Looking for Advice on Starliner

[Mark]

It will work but there may be a couple of things to resolve. Your current thrust washer may hold the Trophy too far out of the housing allowing too much exhaust over the hub instead of through it. It may not actually matter as it might help the prop spool up in holeshot. I used to add washers when I ran a Trophy on my 200 Merc and it helped holeshot. On the other hand if it is too much slip you will have to find a thrust washer from a flo-torq kit designed for an OMC. The other solution could be to use the Trophy blowout ring.

Secondly. the base of the propshaft is likely 1 1/16" so if you drill the hub out you will need to drill the first 1/2" or so to 1 1/16" and the rest to 1". Have a look you will see what I mean. OMC changed the design of their propshaft in 1991 and use the same one today.

If I had to guess you should end up with revs in the 5400-5500 range with an increase in top end. The Trophy is the right match for that setup.

 

[atc250r]

As always, thank you Mark for your thorough and useful input. I'll have a look at that prop shaft tomorrow as long as the weather cooperates. Could I just have the machinist open the hole up to 1 1/16" all the way down to where I need the splines to end rather than have him step it?

The Trophy I picked up has two vent holes directly across from one another if that helps I.D. it at all. I searched for the number stamped into it but it isn't coming up anywhere. The prop should be here early next week and I'm going to have a go at trying it out next weekend then the boat will probably get wrapped up for the winter. Here are the pics I got from the seller, I figured for $150 I couldn't really go wrong. Worst case I can always toss it on ebay and get my money back. If anyone has a way to get a firm I.D. from that number in the one picture I'd love to hear it. Apparently the prop is so shiny because it just came out of the laundry.










John

 

[Mark]

That is a first generation A40 Trophy (Non-plus) They have slightly thinner blades than the Plus and often are faster and spin 100-200 more revs. The holes he drilled are after market and are quite huge. They are not PVS and so you will not be able to pop plugs in them. This means you will likely have to get the Trophy blowout ring to seal the over hub exhaust. Part number 878421 about $10.
The bore already looks over 1" so I am not sure what is going on there. You will have to wait till you get it to decide what you need to do. Notice he has a rear castle washer from a Mercruiser I/O. That tells me he is already doing some jerry-rigging. I actually use one on my Etec when I run Flo-torq hubs instead of the cotter pin.

 

[atc250r]

The guy I'm getting it from took it as payment for a job he did for someone and has had it laying around for a while but never used it. I noticed the Mercruiser castle washer as I have that on my Glassmaster. I'll see next week when it arrives and I'll get that ring for next season. If I actually get to run around a little next weekend to test out the new prop it will definitely be the end of the boat until the spring for me.

John

 

[atc250r]

Fooled with it a little more today with the Raker on it still. 61-62 mph at 5800 with me and a completely full tank of fuel so it probably has a little more in it when its not lugging around 100lbs of extra fuel. I did notice that when I drop the jack plate down a couple of inches from where it normally is the boat doesn't go any slower, the bow really starts to come up, and the steering gets a lot easier. Going to toss it in for the last time next weekend and see what the new prop does.

John

 

[atc250r]

Got the prop today and went to try it on tonight. The splines on the prop need to be cut down an inch to get the prop to sit all the way down on the shaft to where it should be. The problem is that if I have 1 inch of the splines cut out of the prop I will only be left with about 1/2 inch of splines and I would imagine that the motor will wring those off before very long. I'm thinking that maybe I should just re-sell it and get my money back rather than potentially wreck the splines. From what I read here and on S&F I thought the OMC prop could be made to fit by just drilling the splines down, will that 1/2" be enough to not just strip out?

Thoughts?

John

 

[Mark]

1/2" is not very much. Also, once you get it on the shaft it may sit further out than you would like because the OMC props are deeper at the front than Mercs. And when you get it on the shaft you will discover that the OMC shaft is also much longer and you will have to add spacers before you can put on a nut (not a big deal though).
The best solution is to use Flo-torq props with the OMC hub kit. XHS 100 or Flo-torq 835265Q02 Here is the best buy online.
http://www.marinepowerservice.com/B...ash.cfm?search_partNbr=835265q02&op=835265q02

 

[atc250r]

Having given it some serious thought today I decided I`ll just re-sell this prop and go from there. That will give me time to talk to some of the prop shops about what I should go with and maybe add another 5 inches of setback and some transom knees before selecting a prop. There`s plenty of odds and ends to keep me busy in the meantime.

John

 

[sim]

So what you're saying is that you don't feel like going out and doing high speed test runs in December.
Am I reading that right?

 

[atc250r]

Actually, I don't mind doing them (keep in mind this is a brand new toy for me after having the same boat since I was 12), I just don't see the point in butchering up a prop only to have it not work so well.

This ain't so cold right now. Talk to me in February when I'm riding the frozen lake at just over 100.

John

 

[Needafunboat]

Yeah, it sounds like you had a little more power so you could turn that 26 although isn't the Merc 225 a smaller displacement than the 3.0L I have? Maybe I could get away with the 26. I wish I could try a few of these before I went with something.

John

The merc. EFI 225's are also 3.0L of displacement but they make a good deal of torque. Not sure how it compares to the Evinrude's. I know JW did some comparo's between a 225EFI and a 225 promax on two pulsare 21's - it's an interesting thread to look up if you're ever interested.

For what it's worth, I think you made the right choice on the prop. That's alot of rigging and potential stuff to mess up. Yes Mark makes is sound fairly easy, but as you can tell Mark has a bit more knowledge about this stuff than an average guy! You can usually find trophy's for around $225 in descent shape - at least for Merc's. Johnnyrude props might be harder to come by. I'm going to start shopping for a 24p bravo (merc) for the stinkray and will keep an eye out for you.

Anyhow, glad to see that Hobbie's boat (the slightly lighter red sister of my now orphaned boat) went to a good home. I haven't head a peep out of the current owner of my starliner.. l hope she's warm and wearing her cover!

 

[atc250r]

It looks like I'm going to wait until the spring or maybe even the summer to size up a prop. I want to do a few things to the motor before the season starts to up the hp a bit so what would be the optimum prop with the motor now might not be the optimum with it after a few mods are done. She's wrapped up from bow to stern in a heavy duty tarp with a 2x4 beam set 5 foot high off the floor. It looks like a 21ft long tent with a wickedly steep roof, no snow or anything sticking to it. Been using a similar process on my Glassmaster for the past 20+ years without a hitch. Its easy to pull the some of the cover off if I get a nice day and want to do some work or even if I want to climb in there with a heater and do some work in the dead of winter.

All in all, it ended up costing me about $3 on the prop. If all mistakes were that cheap I'd have a lot more money in the bank.

John