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first time out, jackplate question

E

enchanted

Member
so after about a month of working on my first mate in my spare time it went into the water this morning. boat ran beautifully. let me start by saying i have a manual powerlift plate. i think its got something like 6" to maybe 8" of lift and it puts the motor about 5" to 6" off of the transom. when i first got started this morning the plate was all the way down and the prop center line was well below the transom. the boat ran awesome and was very stable at speed. about 64ish at 5100 rpm on the pilot tube autometer speedo i just put in. i felt as though it had more in it so we went back to the dock and pulled it out of the water and instead of lifting the plate a little a ran it all the way up because im impatient and was excited. so back in the water we go and i get out on the lake and alot of the stablity is gone but i did see 68ish on the speedo, i think 4mph is a pretty nice gain. heres the problem, after about 45 seconds to a minute of wot my over temp alarm comes on and i have to back it down to an idle and after a few seconds at an idle it shuts up. i run at an idle for a bit and as soon as i giver a kick in the pants i run another 45 seconds at wot and the alarm is right back. im assuming lifting the motor out of the water has created a shortage of water to the pickups? and if so what the hell is the point of the jackplate if i can only run for 45 seconds before it gets all pissed off at me? also i dont know if it matters but the prop is a 14" 25p turbo 4 blade


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A set of intake scoops for around 30 bucks will fix you right up, they work great, no more alarm.
 

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JW said:
And, only lift it as high as water pressure allows.
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thats the funny thing, at 3000 rpm its reading 4psi and at wot it reads 6psi when the plate is all the way up. i thought 4 to 6 was enough? should it be higher? whats also goofy is that my motor has 2 tell tales and they both dont piss at the same time. they take turns. should both stats open at the same time and they both piss at the same time? just seems weird to me
 
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were is the best place to get the scoop kit? i checked out crowley and its 58$ seems to me two pieces of flat and 6 or so screws would be a little cheaper lol
 
i was just checking out the bobs kits, can anyone that has installed one shed any light on the difficulty/ installation process? seems a little more legit to me than the two scoops. and if its something i can install fairly easy im willing to spend the 175$
 
You should be getting a higher reading at WOT, mine reads around 5 at idle, 10-15 at cruising speed and 20 plus at WOT with the scoops, I can jack it all the way up even to where the speedo quits working and still have good pressure.

As for the Bob's unless your running 80 plus MPH it will actually scrub speed off.
 
john lamon said:
You should be getting a higher reading at WOT, mine reads around 5 at idle, 10-15 at cruising speed and 20 plus at WOT with the scoops, I can jack it all the way up even to where the speedo quits working and still have good pressure.

As for the Bob's unless your running 80 plus MPH it will actually scrub speed off.
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im not really worried about top speed honestly, anything over 50 is plenty fast enough in this hull on lake erie. the water is only flat enough to run wide open a few times a year by where i live. i ran the jack plate all the way down and took it back out again today. at idle it has 0 psi at 2000 rpm it had 10 psi for about a minute and then it tapered down to 5 and never went over 5 no matter where the rpm was. is it possible that i didnt do something right when i changed my water pump? the more ive been reading the more ive found out i should be up around 15 to 20 psi with the plate all the way down. i even started getting the alarm today after about 10 minutes of running, whats bizarre is that the alarm shuts up after about 4 seconds after the rpm dips below 1200. you would think it would stay on until it cools down but it seems rpm based. im totally in the dark here
 
enchanted said:
im not really worried about top speed honestly, anything over 50 is plenty fast enough in this hull on lake erie. the water is only flat enough to run wide open a few times a year by where i live. i ran the jack plate all the way down and took it back out again today. at idle it has 0 psi at 2000 rpm it had 10 psi for about a minute and then it tapered down to 5 and never went over 5 no matter where the rpm was. is it possible that i didnt do something right when i changed my water pump? the more ive been reading the more ive found out i should be up around 15 to 20 psi with the plate all the way down. i even started getting the alarm today after about 10 minutes of running, whats bizarre is that the alarm shuts up after about 4 seconds after the rpm dips below 1200. you would think it would stay on until it cools down but it seems rpm based. im totally in the dark here
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i droped the lower again tonight and figured out my problem (face palm) the tube that goes from my water pump housing to the copper tube in the midsection somehow got cracked when i reinstalled the lower after i replaced the water pump. not only did it crack but it also kinda shattered. so basically the alarm kept coming more and more frequently because the coupling tube kept breaking more and more. i went to the hardware store tonight and found a new piece of tube and made sure that it went together correctly this time. im going to test it this weekend. i also ordered the bobs dual hose bigfoot kit. im going to put that on next week
 
THATS GREAT, WELCOME TO BOATING. If you ever want to a mad dash to PIB or come up around the corner to south Detroit/Erie let me know!
 
merc245 said:
THATS GREAT, WELCOME TO BOATING. If you ever want to a mad dash to PIB or come up around the corner to south Detroit/Erie let me know!
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i spend a decent amount of time around sandusky bay, dont make it to pib alot. but we do go to all the barge partys at the sand bar
 
eludeme89 said:
you need less pitch. less pitch equals higher RPM equals happier motor just my opinion
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depending on where my jack plate is i see anywhere from 5100 to 6000 at wot. as for performance the boat comes out of the hole pretty hard it holds in corners fantastically and top speed is more than enough for me. all in all i think this prop suits my needs pretty well. besides that i dont think these merc v-6's like much over 6000 unless you modify them. not that i have an optimax but they didnt get the name opti-pop for no reason. i know a few people with the 200hp plus v-6 mercs that try to spin them past 6500 that also have to rebuild there powerhead once every two seasons. no thanks, i think i will play it safe under 6000 and get as much longevity as i can.
 
I would find out where it makes max HP and prop it to run at or just above that at WOT. Better to rev a tiny bit higher than to lug it. Lugging = detonation = melted pistons
 
enchanted in the post all i saw was 64mph at 5100rpm and w jackplate up 4 mph increase but nothing about 6000rpm runs. so with that info i wouldnt be running above 6000rpm either. and now that i see you can reach top rpm of 6000 i wouldnt change a thing either. sounds like youre getting her dialed in.
 
eludeme89 said:
enchanted in the post all i saw was 64mph at 5100rpm and w jackplate up 4 mph increase but nothing about 6000rpm runs. so with that info i wouldnt be running above 6000rpm either. and now that i see you can reach top rpm of 6000 i wouldnt change a thing either. sounds like youre getting her dialed in.
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yeah its really starting to come together, if i can get the motor buttoned up for the weekend i will try to take some video and put it up
 
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