Launched the new-to-me 2022 Malibu 23 LSV this weekend!  Picked her up at Lake Martin on Saturday morning, and was on the dock at Norris by 4 PM and that includes putting on my registration numbers and doing a prop swap!  :-)  Not too bad!

Anyway, I have had multiple OG boats (2002, 2005, 2008) so this is my first foray into the "Surfgate and Screens" era.  The boat launch was uneventful...she fired instantly, came up to operating temp, all systems go, and she ran great.  And the 6600 lbs hydrohoist lifted her with no issues.  However, I do have some questions for the experts on these new boats:

1.  The boat has Sumo 650 lbs PNP bags.  They were nasty inside an out.  Very easy to remove and clean, but is this just something I should plan as a part of my normal clean up process?  I removed them and found all of the plugs in the glovebox just in case someone hits fill while they are out.  There were 3 connections - i assume drain, fill and vent.

2.  Either my new boat depth finder is wrong or my OG boat was wrong.  :-)  Is there any calibration settings?  If not I will crawl around the bilge and check the transducer and make sure it looks OK.  Anyone know where it is on a 23 LSV?

3.  My drive back to Norris took be across some crazy roads (very bumpy).  When I opened the forward facing seat and pulled the cover out, the amplifier "wall" was leaning over a few inches at the top.  Looks like it is held on at the top by one screw, less than an inch long.  The screw goes through a small metal tab, through some carpet and into a little bit of fiberglass on the inside of the companionway wall.  Found the screw, reinserted...stripped.  Already repairing the new boat, LOL.  The proper way to fix it is probably to remove the companionway padded panel, drill a small hole, and thru-bolt it.  Anyone have this happen?  Any recommended fix?  I could also fill the existing hole with some marine adhesive and put the same screw back in...but that might be hard to remove in the future.  I do have a riv-nut gun as well and could probably press in a fitting into the hole. 

Thanks all!  A few pics below.

I would check the connections before deciding to swap the sensor.

On 8/10/2023 at 9:56 AM, Swatski said:

I just did something very similar for very similar reasons, the boat is my new 2022 23 lsv with an M5, I'm under 50 hours and was quite disappointed with performance with the factory prop (3537 - "torque prop" or something - 15" x 14??) clearly seemed underpropped.  This being my first ever inboard/v-drive I was just not sure (my other boats are/were outboards and/or yamaha jetboats.

The M5 seemed very high revving to the point of being annoying.

I switched to acme 17x17 (2805) and the boat is a different animal. Absolutely better setup and all-around improvements, to me.  I'm still able to surf with full ballast plus PNPs and wedge any position. We surf at 10.8 at barely over 3k RPM now. It's great! and super quiet. Fully ballasted (factory + PNP + 500+ lead) the hole shot is slower but the cruise and top speed is awesome. Really feels like a different boat. 

I just put my 2022 23 LSV with the M5 in the water for the first time.  On the test drive, I noticed the same thing - that the boat felt under-propped.  I couldn't see what prop was on the boat when I test drove it before buying.  Once I bought it and got the window sticker, I saw it was the same as yours (3537).  This thread was so helpful for me - I ordered the 2805 about a month ago.

Before launching yesterday, I swapped to the 2805 and wow, what a different boat.  So quiet and turns much fewer revs.  With 100% fuel and two people it easily hit low 40s too.  I have the Sumo 650 PnP bags installed and it easily got on plane with full wedge and all ballast full.  Really excited about how well it performed!  Bring on summer!

You may be having a problem with the cooling system air drain.  There is a small rubber hose connected to a small air drain pipe on the top of the engine intake manifold near the front port side of the engine.  The hose goes from the air drain pipe to a through-hull fitting located just above the port exhaust outlet at the transom.  If the hose, air drain pipe, or transom fitting becomes blocked, then air gets trapped in the cooling passages and often causes the engine to over heat at idle speed.  Once the engine is run above 2000 RPM the air is often purged and will return to normal temperatures, but at idle speed the engine can over heat if the purge system is blocked.  You should be able to see a stream of water coming out of the small metal through-hull fitting located just above the port exhaust tip when you are standing behind the boat and running the engine out of the water using a hull motor flush.  If you don't see the stream of water, then the air purge is probably blocked. 

The thermostat adaptor housing is the rectangular piece on the left of the photo with all the hoses and 90 degree plastic fittings connected to it.  The green arrows in the picture I found weren't drawn by me, they were already there for another purpose. 

So I found the Airmar sensor under the hatch  by driver seat. It is down there with a few pumps inc bilge..  bit of tight space!  The sensor says it provides water temp and depth. Interestingly the lake water temp is working fine but depth is totally blank. Left boat on for quite some time and it wouldn’t register a reading.

are these relative easy to diy swap?