Way2slow

No, they don't pop off easy. They will get knocked up if you beach the rear part of the boat or hit them on limbs etc working shallow water but they don't normally come up without some major help. They will also break off if bent sideways beaching the boat and you forget to pop it up.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=1133&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

For those that have forgotten, it wasn't that many years ago the 17' bass boat was "the boat" of the pro's when BASS had the 150 hp limit and they fished some mighty big water with them. I would definitly upgrade to the 75 hp motor, and my motor of choice would be a two stroke, acutally an E-tec. The two stroke motor is going to make a lot more bottom end torque than a four stroke and you are already way down on power for that hull. The manufactors are being forced by liabilitly claims to drop the HP limit on boats to slow them down and I think they have gone too far on entry level boats. It wasn't too many years ago that same boat would have been rated for 150 hp and would have run 70 mph, making it a fairly dangerous ride for the beginning basser but cutting that in half is a little too much. I have an old 16'9" Stratos that weighs about the same as that 176XT and it's rated for 140 hp and has a 115 Merc on it. When I take a friend that weights 290 pounds, I have to change props and sometimes he has to get up toward the bow for the boat to get on plane so I would hate to know I was limited to 75 hp, even in that boat. As I've said many times before, the horse power is not about the speed, it's about the load carrying capabilties, the speed is just a by product of being able to have a fully loaded bass boat being able to get up and go.

Yes, your best bet is buy gas without any of the alcohols but good luck on that. It's not that hard in most of the south east but more and more states are going to them. Yes, ethanol does create all kinds of problems because alcohol does mix with water, yes it does desolve the old buildups from the entire fuel system and yes, you must keep fresh filters on the motor. If you have a boat a few years old, the problem is going to be real bad for a while until the ethanol has desolved and cleaned all that crud from the fuel tank. What is really going to suck is when that go to 10% or more formula, that's going to reak havoc on motors not designed for the junk.

Mounted and run bunches of them. Just mount it so the blade is a couple of inches below the pad and make sure its in an area that does not lift it out of the water when at WOT.

Read my post in "Breaking in a new motor". that should give you a pretty good guide for what's involved.

It might feel like a missile after running a 9.9 but it won't be. Should make you a very nice combontion though. First thing, they most likely put you an aluminum prop on it, a high rake stainless will perform much better. After you get it broke and can see what kind of rpm your turning, then if the finances will let you get you a stainless and use the aluminum as a spare. A tachometer is a must have item when working on the boats setup. A water pressure guage is pretty important also, it's kind of a risky business raising motors without knowing what you are doing to the water pressure. You don't want to get the water pressure to low because you will fry a motor. A jackplate is usually a pretty good item to gain performance with also. Most hull benefit greatly from the additional setback, plus it makes life much simpliar when adjusting motor height. The basic tuning of a setup is nothing more than trial and error and a basic knowlodge of what your doing and paying close attention to whats going on with the boat while trying it out. There is a lot of seat of the pants feel so wait until you are very comfortable with the feel of the boat and the way the boat reacts to different trim positons before you start working on the setup. When working on your setup and raising the motor there are some key factors you watch for: If the motor gains rpm but there is no increase in speed If the boat starts loosing bow lift If the water pressure drop below manufactors recommended minimum, this includes in turns. If any of these start to happen, drop the motor back down 1/2 inch. Forgot to mention, if you have a jackplate, you are raising it in 1/4" intervals and testing between each adjustment. If bolted onto the transome, you a limited to the adjustment holes on the motor. Besure to reseal the bolts everytime if you mess with that. When you start playing with setback, in the ideal world you will have it so when the motor is at neutral trim the boat has perfect bow lift. This is not always possible but that's what you are shooting for. That way all the energy the prop is applying is going into forward motion of the boat, none is being wasted having to lift the bow. Notice all this keys around the PROP. Change that and you start off all over again. That's why I say it's not very likely you will find and out of the box prop that will give you best performance. Also, make sure you do all this with your normal load in the boat. Does no good to spend a week dialing in a setup and then change it by adding a couple of hundred pounds of gear to the boat. There is what is refered to as the "sweet spot" for any setup and finding it is what tuning the boat is all about. That's where the set back and engine height is at it's perfect point to give just the right lift for the prop to give the most forward push and the least amount of drag. Not enough setback and you have to overtrim the motor to get bow lift. Too much setback and you can't stop it from porposing. The deeper the engine is in the water, the more drag it creates, not deep enough and the water intakes will suck in air and drop your water pressure or your prop will suck in surface air and cause various degrees of cavitation. As for breakin. First two hours at variable rpm between 2,500 and 3,500, no stready speeds for more than 30 seconds the first 1/2 hour of so. After the first 1/2 hour you can hold it pretty steady at 3,000 - 3,500. The next hour keep it below 4,500. The next hour keep it below 5,000. The next hour make short runs of less than 45 seconds at WOT, backing off to about 4,500 for a couple of minutes after the WOT run. The next hour I start making longer WOT runs so by the end of that I'm making runs of two or three minutes. Then I pretty much run it the way I want to.

Almost all boats start to chine walk to the right first, unless there is a hellava serious load balance problem, thats the way the rotation torque of the prop is pushing it. The steering torque tab you are refering is to zero out right hand steering torque when the boat is trimed up, planed out and running pretty quick. If you have steering torque when you are running WOT, it makes it more difficult to drive. One, it increase the tendency for the boat to fall off to the right side of the pad first. Two, it makes it a lot more difficult to feel and correct when it does start to fall. Now with that said, if your motor is up to the proper height, that thing should very little of no affect at all. Don't depend on mechanics to tell you if your setup is right or not. Many actually know very little about the "proper setup" of a boat. Also, almost no two boat will dial in the same. If you want to get the most out of your boat, you're gonna have to do it yourself, or have someone that specializes in dialing setups in. It's very time consumming, and can get fairly expsensive. However, it's also the best and cheapest way to get a whole lot more speed from it. I could take your boat, spend a week working with it and have it running 70 mph, have a better hole shot and it would handle better . The big difference is, I have the different props, the jackplates and the knowledge you don't have. Before you or anybody else ask, I DO NOT work on other peoples boats. I just make my own boats so they will blow by other similar boats. The one most over looked performance item on a boat is the one most neglected thing on it, that's the prop. People have a big fancy bass boat, a big high powered motor on the back that easily sets them back $30,000 and much more and then take a $500 prop designed to work on a wide variaty of boats out of the box and stick it on their motor with who knows what kind of setup and away they go. I have seen numbers of low 60 mph boats become high 60 mph boats with the right prop and setup.

First, no your motor is not too much for the boat. Second, the first response to chine walk is "learn to drive it". That is usually the case but if the setup is not right, it makes if extremely hard to learn to dirve if not almost impossible. Motor mounts have to be good and firm, there can be no slack in the steering, when you move the wheel the motor moves. The prop height can be set too deep, as well as a number of other setup problems. I don't think I've ever been in a smaller Stratos that did not start to walk around the 70 mph mark. I have a 285 Pro that's way over powered (312 hp on a 175 hp boat) and it took me months to get where I didn't have to gradually go right to keep it from chine walking. If you just tried to hold on it would get down right dangerous above 70 mph. I gradually learn by working it and letting it slightly drift to the right I could drive it into the 80's. Over time I finally learned to drive it staight and it became second nature, to the point I never realized it chine walked One thing I forgot to mention, you might just be trying to over trim it and getting the bow way too high. That's usually hard to do on a Stratos but it can happen with the right setback and your prop giving plenty of bow lift. As for the boring, you don't gain any power from that, 99% of the time on looper motors that takes power away from the motor because it lowers the port heights and your average builder doesn't have the tools or a clue about fixing that.

Before you start tearing into what's probably a perfectly good motor, replace that connector with a better, higher amp connector. It got hot and melted because it had a bad connection. It only take a very small amount of resistance from a bad connection with the current a TM pulls to create a whole lot of heat. Try holding a small 30 watt light bulb and see how fast you let go of it. One ohm of resistance at 30 amps generates 30 watts of heat, that'll melt most anything with a surface area as small as a connector.

The raker is the prop you should run, if it's the right pitch. Having it tuned for your boat makes a big difference also. Bob Lipton does mine and has always given me a very good prop. For the weight of you boat, adding more lilft and better hole shot plus thinning the blades for more top speed. That motor should be able to turn a 24" raker at 6,000 rpm for a speed of approx 65 mph with a 12% slip factor if things are right. 3 1/2" below the pad should be a good starting point for the prop height. You said you have a jackplate, what size? An 8" would work well but you would probably have to change steering cables (about $150 each), not and easy task. The starboard fuel tank would have to come out and getting the cables out and in the gunwalls ain't easy. Taking them out through the splashwell cable hole will place too much bend on them also and recommend running them straight out the back. Needless to say, this would be a good time to look at converting to hydraulic steering if you went that route. Removing the baffle from the air box and changing the main jets to 72d's in the upper four carbs and 74d's in the bottom two carbs will give you a few more ponies. With the right prop, and setup, you should be able to get into the upper 60's. Realize also, you start getting close to 70, you may have to learn to drive the boat because you're getting into the chine walk speeds for that hull. Note that your hull was made to give a great ride for a 18' boat and not a super fast hull. When they changed over to the XL hulls in the early 90, they made them a lot faster but took away some of the good ride your hull has. The XL would easily run 70 with a 200 on them. I guess I should have mentioned, I base this info on my experience with my 1989, 18'5" 285 Pro I have that will run over 80 with just me in it and with "my" 89, 200 Johnson, 8" jackplate, 26" raker worked by Bob Lipton and "just a little" work on the motor and blue printing the hull.

No. The only thing the X-ducer has to do with it is the angle of view. The wider the angle they have the sooner they will pick up the other units signal.

Turn off the console unit. Some of the newer graphs will filter out most of the interference but no unit will complete eleminate it without degrading it's signal. Some will run a 200khz console and a 400khz bow to get around it.

If they are no longer available from Merc through a dealer, Take your picture and some measurements to a good graphics shop, they can make just about any kind you want. They are usually cheaper than Merc is also.

Probably because the motor was trying to pull about 45 amps through your 30 amp fuse, usually does it everytime. First you need to throw the whole fuse setup in the trash and get you a 50 amp circuit breaker. Then you need to take that #10 wire and have it recycled. If you are only running a few feet a #8 might work but you really need to go with a #6.

If it's a carburated motor, (not sure when the converted to the ficht with the 50's) Yes, it's ok to start in high throttle, probably be hell to start without it in high throttle. Just be sure to slow it down once it gets running. 1,500 rpm is about all you want to turn a motor in neutral. Also want ot make sure the bulb is pumped up firm.

Sorry Stratosdadri, you have the wrong motor. The 60 degree motors have a very restrictive exhaust that pretty much places a quick limit on the available hp from those motors. They can be built to put out 225 - 245 hp but the expense outweighs the gain. The 3.0 90 degree motor is very easy to get bunches of power from. On a 93 or newer motor, I normally get about 280 hp at 6,000 - 6,200 rpm and 290 lbs of torque at 4,500 from using all factory OEM parts. With after special after market heads and intakes, mine does 314 hp. I have one that puts out 340 hp at 7,300 rpm on pump gass but won't push a heavy bass boat any faster than my 314 hp motor. It will push a Bullet or Allison well into the 100's though. We had a 20 ft Bullet to 113 with out a whole lot of setup and tweaking. Now if you really want to build a true monstor motor, the 3.3L ficht blocks can be made to make some true monster power. One of these days I'm gonna have to break down and get me one of those blocks to build. I'm talking 340 hp at less than 6,200 rpm and 330 lbs of torgue and

The 201 is a very nice ride, must be reading speedo though, 75 is about the max a 201 will run with an HO and running light. Chine walk at 70+ is very common for a fully aired out 201. If the setup is right, some seat time learning to drive it will take care of the chine walk. Even when you are used to it, a true 75 - 80 mph is haullinass. A couple of years ago I built a motor for a friends 94, 201 that would barely hit 62 with his Johnson 200. I also added a 10" jackplate, dialed in the setup and had a prop blueprinted and custom tuned but it now runs 78 with T-load and two people. Motor looks like a bone stock 200, even with the cover off and everybody in his club has asked him just how much hp he's running, he just points at the 200 decals on the cover. Of course they could ask him how many 200's will turn a 28" raker 6,400 rpm on a 201 with a full load. He still can't run with my Javelin though.

Friend of mine has them on both his trailers and luvs them. He had to use a double row of them on his Astro's bunk boards and a single row on his 15' Fisher tin can's bunks. He loads and unloads by himself 95% of the time and says they make it much easier. I haven't tried them personally becuase I'm seldom by my self and even then I drive on and off the trailer so I never have to push it and seldom have to use the winch for anything more than locking it down so have never seen a real need for them.

Regular two stroke oil is for air cooled engines and marine two stroke oil is for water cooled engines. That's why the marine oil is TCW, the W stands for water cooled, you should not mix the two. Even in TCW-3 oils, not all are equal, cheap oils are cheap for a reason, they don't have additives to prevent wear and carbon the better oils have.

You need to check the state (and federal if using federal lakes) laws on use of two stroke engines. There are many different regulations depending on the area you live. For instance, Lake Tahoe does not allow carburated two strokes. Some have a total ban on two strokes. If it was left up to the Bluewater Network, there would not be a two stroke engine allowed anywhere. Evinrude has convinced the feds to take another look at their E-tec engines and propose legislation to relax many of it's bands with the E-tec. As for two strokes in general, they will be around a long time with the newer technologies being developed. As for carburated two strokes, they will eventually be totally banned/phased out but in most areas, you will probably have worn the motor out anyway before that happens. Snow mobiler's are already suffering where they have to use four stroke motors. They see what twice the weight and half the power does. Yea, the four stroke works but it sucks when it comes to performance compared to a two stroke.

go hear http://epc.brp.com/default.aspx?lang=E&brands=skidoo,seadoo,atv,sportboat,ej Use the pull down and select Johnson, select your year model and hp, model number doesn't realy matter, and select the control head. The shift assembly (ref 2) is usually what gets out of place.

I will give you my viewpoint on transome protection devices. I know it will create a whole string of opposite opionions by people that swear by them but hey, that's what the forums for. First they come out with something called a Transome Saver and with that name they make it sound like you will destroy your boat if you don't have one. What the heck though, somebody got real rich off them, just not from me. Now they make a rubber block that slides over the tilt cylinder rod that's suppose to make the old fashion transome saver no longer needed, which was never needed in the first place. Needless to say, I think it's a 100% waste of money. I will also say, if it makes you feel you are doing what's best for you boat/motor and gives you peace of mind, it's worth every bit of any price you have to pay for it. The little blocks on the hydraulic steering rods would work nice to keep the motor from laying over. I made some wood ones like those (should have patened them) a few years ago when I got tired of tying the steering wheel but those look better. I don't think there are many motors made in recent years that don't recommend you place the motor in the mechanical trailering locks built into the motor when traveling. I don't know of a single boat made in the last bunches of years that has a transome that's not built to withstand many, many more times the stress that motor creates going down the highway, over railroad tracks and washboard dirt roads.

Your control box probably overran the cable travels and let one gear jump travel too far and lock up or the shift/throttle cables are not properly adjusted so it can't find neutral. This is something you need to learn to fix yourself and make the adjustments to prevent this, old control heads are subjuct to do this. Too many times, I see shops telling the customer they need a new box at several hundred bucks and the only problem was it was out of adjustment. I prop it so it turns max rpm in the cold water/weather and don't worry about the summer rpm drop. Everybody's boats are going to be slower in the summer, so you don't have to worry about somebody going faster than you when you went faster than them in the cold water.

Personally, I like the raker, but I also have them custom tuned for my boat/motors setup. As for the max recommended rpm on your motor, it's less than 6,150, that's what they have the rev limiter set at so the motor can't turn more that. Besides, with a 22" raker, you most likely will not reach near that. You need to try 22" prop before you buy it. Get the motor up more and it might be the perfect pitch, but it also might be one cut too much. You've also got to remember, when the water warms up this summer, you will loose a few hundred more rpm. Turning 5,800 now, you will only be turning 5,500 - 5,600 this summer and if that's 5,800 with just you, it's even going to be a lot less with two people and a full load.