Nipper is back

[nipper]

I inherited my 1990 V20 from my father after he passed away. It had sat for a couple years and ended up with a cracked block. Dad used it in the ocean off Scituate, Massachusetts, and the 4.3 litre motor had quite a bit of rust. After weighing my options, I decided to go ahead and replace the whole motor. I ended up purchasing a brand new 4.3 litre vortec v6 over Ebay, and the transaction worked out real well. I got the motor in early April, but did not get the boat back from the mechanic until mid-July (and he's a friend of mine!). The stringers ended up needing to be replaced, so I sunk quite a chunk of change into the project, but am very happy to have the boat back. I took pix and will post soon.

I went out on the inaugural cruise this weekend. Motor has the new Mercury "turnkey" ignition, and you do not even need to set the choke when motor is cold-- just turn the key. The motor ran very well. I was disappointed in overall performance, however, because it seemed like the prop was just not getting enough bite.

With the previous 4.3 v6 and same alpha (generation 2) outdrive, Nipper would jump right up on a plane and run great. With the new setup, however, it seemed to struggle to get up on a plane, and, generally, seemed to be turning too many RPM's for the speed I was going. I guess I am going to have to experiment with a larger/higher pitch prop. I am surprised my mechanic (again, my friend) did not discover this on his test run of the boat.

This might be because of higher horsepower. The new 4.3 vortec is rated at 190 h.p. at the prop, whereas the old 1990 4.3 was rated at 165 at the shaft. Could this change in h.p. be what is causing the lack of bite because the engine is much more efficient at turning the prop?

I'll have to play around with it, but I am just glad that Nipper is back. Anybody know anyone who would be interested in my other boat--a sweet 1985 Formula Sunsport F-2 (20') cuddy with a 265 h.p. Merc. 350?