How long to reach top speed

[thebottomfish]

I have a 140hp johnson on my v20, and also a lot of time on my hands since its winter and I've been thinking after riding in a friends Grady White that it takes way too long to reach my top speed.
I start trimmed all the way in, hammer the throttle and trim up...before I lead the horse to water..how long would you estimate your v20 takes to reach top speed?

[bgreene]

Do you believe your outboard is lugging?

With a 140, assuming it's still producing proper horse power, and assuming your hull isn't holding extra water weight, it should lift to plane, and top out within maybe 30 seconds give or take.......

Maybe take a compression check to confirm outboard power per cylinder.
Best of luck.

[thebottomfish]

Compression checks out, pulls strong for what it is, my rpms are low which is something I have to play with this year, it seems like props are not effecting my rpms can't get above 5200 even after bouncing around between 17, 15 and 13 pitch props
Takes about 30 seconds to top out so I guess I'm not doing too bad, just would like to see more than 32 mph out of her and get the rpms up

[Destroyer]

X2 what bGreene just said.

So many things can effect the not only the time it takes to get on plane but also the performance. Boat weight (a gallon of water weighs roughly 8 1/4 lbs). If the foam in your hull is saturated that can add hundreds of extra lbs of weight to the hulls weight.) Cooler filled with ice and soda and beer? Add up the weight from that. Tackle? Number of people, amount of fuel in the tank, extra fuel tank(s). Every pound equals a longer time and the harder your engine has to work. Even the distribution of the weight has an effect. Then there's the engine itself. Is your fuel/water filter clean? Are the carbs clean? Fresh plugs? Lower unit have the proper amount of clean oil? What about the prop? What pitch? cupped? material it's made from? Dents or dings? number of blades?

The point is that it's almost impossible to second guess what your particular boats' specs are. Give us some more info please.

[mawshj]

tell us about your friends G.W. 32mph is not shamefull with a 140. also the additude the boat goes thu while getting up can make the experience seem way different. ie the hull can rise gently straight up or it can nose up then slowly return to level. often depending on your trim of the motor

[bgreene]

Bottomfish.........I believe a strong 150hp on V20/21 runs top speed around 36-42 mph depending. The late 90's Evinrude 150 loopers were more like 165 hp at the prop, and I believe the Merc's also in that range.

I suggest you consult with a long time Evinrude dealer/mechanic to discuss how your year 140 performed and such. In my area, Eddie at J&J Boat is 2nd generation Evinrude master tech and I'm sure would be happy to speak with you on phone. 856-456-0102

32 mph may be close for the state of your outboard and hull, but the low rpm suggests other factor at play....

[THEFERMANATOR]

Try another tach. That engine NEEDS to reach 5600 rpms wot for it to perform properly. the 88 large bore is a bit more forgiving than the earlier small bore engine, but they're all sensitive to propping. I know my 86 with just a 2 inch pitch change in props could go from topping out at 5900 tpm's and 53 mph, to 5100 rpms and 40 mph on the bowrider i had it on. Propping is key for a big v4 looper to run properly.

[thebottomfish]

I'm using a brand new omc tach so I'm really hoping that's not it, I might get one of those tiny tachs as I hear they are pretty darn accurate just for testing purposes.
I have tried a 13.75x17 ss prop, 13 7/8x15 aluminum prop, 13.75x13 ss prop, all 3 blade props and they all read 5200/5100 rpms
I rebuilt The carbs at the beginning of the season, new spark plugs link and sync and fresh lower unit oil
The boat is not waterlogged as far as I can tell, this 32 top speed and top rpm is whether I have 4 people and a cooler and full tank or I have just myself and no gas, I might lose 1 mph or so but it's pretty dead on and that's according to gps i don't have a speedometer

The gw was a 21 walk around with a 175 johnson of a similar vintage...I just guess I didn't expect that much of a difference with 35 hp and a similar boat, he also tops out right at 40mph

[Lance Pearson]

I repowered with a 2008 etec 175 on my 1977 V20 and got to use it three hours Friday. The two stroke is a torque monster pushing a 14.5" x 19" pitch aluminum evinrude new prop.

Three hours of use, mostly cruising at around 2700 rpms and about 26 mph. 3000 rpms and 28 mph, 3200 and 30 mph easy cruising. 4,000 rpm and about 40 mph. I ran it into the wind briefly wot and it hit 48 mph with the nose trimmed down. I did not do it for long but it was doing 5,000 rpm and later learned when I started trimming during cruise if I got the nose up a bit it added 200 rpm and 2 mph so I think trimmed wot it will hit very close to 50 in flat water with just me in it and full tanks.

Up on plane with gradual acceleration...how about the torque monster does it at any rate you want. It throws it up on plane faster than any boat I've ever had...very few seconds if you want and no bow way up in the air stuff with the step lift..hit it medium, go more and you are up as fast as you can handle the throttle.

The engine is so quiet you can barely hear it. If you are idling along at 4 mph you can't really hear it at all.

In three hours of use constantly I consumed 7.6 gallons of gas from the starboard 20 gallon tank and never touched the port one. That's an average of 2.5 approx. gph which is way better than my former Mercury 3.7 l four cylinder 170 hp inboard on a Wellcraft 190 American i/o.

The new engines, this one had 300 hours on it and just serviced...are just phenomonal and lots lighter weight than the four strokes with way better torque as well as a two stroke. Smoke? Using the Evinrude high test synthetic oil it smokes not a bit and uses/injects from the oil tank based on computed/sensored need at something like 75 or 85 to 1 ratio depending on speed and rpms. Best engine I've ever seen.

The boat tracked easily at 48 mph and handles any wakes or waves I saw on the river like they were nothing. There's a reason they sold so many of these.

When I got back to the dock and got it on a windy day back on the trailer solo and pulled the drain plug...dry as a bone.

I'm pleased. The data is from my experience with a specific motor. Late March, 2017 at about 60 F outside.

[Troutkiller2006]

somebody posted in this thread that we should post some videos. i think we should do that! give readers a good idea of what to expect and too back up some of these claims.

lets have a virtual race! quickest to plane, quickest to top speed and fastest boat. im willing to wager a beer, lol