440 ? will it hurt them

[carverman]

i've got the 1982 33ft carver with twin 440's v drive walters ,,,the boat is about 12,890 Lb.. she had ford 351's when new ,, however my ?

i have been told to drive this boat up on plain only. other wise i could hurt the engine's by pushing her down the lake at say 18oo to 2200rpm's

she plains real nice way up out of the water with the new motors in her.
she is up and out of the water all the way at 3000 rpms

okay now my ? my wife and i don't really like going that fast we can't enjoy the lake at all,, so how bad does it hurt a boat like this to plow down the lake at low rpm of 2200 or we mite like 24oo rpms
does it realy hurt them doing that..

OTHER THAN GAS LOL

[jddens]

Hi Carverman, Don't know why you can't cruise at any RPM (other than WOT) you like as long as oil pressure and engine temps are good. 1800-2200 vs 3000 rpm won't hurt anything. If the engines are brand new then varying the RPM is a good thing........sometimes it's nice to go nice and slow.....it's about the journey, not the time it takes........John

[prowlersfish]

If you are" Plowing down the lake " you could be putting a strain on them , and you are wasting fuel , Now if you are running at Hull speed or less (about 8 knots )or so them you saving fuel and making life easy on your engines . Once you go past hull speed it gets harder and harder to push the boat. the more you go above hull speed the harder it gets until it gets on plane.


there is nothing wrong with running slow its easy on the engines and the boat and best of all the wallet

[rossjo]

Hull speed on a 33 is about 7.5knots - thats your perfect slow cruise speed.

Those 440's will last forever at that speed - but do vary the speed (including wide open occasionally) during the 1st 100 hours or so of break-in on them if they're new - and avoid overheating at all costs.

[carverman]

YES i've been going up and down on the rpm's because the engines are new however we do like about 2000 rpm's and it does not seem to be plowing that bad
i saw where one of you said hull speed ? what would that be i'm not sure of that.
i mean the boat plains great at 3000. which i have been told that is great
i'm not so worry over that gas i will go through .going at lower rpms but i just want to make sure it can't HURT THOSE 440's
bob had told me my boat was made to plain and i could harm the 440's driving at low rpm's so if that is right ,i would not want to hurt the new motors .

it's just that i see other boats of my size going slow down the lake and they have big blocks in them . so is it maybe bad just for 440's or??????????

[Big D]

Never heard that before about 440s. It's okay to go slow but don't baby them too much. Make them work hard once in a while, it's good for them. Follow your break-in procedure carefully, check the oil level often during this time, and don't hold off changing the oil and filter at the first interval at the end of break-in.

[prowlersfish]

keep at hull speed or below and will be fine , run it on plane you will be fine . you will not hurt them at all running them easy . run it above hull speed and below plane your putting more load on them . as far as running at 18oo to 2200rpm's that woulds depend on what speed your going , but I suspect it is above hull speed but not on plane so that maybe a poor rpm to run at.


BTW I was was working on 440s before many of you were born

[Danny Bailey]

Prowler I was driving a '67 440 Plymouth GTX in '68. Do you go back further than that?

Carverman I used to run my 440's at 1600 (about 8 knots) before I converted to diesel to try to save fuel. I had flowscans, and tracked MPG's for several trips. Found out I was not saving that much on gas, but was enjoying the scenery more. 1800 - 2000 on my boat would have been pulling a big wake, which is inefficient.

[Big D]

Carverman, are you still in the middle of the break-in period? If so, how many more hours to complete, and what kind of warranty did you get?

[prowlersfish]

Danny , you may have me beat , I built my first 440 in 72 .

[carverman]

still new at this time only 2 hours on them.. i am going up and down on rpms a lot . and check everything all the time oil water temp. and so far great on all things . the motors got 2 year warranty some place bob got it for me, first mate? anyways i thank you all for the put in i needed bad

[alexander38]

Prowler helped Henry make the first straight 4 in Dearborn Mi. Just sayin. Or was the the Chevy brothers ? And runnin' them 440's at hull speed is ok a lot of 454's get ran like that, mine do.

[carverman]

that is was i am thinking .. i mean i would never run them all the time like that i would go up and down with the rpms,, on any small trip i take,, lets face it i'm on a small lake in east tn . how far could i go

[ready123]

What works for me to find the best low speed running so as not to push water is this:
I set rpm at say 800 and with "no trim tabs" check the gps speed. Then I increase rpm in say 10% increments and when I start to see the speed not go up by it's normal amount for each 10% shift I back off a touch and use that as my hull speed position for the load of my boat (low speed off plane running).
I then get her on plane and throttle back to find the slowest speed while still staying on plane.
Over time I have concluded that for me the most comfort is to cruise on plane at just before the 4 barrels come in... around 3200 rpm.
I'm either dead slow at about 8/9 mph or up at 19/20 mph.

[rossjo]

Exactly - F32 WLL is about 30' = 7.5 knots

Hull Speed (in knots) = 1.34 X SQRT (Water-Line-Length-In-Feet)