I don't think it is that on usual for a little white smoke on first run of the year. But if you are really worried.

1. Do a compression test. If not happy with results.

2. Leak down test. 

Run it this weekend and look at gauges.

If all the hubs were the same +-10F, then I’d run with it.  I’d still make sure the noise is from the center cap or not. 

Auto lift is really only applicable for wakeboarding.  It is not applicable for surfing.  t helps you get over the hump and get a wakeboarder up to 20-21 mph.  If you wakeboard with heavy ballast, it helps a lot (at least it did for us).  It could potentially be used for tubing, wakeboarding, or skiing with younger children to actually reduce the wake for them at lower speeds.

In general, the faster you go the longer and shorter the wake gets.  The more weight you add the shorter and steeper the wake gets.  Bow weight also helps with a longer but smaller wake.  On our T23 we generally went with as much ballast as possible, no wedge, and 11.6 for good size people.  The T23 really liked speed.  10.8 would just be too slow.  For larger heavier people I added wedge.  For smaller lighter people I would reduce ballast to get the wake as long as possible but keep enough height and push based on their experience and board.

1 hour ago, Woodski said:

Kind of like recirculating ball steering and bias ply tires, keeps you on your toes.  It would be a pretty good way to get drivers off their phones behind the wheel.

@85 Barefoot - one interesting and nice outcome of discarding 400+ lbs off my ski tractor is improved tracking.  The real reason is moving the center of gravity forward by a foot, the pitch difference at speed is noticeable.

I’m not following you.  Comparing your echelon’s traits to new slalom boat?

Wattage output is not constant and it is not linear. So 25% volume is not 75W rms to each speaker and 100% does not necessarily mean 300W to each speaker. With that said, that amp powering two pair of 8" coaxials does not scare me, but thats a ton of potential power. Your tuning will have to be spot on or you will blow a speaker or four. 

Nothing wrong with your proposed cabin speaker amp pairing. Again, your tuning will need to be perfect. Those 6.5" will tap out at about 125W and the 8" about 150W. I would also consider their mid-level 6 chnl amp. Power the four 8" on chnls 5 & 6 and the four 6.5" on chnls 1-4.