Ok guys I just want to put this out here as a this is what it was, what I did to it and how it is kinda thing.
I have a 1995 xb2003 with a 1995 merc promax. The lower went out last week so I have been researching info on lowers and for sale adds.
Let's start with how it did. It has a 9" jack plate and the prop to pad was 1/4" below. I've had it 85 with a 25 trophy for a brief moment when I was learning to drive it, late winter. I have ran 82 for a while with a 27 and 28 trophy.
Now since the lower went out I done some trading and got a sporty that came from the allison plant, blunted nose, allison cut skeg, torque tab in skeg and 1.75 gears. Ran the boat yesterday and it didn't do so well. When I got home I messaged a buddy that has a grand sport and got his specs and basically copied them. I added a 2" spacer to the plate for 11" of setback,leveled the boat, prop and raised the motor to 1/4" above pad.
Went to the lake this morning to try it out, now mind you I am a little worried about being above pad so it took a minute to get up to speed. So out of the hole is kinda slow but not terrible, accelerates ok and handles a lot different. Yesterday I had to go way into positive trim to reach 70. Today I could do 70 at neutral trim and a bump into positive trim it accelerated fast to 75.
I am looking forward to trying it out again with some good water. A few things I noticed, 1) it doesn't blow out before planning off anymore, I don't have to feather the gas pedal. 2) I think it's throwing a bigger rooster tail ( wasted energy). 3) At one point I was doing 70 mph at 5600 rpm's.
It's like learning my boat all over again.