Steve, I went with Lightning as I do very little salt water running. I think Lightning makes an all stainless version as well but it runs quite a bit more.

I can tell you the sound with the headers is sweet! I knew going in I was not going to gain a big bump in performance but I did gain right at 2 MPH. Not sure if it was due to the weight loss, better flow or more than likely, a combo of both. I did pick up some perf in mid range. Hard to measure it but you can damn sure feel the torque. If I had to do it all over again, I would spend the money in a heart beat.

OK...Got the prop back Thursday and tested Friday on the James. Air temp was right at 90 and water was still cool to say the least.

Put in at Dutch Gap (I hate that place) and after warming up the motor, headed down river. Boat came out of the hole like a bat out of hell. Then the fun began. The good news...69.1 GPS. Last year, I saw 69.4 one time but I was running in perfect conditions, WITH a strong current. 68 was pretty much the norm and then I would start to bang the rev limiter. The 69 I saw Friday was right at 5000~5050 RPM.

The bad news...The boat now porpoises like crazy with any positive trim applied at all. We may have added too much cup??? Would that cause the porpoise? Anyhow, I will be sending the prop back for a slight tweak. Darin did a hell of a job on the prop and it looks beautiful. My guess is it will only take a slight mod to get it just right.

Larry...what happened to your cruise?

I have a very good lab. prop story.. I recently purchased a labbed 26 B1 for a future project,,, well, my 23 mirage plus that I normally run on the 232 was out getting a nick fixed and I had no prop,, so I figured I would give the 26 a shot,, well, I didn't even think she would get on plane never mind run like a bandit... w/ 23 m + she ran 60 @ 4,500 rpm.. with the
Merc. labbed 26 B1 she ran 63 @ 4,200 with full gear and fuel.. Midrange went from 43 ish @ 3,500 to 50 ish @ 3,500.. all I can say is that I was using the wrong prop all these years... what a difference..

Cruise was still very good Steve. The boat was very stable and didn't jump around like it was at WOT. I only had a short amount of time to test and I forgot to look at the RPM's at 50mph.:o

Midrange accel was great as well.

Hey Larry, if I know you there was no "cruising" neither...:p

Milt, mine and my buddy's both pourpose at WOT. We run the bravo's labed. I don't know if you can get ride of it or not. Let us know if you ever do? I plan on installing a stern jack eventualy. That should alow me to carry the nose nice and high on the smooth water!

true dat!:D

Jeff, I had some porpoise before te lab work but now it goes crazy running at WOT with any positive trim at all. I even moved the K-Planes half way down (when I run them it is usually just a bump or two down and it calms the boat).

I spoke to Darin and he is going to take out some of the cup. After thinking about this, telling him to add cup was probably not such a good idea as the prop really didn't have any blowout problems befor and was always decent out of the hole.

mlitefan, any news on your prop work? results?