I recently bought a 1989 Baja Sport 250 in nice shape for $6k. It supposedly has merlin heads, is cammed and a double feed 750 holley. I know this doesn't help much but I figured it would be roughly in the 375-400 hp range. I am running a 23p Mirage plus. With a full tank of fuel and 5 people fully loaded. I'm seeing 50mph on gps at WOT around 4550 rpm. I know it's a relatively heavy boat but I was figuring on a little more speed. Does this seem right? I'm new to the performance side of boating any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Ben

I had a 1990 Baja 250 and with the stock 365 hp and a 23 pitch prop it would hit 60 on gps at 5200 rpm. When you were running did you have the drive trimmed up or was it all the way down? You need to make sure that you trim the drive up when running you will be surprised at what a difference it will make. You have limit switches on the drives so you will only be able to trim it so far, if you want to trim it a little more you can use the trailer button to lift the drive even further....just don't go too far. You aren't turning enough rpm, you should be turning around 5200.

Yeah, I'm not new to boating I've had I/O bowriders and smaller boats before. I'm not saying I had it trimmed out perfect but it was close. Would I be better trying a 21 or 22p? What would going to a 4-blade accomplish?

I had one with a slightly built 454 Mag (larger cam & headers) and mine ran best with a 21 pitch Mirage turning 5300-5400. For whatever reason, the 23 was way too big for mine. Might want to double check your timing on the engine and the accuracy of the tach. My tach was way off, there is an adjustment screw on the back to adjust it if it is wrong. If your engine is as advertised and nothing is wrong, you should be in the mid 60's pretty easily based on my experience.

If your only reaching 4550 wot you have too much prop. Stepping back to a 21 should get you a few hundred rpms but to be honest if you want to see more speed, burn 1/2 the fuel and kick 3 of those people off the boat along with their gear. That's a 1000 less pounds. A 4 blade is only going to give you even more bite and lower rpms.

Thanks for the input I might just leave it as is, it seems to be running fine and I'd rather not over-rev it anyway.

From the #'s posted, sounds like it's more in the neighborhood of 275 to 300 hp.

That boat should run low 60's with 375-400hp.

forget the 4 blades on it....the drive is too low.

1st you need to find out what motor you have, if its a 330hp 454 rpm range is low 4600. but if you had the 365hp 454 its range is like 4800 to 5000. your doing damage to it if your only hitting 4500rpm. my baja came from a friends dealership where there were two 250 89 with 365s both ran mirage 23p. see if you can find out what cam is in your boat, it maybe all wrong. like someone said check timing, also change water/ fuel filter separater that can cause 300 rpm loss. keep us posted with any new info.

I agree, and if all else fails and motr checks out, I have a 21 Mirage Plus I may sell.

I will change the fuel filters, but if it does indeed have bigger cams and better heads wouldn't that change the rpm range? I'm almost positive it has a bigger cam because of the way it idles. I'll try to find out more info I know I'm asking questions that need more specific info to answer. Thanks