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89 EURO F3 Need more speed for footing! IDEAS PLEASE


CHEYNESPUB

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Ahhhhh....Its finally summer again. Not to say the sledding wasnt great but its nice to be on the lake again. To the point....

We have been doing alot of barefooting lately. However with the Acme 3 blade CNC prop and no people in the boat I am still barely hitting 40 mph. The engine seems to have plenty of power to push a more aggresive prop but Acme said that I have the best.

With that said whats left? Engine mods? Can anyone recomend an cost effective setup to get a few more mph out of her?

Thanks,

Cheyne

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I would be careful with engine mods. I have heard people trying to mod their boat engines and only running into reliability issues. My advice is take everything out of boat you don't need. Like anchor and anything else that is adding weight. Not sure how much weight you can remove but it may help to a degree. I know some boats you can remove the backseat. My old boats back seat was kind of heavy. Anchor, backseat, skiis, wife, bimini, etc.... It could get you another couple MPH, but otherwise I have no idea what you can do.

Also, what is the weather like? Is the lake calm? Is there a part of the lake that is calmer and protected from the wind? Just some things to think about.

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Personally I wouldn't be opposed to a few engine mod/upgrades on an old boat like that. There are no electronics to speak of, so almost any gearhead would know where to start. But if you do the work you've got to know what you're doing, or have an engine guy that does. And at the end of the day, it may just be easier to flip it & get into a newer boat with more capability in that area. The Echelons were excellent footing boats & would be a nice upgrade over the Euro.

Getting it tuned up & running to full potential as Ndawg mentioned is the first step. Then I would look at the prop & see where it's topping out in terms of rpms. Knowing which engine you have would also be a helpful starting point.

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Mines not gps verified but I'm maxing out at ~41 when footin. Have you upgraded the points to electronic pickup? Only $89 from Pertronix. I think mine ran better after I did.

Only thing left for me to do is suck all the water out of the water logged stringers.

I'd really like to try a new prop. I have my speed prop on, but it's at least 15 yrs old. How old is your prop? Can I try it? haha jk

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Thanks for all the replys. We run only early in the morning when its serious footing time. No wind no chop. Most everything is removed but we still have a 3-4 in the boat. Prop is only a year old. What does a good echelon run for? Do they make good wakeboard boats as well? How/where do I upgrade the points?

Thanks

Cheyne

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Here's a nice one, but I don't know if it's still available. EFI and wedge for boarding. Nice options.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/24705-1995-echelon-lx-michigan-was-12k-now-11k/

Price is typical of what I was seeing when I was looking last year, but this one is in nice shape, some of those weren't. Subtract about 1k for a closed bow typically.

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Yup, that's pretty typical. If you can stretch a bit for a later one with an Indmar, even better. But I guess my point on that is that if you could get into a good Echelon for around $10k-11, then you'd have to look at what the difference in the values of the 2 boats are & decide. Anything beyond a simple intake manifold & new carb for the Euro is going to start costing significant dollars, so at that point swapping boats would be worth considering IMO. And then there are other reasons beyond the footing issue that would make the Echelon such a nice upgrade, but that's another discussion.

I think that getting the Euro running in tip-top fashion is worth trying first though. What kind of speed do you need out of your boat?

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I'm pretty sure you've got room to go faster. For comparison - I've got the Magnum - which was an upgrade, but only by 15hp I think. Do you have the 250hp or 265hp version?

With 265hp, fully loaded 4 - 5 people, skis, boom out and pylon up...I get up to 38 at 3700rpm before the footer spins around and digs his feet in, I have to goose it to 4000 rpm to stay at 38, but I have throttle left, and imagine I could still push to 4500rpm if I wanted...taking the footer up to 43 or 44mph. We barefoot shortline off the boom.

You should have more there. With 4 people and regular gear, what's your top speed? Can you get to 44 or 45mph? And are your mph:revs 1:100? It should be. 38mph at 3800rpm.

You might want to weigh your boat at a CAT scale in a truck stop. You might be very, very waterlogged. Other than that, I'm guessing it's comprehensive engine tune up time. Timing, carb adjustments, possibly bigger secondary jets, new plugs and wires, some seafoam, clean the air intake/spark arrester, etc.

Think old school - we're carb-boat guys. And there are very, very, very few carb boats on this board. You have fuel, air, spark and stroke to work with. That's all. No computers, no cats, no sensors, no whirly-gigs, no whoodjawhatsas. Don't think mod until you have max'd what your current carb, air intake, spark system and stroke can accomplish. Just my $.02

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If I recall correctly, that boat should pull about 4500 rpm at top end (about 45 mph), I recall my Euro good for about 47-48 mph. Actually, that hull is a little freer than an Echelon hull so it should get a bit more at the top w/ the same power level. I would certainly check the compression and leak down, then go through a full tune up. Verify timing is correct, I would advance a bit, about 11 degrees static and 32 degrees @ 3500rpm should work well. Another thing to look at would be the spark arrestor, make sure it is not restrictive (try removing it and verifying with a WOT run). You might also check for any restriction in the exhaust system.

In terms of getting more power, there are a few options. the biggest one would be cylinder heads, the newer engines (post 1996) have gone to the Vortec cylinder head that breathes much better. 1.6 rocker ratio or a mild camshaft like the ZZ4 cam would boost hp and not ruin bottom end. I would certainly support the electronic ignition option, simply from the reliability aspect. In reality, you should be able to get the performance you want w/o these changes unless you are at altitude, 4000' is about a 12% power drop.

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I agree wholeheartedly with the above, those engines are really easy to work on and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to modify it. It's just a good ol' Chevy 350 with a few marine mods -- so parts are a dime a dozen and there are many third party performance packages/kits available.

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I'm New to this forum but not to boats or engines. The 350 Chev is one of the easiest and cheapest engines out there to add upgrades to. Just about every auto parts store in the country will stock performance parts for your engine. A simple carburetor, intake manifold and camshaft swap can net you gains in the area of 30-50hp depending on the application. Is your engine a stock setup or does it have any upgrades? Is it in a good state of tune? What is your rpm at footin' speed? What prop did Acme recommend for you? Is 40mph at full throttle or do you still have some left? If we know a little more about your setup then we might be able to figure out what might work better for you.

Good Luck

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Ahhhhh....Its finally summer again. Not to say the sledding wasnt great but its nice to be on the lake again. To the point....

We have been doing alot of barefooting lately. However with the Acme 3 blade CNC prop and no people in the boat I am still barely hitting 40 mph. The engine seems to have plenty of power to push a more aggresive prop but Acme said that I have the best.

With that said whats left? Engine mods? Can anyone recomend an cost effective setup to get a few more mph out of her?

Thanks,

Cheyne

I may have missed it in the thread, but what size is the prop from Acme? With a 13x14 I was 4 mph hour faster but had less umph off the line than the 13x13 that I am running now. I run 41-42 with the 13x13 and was just over 45 with the 13x14.

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