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2800SX Outboard Restoration Begins!!!

Good progress being made by the team at Nick's Creative Marine. This is the first time in a long while that I have not been involved in some way turning wrenches. New hours at work have left me little spare time to work on major projects. Powerheads are back on and pre rigged. It was a pain in the azz removing the 5" spacers to turn the mids into 25" mids....lots of torching but they're off. Waiting on some driveshafts, need to run oil tank lines from under the rear bench seat through the rigging tubes to the motors, install the lower units, put the cowls back together and adjust the shifter/throttles cables. If I have some extra $$$ I'm going to install a new helm and get rid of the old pressure tank.
 

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Getting close to the finish line. Both 5" spacers have been removed, drive shafts cut 5" and re welded, and both gear cases installed. Still need to reinstall the cowls on the port motor, hook up the oil tanks under the rear bench seat, hook up the new shifter and throttle cables at the shifter box and fire up the new motors. Then just need to reinstall the starboard combing panel and bolster!
 

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She's back!! Ran the twin Mercury 3.0L Offshore 225's today for the 1st shakedown. Instantly saw speeds in the 70mph range with 96 gallons of gas on board and double oil! The torque and acceleration of the 3.0L motors was outstanding. Without low water pickups I found I was running the motors a bit high and was only seeing water pressure readings in the 6lb range at speed so I headed back to the shop to drop the motors one bolt hole down. I'll run the boat again on Sunday to see how the water pressure has changed and still have one more hole of downward adjustment if needed. I also have the Mercury scoops on the water intakes to help funnel water to the motors. Too bad there was so much boat traffic in the intercoastal waterway today...I never got the chance to really let her eat but just as well, it was good to play it safe and not overheat my new motors!
 

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Ran my 2800 yesterday with the motors lowered one bolt hole down. Full tank of gas, two adults, 80 degree weather and gps'd 67mph but could never get to full speed once again due to boat traffic and cruiser wakes all over the place (and marine patrol). Motors ran flawlessly and I was banging the rev limiters with the 26p choppers. I had my good friend and boat racer Nick Scafidi (from Nick's Creative Marine) on board. With the props turning out, I can feel the stern sucking down and running wet. We're going to swap the gear cases (and cables at the shifter box) and turn the props in again. I'm going to raise the motors (again) at least one, maybe two bolt holes, block off a couple of water intake holes on each gearcase (due to the higher motor heights to avoid sucking air) and try a bigger set of wheels, maybe some Bravo One 28's. Turning in should give me the stern lift I need (and had when I ran the 2.4's turning in at 18" centers) and the Bravo One 4-blade should carry the boat really well. I believe once I'm dialed in the boat should consistently run 72-75 mph. Also made a nice lunch stop at the Waterway Café!!
 

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I think you'll love the Bravo Ones. Sure some people will say that its a MerCruiser prop, but there's a reason they are so popular on Verado powered boats (and even seen them run on Seven Marine 557's). They carry large boats well.
 
First real test today in flat fresh water. Turning the props in at 6100-6300 RPM on the rev limiters I saw a GPS speed of 72mph with at least 1/2 to 3/4 tank of fuel! I now have enough setup time on this boat to say the boat runs much better spinning the props in and the boat really comes alive at 70+ mph! She climbs on the pad and really frees up! I firmly believe I have at least 3-5 more mph in the setup; raising the motors & bigger props should yield 75mph!! This is the fastest my boat has run with the full cabin installed!!!!:banana:
 
Tinkered with the setup again yesterday. Nick (Nick's Creative Marine) helped me do the final adjustment on my new shift cables and we tapped and plugged the top 3 holes on each gear case. Then we drilled the bottom two water intake holes larger on each case for more water volume. We raised the motors two bolt holes up and I ran the boat. The boat DID NOT like the motors running that high at all! I could clearly hear the exhaust exiting each prop hub and I could tell the props were surfacing but I was not getting enough water pressure (without low water pickups) and the port motor temperature gage raised quickly. With the choppers that high I was not getting enough bite or lift which poorly effected the handling. Now I know I need to go down at least 1 bolt hole (back to where I started) or 2 bolt holes (where I GPS'd @ 72+ mph). I may even try 3 bolt holes down (which is as far as I can go) just to see what happens...keep you posted.
 
The saga continues. I'm on the 4th pair of motors since getting this boat. Started with mid 1980's 2.4L 200's, then 1994 2.5L 200's, then 1995 3.0L 225 Offshores and now.....2002 3.0L 250 EFI's. As of yesterday, the new motors are hung and most of the rigging complete. The top 5 holes on each gearcase have been tapped and plugged with stainless 5/16th allan plugs. The new lowers have the low water pickups that are much needed with the height I'm running on the motors. 2002 was the last year of the high performance platform for the 3.0L 250 efi's with the Motorola computers, etc. and can easily be turned into 300 Promax motors. I'l hopefully finish tomorrow and get her in the water for a shakedown. Motors came off a center console with most of the low hours at trolling speeds!

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Awesome stuff!

I saw you had it for sale but glad to see you changed your mind.

Im a big fan of the 3.0 EFI Mercs and should be perfect for your rig.

Good luck, Ill be watching.
 
Damn steve....turn my back for a min and you been through 3 sets of motors! You been busy.

Howd it run with 225s? What are you lookin for with 250s?

I've got a 27 magnum I'm turning into a sit down cockpit boat. Gil brackets and 380 k planes. I'm wanting to do 225/ 250 efi 3l as well.
 
Motors are completely rigged, cables adjusted and ready to go to the water! I know I'm gonna run out of prop with 26 choppers and be banging the rev limiters. Time to hunt down some 26 or 28 Bravo Ones and get in the modern world! I sure hope I don't wind up working this Sunday!
 

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2tonchevy said:
Damn steve....turn my back for a min and you been through 3 sets of motors! You been busy.

Howd it run with 225s? What are you lookin for with 250s?

I've got a 27 magnum I'm turning into a sit down cockpit boat. Gil brackets and 380 k planes. I'm wanting to do 225/ 250 efi 3l as well.
Click to expand...

Max, your back! With the 225 carb motors I consistently ran 72+ with the motors buried deep and on the rev limiters. I never found out the top end numbers because I couldn't run the motors high enough due to not having low water pickups and didn't want to grenade nice powerheads!! The new motors have the low water pickups and I've plugged the top 5 holes on each gearcase to prevent losing water pressure. I'm still in need of bigger wheels but I'll probably run it this sunday just to have some fun.
 
Lol couldn't stay away from the egg beaters. Lol sold the 42 last year and been in and out of fl. Got my 5th wheel set up in tampa. We need to hang when I'm back in town!!

Hope all is well!

Yea I imagine running deep like that was less than optimal. My 2800 liked the x as shallow as I could go and still get water. It ran faster and flatter that way with both sets of motors.

Glad to see you decided to keep the ol girl.
 
2tonchevy said:
Lol couldn't stay away from the egg beaters. Lol sold the 42 last year and been in and out of fl. Got my 5th wheel set up in tampa. We need to hang when I'm back in town!!

Hope all is well!

Yea I imagine running deep like that was less than optimal. My 2800 liked the x as shallow as I could go and still get water. It ran faster and flatter that way with both sets of motors.

Glad to see you decided to keep the ol girl.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was considering selling her but everybody wanted to trade me for another boat and nothing excited me enough to pull the trigger. I'm spending much more time boating in my Pulsare 2400 Bowrider/Verado 300 Pro and the 2800 was sadly sitting, feeling neglected...but every time I run the 2800 and hear the howl of twin screaming Mercs and the brutal throttle response I can't help but get excited and happy that I've kept her. I really think moving to the 250EFI's was a great move for my boat. If I get super motivated I can easily turn them into 300 hp...:banana:
 
Ran the twin Merc 250's yesterday. Strong running motors that idle nice and pull like freight trains. Definitely ran out of prop with my chopper 26's. Rpm max on the motors per Mercury specs is 5800 rpm. I was banging the rev limiters at 5800-6000 rpm running 66-67 mph with slip numbers of 19-21%. I have a set of Bravo One 30's that I'm going to try next time out. I ran the number through Mercury's prop slip calculator. If I can spin the 30's at 5800rpm with 16% slip it show 79 mph!

Here's a quick video for your enjoyment..had to fight a few boat wakes bouncing off the sea walls!
https://youtu.be/aghR9U7hmZg
 

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Very cool JP. From a cost perspective, I’ve been considering the same setup. Seems like the old EFI’s are pretty bullet proof but also quite thirsty.

What do you think it would take to get your slip numbers down to around 12%?
 
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