Way2slow

If I was going to buy a new DFI motor, the Etec is the only one I would even consider. I actually like my old 99 Ficht.

The spline inside the prop is moulded into a rubber bushing and then the whole assembly is pressed into the prop. Yes, is "suppose" to slip inside the prop on impact with something but there are times the gears or prop shaft do give way before the bushing slips. The ideas is the aluminum prop is so much more fragile than the stainless prop is that it will brend/brake much sooner/easier than a stainless and hopefully save the actual lower unit from damage. Then there's the fact that a $150 aluminum prop will run you $400 or more in stainless. Now, with all that said, the only thing I ever run an aluminum prop on is my 4 and 9.9 because the only time I run them is when in small rivers jumping logs, limbs and all kinds of junk where they are constantly getting beat to hell. Everything else has stainless props. They grealy out perform aluminum props in all aspects, take abuse much better, can easily be tapped back in shape if you ding an edge and don't get knocked out of shape no where near as easy. If you really want to get the most of any high horse powered bass boat, you send your $500+ stainless prop off and pay another $300+ to have it tuned for your boat.

With small motors it's too easy for someone else to thank you for buying them a new motor so normally, you take them off and store in a secure location, making bolting it down not very pratical. If you do plan on leaving it on the boat and drill holes through the transome to mount it, YES, you MUST seal the bolts on both sides with a marine silicon, and don't be afraid of putting plenty on them. You should use stainless bolts, washers and self locking nuts, usually Lowes/Home Depot will have an assorment. If not, most marine dealers have them.

Normally they are rarely needed on smaller boats but are great when needed, provided they work. I drive a 98 4X4 1500 chevy pickup with large all terrain tires and had a 17' aluminum boat cause me to have to go through a red light because I couldn't get stopped. I was coming out of Orange Park Fl in one of those rare situations where in had be hot a dry for a few weeks and a light mist of rain had just glazed the road making it like grease. Everytime I would try apply brakes the boat would try to push the back end one way or the other. With traffic on both side of me I'd have to ease off the brakes to get it straight. Luckily the light had just turned red and I guess the other traffic saw I wasn't getting stopped so nobody pulled out. Also, had I been pulling my Stratos or Javelin weighing over 3000 pounds each, I would have been in worse trouble because they both have trailer brakes but you will spend more time and money keeping them working than they are worth. 95% of my fishing is a five mile drive each way from the boat shed to the boat ramp. The trailer brakes never get used enough to fully dry after backing in the lake and the pistons rust in the wheel cylinders, freezing them up. I would always have to make sure I was not dragging a tire when first leaving the house and rock it back and forth to free it up if I was. I finally let air into the bleeders so the surge didn't work and now I just install new wheel cylinders and bleed them when I'm going to make a long haul, which is rare these days.

I've driven and road in a number of heavy class bass boats running in the low 70's to mid 70's that didn't chine walk. Like I said, setup has a huge amount to do with it. My Javelin R20 doesn't start to chine walk until it gets to 73 - 74 mph. I'm repairing the engine on a friends 94 Stratos 201 that doesn't chine walk until it hits the mid 70's. My Stratos 285 Pro didn't start until 71 - 72 on glass smooth water. When there is a four to six inch chop my Javelin won't chine walk, even at 80. I've been is several Rangers running in the low 70's that didn't chine walk. Oh, and before it comes up that a Javelin R20, a Stratos 285 Pro and a Stratos 201 won't run that fast, All three of these boats are running 320+ hp motors. The 201 runs 78 with two people, the Javelin 82 with two and the 285 got too squirrly to get it past 83. Now with all that said, I've never been in a Triton and don't know many people that have one but don't think I've ever heard of a Triton running 70+ mph that didn't chine walk. From what I hear, that's their nature, just like it's a fact of life with a Bullet or Allison. Chine walk is a very common problem but not "ALL" boats will chine walk in the low 70's but as I stated earlier, setup has a "HUGE" affect on just when and how bad one starts to walk. The faster the hull design, to more apt it is to start walking sooner.

If you have a hydraulic jack plate and water pressure guage, with the right prop, depending on the tunnel design, you could probably buzz right on through 4" of water. You can actually run your outboard in shallower water than a jet is recommend. Jet drives go through like a vaccum cleaner a suck all kinds of crap up off the bottom, creating major wear problems. Jets are great for running rivers and such where there are lots of trees, logs, etc you have to go over because there's nothing below the hull, but not good for running shallow flats. Your problem is getting on plane in shallow water. You will probably need eight inches or so to get it up on plane without dragging the LU. My soon 20' back bay glass tunnel hull will run in 3" with a 175 Etec.

Yes, chine walk is a driving issue with most boats fast enough to ge up on the pad, however there can be contributing factors. An ill setup boat makes life in the fast lane a whole lot harder if not impossible. First, there can be no play in the steering or motor. If the steering wheel moves, the motor has to move, even 1/8" free play at the motor can make the boat almost impossible to drive. Proper engine height, setback and prop can help tame one down also. The more of the motor you can get up out of the water, the less likely it is to walk. Getting the setback right gets the motor trim to a more neutral position so the prop is pushing foward, not downward to get lift (it's called finding the sweet spot). A four blade prop helps handling also but usually at the cost of a few MPH. I would think you have hydraulic steering. Many times they don't get fully bled out and give a small amount of slop. That slop has to go. I've even had boats that the steering wheel had slop in the key slot, letting the steering wheel move without moving anything. The quickest way to learn to drive it is don't trim it all the way out until you are at WOT and the boats is at full speed with the motor tucked in some. Then start bumping the trim out, as the boat starts to get bow lift, it will slowly start to chine walk. Practice getting your timing down to correct so you can zig when it wants to zag. As you get control, bump it up a little more. As you trim up the chine walk will get quicker and more violent, so this will give you time to feel it and correct it before it gets too bad. Once it starts walking, trim back down and slow down until it quits and start working back up again. There's no such thing as "Driving Through It". Trying that can make for a very bad day on the lake.

If it's not a OEM prop it won't have a part number you would recognize. Look on the edge of the prop under the washer behind the prop nut, most props will put the size and possible part number there. Some will just stamp the size into the side of the barrel. Don't go by what the motor says it comes with, that is seldom the right size that goes on your particular boat. If it's a stainless Raker, it will be an even number pitch. If it's a four blade stainless Renagade or three blade aluminum it will be an odd number pitch size.

Then you might have a needle leaking by the seat. This causes the carb to load the motor, smoke like a freight train and idles rougher and rougher until it dies. Rebuilding the carbs and making sure the float levels are set correctly when done should take care of that.

If the motor runs fine at WOT and idles fine, I'm not too sure it's loosing prime. There are some checks I would make the next time on the lake. After making you first run and letting it sit to where you say you have to pump the bulb, before trying to start it, screw the plugs out of the bottom of the fuel bowls and see if plenty of gas drains out of them, if it does, it's not loosing prime. It's very common to be able to squize the bulb after shutting an engine off. If very little or no gas drains out, then I would look at rebuilding the fuel pump and carbs and set the float levels. I would do a link and sinc and check the choke is fully closing the butterfly when you press the key/choke button. Dirty carbs can also make one very hard to start and require manually priming everytime. Another thing that can cause one to be hard starting is a weak battery or dragging starter. Yes, it's cranking over, but if cranking slow it will not generate a hot enough spark and it takes more fuel in the chambers to start it. The CDI ignition system on that motor requires it be spinning approx 250 rpms or more to generate a full spark.

Yes, there are only a few stateside manufactors and Johnson is the 800 pound gorilla of those. Now, if you think just because it comes out of a certain plant, it's the same battery and the only difference is the label and price, you're living in wonderland. There are almost as many construction variations as there are labels. Then you have all the imported batteries that come in without labels and a company/supplies throws their label. Their are numbers of different quality batteries. A cheap battery is not cheaper just because they don't have as much markup. Huge volume discounts can reduce the price, but numbers of wholesalers buy at huge volume discounts.

One of the tried and true favorites is the Trojan SSC 225. Not cheap but if you want cheap, go to Wally World and get on of those big yellow batteries. I mentioned before, Deka also makes a very good battery. They are a little cheaper than the Trojan's. I've never run them but some of the guy's on hear swear by the Die-Hards. A number have had good service with the Interstates. Since I mainly deal with commercial equipment, I mainly buy Trojan's and Deka's when getting small batteries. I call these small because a lot of the batteries I mess with can weigh 1 - 2 tons. Both of these brands have proven themselves so I don't try re-inventing the wheel when it comes to a battery I can trust.

As for the 186XT. I think there's a fox in the hen house somewhere. For them to cut the HP that far back on a boat that size, it has to have a very light hull layup and not the strongest of designs . You also notice they never mention hull weight, but go to the regular Stratos line and they always give you the hull weight. Just because it has the Stratos name, don't think you're getting something like their lengendary line they are known for. You've gotta remember, the same company that owns Stratos also owns Bayliner and other cheaply built boats so they know how to build cheap boats and don't think they wouldn't use a Top line brand name to market a cheap boat. With the way todays boat market is going, that hull could have Bayliner design all over it. I think it's like the Force motor and Bayliner Boats, yea you save some when you first buy it, but you loose your butt when you try to get rid of it because you almost have to give them away to get rid of them. If I was wanting a good size new boat that would get me fishing at a minimal cost, I would look at an aluminum before getting something like that 186XT. The aluminums hold their resale value pretty good, are light and easy to tow, and don't take a big motor to push them. If you don't care for the ride of a tin can, find you a quality boat one or two years old that someone is trying to get out from under the payments and willing to sell very reasonable. Those can however be hard to find because they usually bought them on 7 - 10 years notes with verly little down so they owe a whole lot more than the boat would ever be worth. If you're close to GA and want a nice older boat, real cheap, I've got a 1989 Stratos 285 Pro I will sell real cheap just to get it out of my yard. This is not a ragged out piece of crap, it was fully restored about four years ago, the carper and seats still look great.

Don't get me wrong, AGM batteries (That's the type and what Optima's are) are great batteries for what they are designed. They are designed to be maintenance free, so they can be installed in hard to get to places and provide much longer life (more charge cycles) than your standard battery. They can also be mounted in any position, upside down even without ever leaking. They are an ideal battery for a salt water marine enviroment when mounted in an area salt water has a chance of getting to them. They also also good for aluminum boats when there is a chance the acid from a standard battery might be able to get to the aluminum. All this does come with some other considerations. The charger is very critical and a good one is going to be a good bit more than your standard good charger. Without a very good charger, you will never get the duty cycles they are designed to deliver, probably want get as many as you would with a standard battery on a good charger. they are very temperature sensitive and so charge temps and float voltages are critical. Next is the style construction. Spiral wound like the Optima or stacked cells like some of other better brands. As the battery ages, the plate materials start to expand. Spirals have very little room for expansion so they tend to short out sooner Then you have the capacity, Optima's for the same size case as a good flooded cell battery has a whole lot less capacity. That is also why they are so much lighter than standard batteries. Some of the stacked cell AGM's offer more capacity than the Optimax's but none of them can equal the capacity of a good flooded cell battery in the same size case. If you buy an AGM battery that will give the same run time (capacity) as a Trojan SSC 225, it will be a larger case and will weigh close to the same. So, is an Optima a good battery, yes, for what it's designed for. Is there a bettery battery, yes. Would I buy an AGM battery, yes, I buy them all the time but would I buy an Optima, NO. THey do a great job advertising them but there are better AGM batteries for the same price.

First off, you MUST have a GOOD charger designed for AGM batteries or you're going to be very disappointed with the service life you get from them. Next, if you don't mind paying twice as much for a battery that's only going to give you about 2/3's the run time a good flooded cell battery will give you. So, if you don't need all the run time you can sqeeze out of a battery, if you don't mind paying a whole lot more for less battery, and you don't mind spending the extra bucks for a good charger, they are OK. However, even then, there are much better AGM batteries that have a stacked cell that beat the Optima spiral wounds in every aspect. Deka is just one of several that I would pick over an Optima.

I would just get some Penzoil Syntetic 85/90 GL5. I think it takes about 35 ounces but it doens't mater, you just level the motor and pump it in the bottom plug until it comes out the top one. Wal-Mart sells a little pump for about $10 you put in your bottle that makes life a lot easier.

I never worked on a V4 but my 1999 V-6 Ficht runs 128 pounds, I would suspect the V-4 is just about the same. Now I'm going to tell you the rest of the story. The early fichts (pre 2002) were plagued with problems. The early V-4s were the black sheep of the lot. Even the factory tech reps hated them. The V-6's had problems but most were ECU related and with major upgrade, most of those problems go away. This ECU upgrade is about $800 and is done by an aftermarket source, not BRP. Another problem is they are very sensitive to old gas. Let one sit for three or four months and you may have problems. I pump out my gas tank and connect a two gallon tank (which I only add a gallon at the time) to mine when not in use and add two ounces of SeaFoam per gallon. I crank it a let it idle about 15 - 20 minutes every couple of weeks. Just letting them sit and you may find yourself needing a piston or two the next time you take it down the lake.

Kind of motor would help, different makes have different inherient problems. A ring locator pin could have come out. A compression check will tell you that. Something could have come loose and got sucked in on top of the piston. Pulling the head off or using a flex light and looking through the plug hole should show damage on the domes is it's that. A way to check if it's a possible rod or wrist pin is to take all the plugs out and one at a time, stick a long screwdriver through the plug hole until you feel the piston. Then slow turn the flywheel by hand until the piston comes all the top, don't hold any pressure on the screwdriver. Once at the top, turn it another couple of inches so the piston will be on it's down stroke. Once you have the piston on the down stroke, give little push on the screwdriver. There should be absolutely no free movement of the piston. If a rod or wristpin is bad enough to be knocking, usually you will feel a slight movement or clunk when you push. However, other than knowing what's causing it, normally if it's internal, it has to come apart. If that happens, plan on a bad christmas.

Generally, a four blade will give a better hole shot than a three. They will usually have less steering torque also but the also usually need to be run a good bit higher than three blades. They may also cause you to loose two - four mph on top end. Before investing heavily in a four blade, I would strongly recommend trying one first. My boat has always performed better with a custom tuned three blade than a four. Better holes shot and better top end speed. Having a good three blade tuned for you boat is also a lot cheaper than a new four blade. Sometimes, on some hulls the four blades are just the ticket, but that's not always the case. I know they look like crap on the back of your motor but your biggest holeshot boost is going to come from adding a good hydrofoil. I like the SE Sport 300. Properly setup, they add greatly to holeshot and do nothing the slow the boat down on top end. One other thing, before doing anything about a different prop, you need to get the jackplate dialed in so you can get a good rpm reading with the prop you're running. Adding the jack plate and getting the height right could add several hundred rpm to what you had. You want to keep the rpm so it's right at max recommended with normal load and properly trimmed out.

If junk came out of the carbs when your friend sprayed cleaner in them, both carbs need to come off and be cleaned properly. Most likely the motor is down a cylinder is the reason for the loss of rpm. As mentioned, this can be a clogged jet in the carbs or it could not be fiing on one. The not firing can be any of a number of problems. Depending on the brand, it could be a spark plug, plug wire, coil, power pack/trigger module, timer base/stator, or bad connection in one of the wires. To trouble shoot ignition problems you're going to need the right test equipment, a book and know how or it can get very, very expensive.

The red lever should be vertical with the main body in the normal positon (pointed down away from the top, and fliped horizontal for manual priming.

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That is your primer solenoid. When you press the key in to "choke it" you are energizing the solenoid so it will let the fuel pump send gas directly to the engine. With the lever flipped down away from the top is the normal position. You flip it up to manually prime it with the primer bulb. There is an O-ring on the red piece that probably needs replacing, or the cover could have a small crack. You can buy the cover, red lever, O-ring and cover gasket from your dealer and just replace the whole top, they are not very expensive. If you happen to leave the lever in the up position, it will massively over load the motor with fuel.

The drive shaft is a direct connection between LU and powerhead. If the LU freezes up or binding the crankshaft is gonna stop turning. My bet on the TM is you tripped one of the circuit breakers at the battery, if it has one. With that size TM, its very common for people to install them on the boat but not upgrade the breakers to match. This is usually not a problem when you are fishing because you're not making long, hard runs on the TM, but let the motor break and you're trying to use the TM to get back to the ramp and the undersized breakers trip out. If they are the manual reset, look for a plastic tab sticking out and press on it to reset them. If it happens to be one they tried to use fuses, throw them away and replace them with 50 amp breakers Too bad it had to be a Yammie, I have a couple of LU for Johnson's. I would shop around all the boating sites to see if an individual has one at a reasonable price ($500 or so). Buying one from most salvage companies or dealer could be VERY expensive, sometimes as much as $1,500 for a used unit.

I know it's like closing the barn door after the cows got out but one of the first things you should do when checking a motor out is remove the LU drain plug, let a little run lube out and check the color and look for metal fragments. Your first step after buying a motor should be to change the LU oil, change the water pump and give it a good greasing and going over and packing the trailer wheel bearings. Many people don't service their equipment. I'm willing to bet the guy knew nothing of the problem and did not intentionally sell you a piece of crap, he was just one of those that never checked anything and you happen to be the one that got burned. The bad part is now it's going to cost you a huge chunk of money to find a good, used LU to replace it with. Now if your talking oil in the motor's tank, that was totally your responsibility to check that before going to the lake and that's going to cost you a hellava lot more than a LU replace a powerhead.