to about 6100- 133.7! Got on it once more at the end of the day and only ran it to about 6000 before water conditions were no good, right at 131. Didn't have a trim indicator setup due to the differences in the drive, so my slip numbers were back and forth a bit. All in all, a decent Friday. I've never chopped throttle before, but at 6k, this thing was still pulling harder than it did at 4k... There's a lot more left, was thinking Saturday was a better day to get crazy. Early Saturday, get a call from the shootout crew- shootout postponed due to wind, so I go back to bed. 3 hours later, coast guard calls the event- shootout cancelled this year. Oh well, that sucks, but now I can relax. 3pm, one of my buddies is going stir crazy, let's go to the lake- ok, we'll chill in the channel and relax! Head to the lake, launch, and there's a boat in distress crashing against the rocks- wife says I gotta help. She parks the truck, and I go to help... That's where the weekend goes south. Long story short, I end up in the rocks, taking on water- 5 minutes later, the grim repo is resting on the sand 10 feet offshore in lake Havasu. Insurance adjuster came by today and figures there's 40-45k in damage, my policy only covers 20k. Moral of the story, don't help unless your prepared to lose your prized possession. Not to say I wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat, but damn... This sucks! Consequently, think I may have some stuff for sale. I doubt I'm gonna do all this again. With all the little problems I've had with this in the last 2 weeks, I kinda felt like I shouldn't go- kinda like someone or something was trying to warn me off, guess I shoulda listened to my gut.
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Old 05-04-2011, 12:42 AM
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By the way, before everyone starts with the argument about how the boat ran- the new drive ratio is 1.30:1. I ran a 34 pitch Maximus that I had labbed to some specs that I've been playing with on previous props based on recommendation from the guys that designed it. The motor made 2389 hp at 8100 rpm's at 31lbs of boost on c16. The tune that was in the motor for the poker run was setup for 100 octane and was the same tune that made 1597 at 8050 at 23 lbs. At 6000-6100 which is where I ran it to, it was good for 15-16 lbs and about 1225. By all rights, this thing should have been a lot faster, but these hulls weren't designed to go anywhere near this fast. Now let the brow beating begin, lol...
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