[Capt Dan Medina]

Picked up a 2001 2 stroke 25 merc and am looking to upgrade the prop... I was thinking on getting a stainless, however a buddy of mine is telling me not to get a stainless considering the majority of my running will be in rocky areas and if I were to hit such said "rocky areas" with the stainless, the risk of breaking my shaft is higher with the stainless vs aluminum. Any thoughts on this?

Starting it up, she doesnt start shooting a steady stream for about a minute.... Mechanic said it had to warm up before the thermostat would open up?
Another question I had was when I would check the temperature of the water coming out when it was "peeing", it seemed very warm especially when compared to previous motors I have owned.... The water pump and lower unit oil have already been changed.... any imput?

 

[Brett]

If I were to hit "rocky areas" with the stainless, the risk of breaking my shaft is higher with the stainless vs aluminum.  Any thoughts on this?

Stainless is a harder metal, less likely to bend on impact.
Therefore more of the shock would be transferred to the lower unit.


Another question I had was when I would check the temperature of the water coming out when it was "peeing", it seemed very warm especially when compared to previous motors I have owned

Get out a thermometer and take it's temperature.
Only way to make sure of the operating temperature of the output water.

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

brett, will try thermometer temp tomorrow....

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

tested water temp and it was fine.... maybe I was just cold the other day? Also ran a compressio test on her and got 115 in both cylinders... [smiley=1-dancingchief.gif]

So today I took my jon down the river for a quick spin to see what I got as far as speed goes.... I topped out at 23.4 mph with only myself and a very light load..... cruising was around 21....

Id like to try to get her to run top end around 30 with me alone and 27 or so with another person and gear. Things Id like to do to accomplish more speed/shallower draft are to add a manual jackplate and change my prop to stainless (have a stock aluminum that looks like its hit a thing or two) ....

What do you "experts" think I should do/recommend?

 

[Flyline]

Get a merc vengance 3 blade polished stainless steel propeller with 13 pitch and I love it.  Its fast propeller.

 

[Flyline]

Ran it on gheenoe LT15 with no jackplate...2 people 28.85 mph and 34 alone.

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

those are some good numbers.... I know my boat has more surface drag so I dont expect the same numbers.... what kind of gains did you see with that prop vs the stock one?

 

[Gramps]

SOS - Do you know what RPM's the motor is turning? What kind of budget do you have for a prop? My LT25 was running the stocker; did 30mph with two guys & gear, never did a WOT solo run...

Mine was the 10.5x11 3 blade I'm pretty sure because my solo RPM's were about 6,300 WOT. Other option is the 10.5 x 13 3 blade. But aluminum props for these boats only run about $85, Michigan Wheel Vortex on iboats.com. The Merc Vengeance prop runs around $250.

Do you have a TinyTach? I can loan ya mine if need be.

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

Just bought the boat a few weeks ago and have no idea what rpm she is turning....
250 is steep, but in a few weeks I can shell it out if its going to get me the performance Im after...

I appreciate the offer on the tinytach...if you are in stuart, Im looking at a 3 1/2 hour drive.... What does one of them tinytach's cost?

 

[Gramps]

SOS, yup I'm in Stuart. But that's what $5.50 USPS boxes are for.

New Tiny-Tach's run $47.00 + shipping. http://www.tinytach.com/tinytach/gasoline.php And what I've found is you only need them for a few days or the length of your prop testing. After that it's not really needed.

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

Gramps, I want to see if I can find someone to loan me the recommended prop to compare to the stock prop before I make the purchase.... If I can do that then I woud very much appreciate borrowing the tiny tach...

 

[mark_gardner]

your definitely gonna get more performance from the ss prop, what size boat do you have? personally i'd go for the ss prop and watch for the rocks ;D

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

ss is in the plans....

 

[Capt Dan Medina]

OK, so no update on the prop, but Ron form the skiff shop is going to help me out with that!

Thanks to forum member whitesnooky who sold me a Bobs Machine Shop manual jackplate!

Looking forward to the install and tests runs!