1994 Trojan 270 Express WOT

[rickalan35]

Well, I arranged for the lead mechanic at our marina to accompany me for a 30 minute run out into the lake with the boat up on plane. The plan was to get an opinion about what planing RPM she was most comfortable at.

First of all, the port engine topped out at 4400 rpm (Mercruiser Bluewater 502cid)..... while the starboard engine wouldn't turn any higher than 3600 RPM.

The mechanic is experienced and his opinion relating to the starboard engine (after standing down in the engine bay, running a timing light on it at full speed) is that perhaps it has a bad plug or perhaps the coil is beginning to degrade and is doing so at higher rpm's. He will be checking those issues.

Any thoughts?

My chartplotter had the boat running at 27 knots with the above described version of WOT. Does that speed make sense?

When we throttled back and ran both engines running at 3400 rpm, they sounded good and indicated 23 knots. At this point I had released the trim tabs to a point where the side spray of water, visible from the cockpit was somewhat moved furthest back toward the stern. This adjustment had the bow running higher but visibility still good.

The boat got up on plane pretty smoothly, much better than I had been anticipating because of the solid hull and v-drive arrangement.

Rick

[prowlersfish]

Check the tachs first if your guy has not done it already