1989 201 average speed?

[Beantown]

Hi everyone, I have a 1989 201, which has been repowered, with a Suzuki DT 200, I now they only came with Mecury, or Jhonson, so im trying to find out what type of speed I should expect in this boat, my engine is 456lbs, not sure what original motor weight was, and I'm about 260lbs, add weight for gear etc. I have a new hydraulic jack plate, with a 5 1/2" setback I believe, and I have never had one before, I have the jack plate marked at 3 1/2", and I do have a gauge, I replaced the old CMC with the new style, and blinker trim, the motor can use wnywhere from an 18P to a 28P prop. I tried the 18P and it over revved the engine. specs. for my motor is 5600 rpms at WOT, limiter goes off at 5900 rpms. tried a 20P, and I get around 5300 at WOT, 53 mph on gps. Tried a 22P that was drilled out with vent holes open, (all 3 blade stainless) and got a good hole shot, but lost top speed and rpms. 47 mph, and 4900 rpms, my question is, should I try a 21P?, should I try to get closer on the rpms? I have a friend that runs his Suzuki around 5900, but its also a newer motor, thanks in advance for any input

[86 inches]

Should be a mid-60s boat with a 200.
25 tempest plus would be my guess for a prop.

[Beantown]

Thanks 86 inches, a 25p tempest? even though I tried 22P suzuki prop, I lost speed and rpms at wot with it, do different brands make that much of a difference? I have heard Mercury prop can be used on Suzuki, I thought that i need to go down in pitch instead of up, this is my fist boat that wasn't set up already when I got it, and never gave it much thought before, so I'm learning.

[FastBird]

The zuke is usually a couple mph slower than a Merc. My 201 w a 2.5 Merc, 2 guys, factory deck extension...is an honest 63 mph ride. Deck extension cost me 2.5 to 3 mph, but changed the whole boat for the better.

Do you know what gear ratio the Zuke has?

If it is 1.87 ratio, motor is solid, boat isnt waterlogged...24ish tempest is where I would start. Possibly 25

[pmgoffjr]

Zukes are hard to setup and prop correctly. Most have the goofy 2.5:1 gear ratio and a narrow power band. You have to hit your top rpm number to get any kind of speed out of it. And to make it even more confusing you can’t run as high as a merc or Yamaha.

Verify the gear ratio. Then find a tempest with a zuke hub kit and start tweaking.

[pmgoffjr]

And reading a little closer, and getting some info, I believe you have a sick motor. It's a 1.86 gear ratio, you should have sent those props to the moon on rpms and you didn't.
The bad news? Sorry to tell you this but... two stroke Zuke parts are hard to come by, Ebay might be your new best friend.

Especially if it's the two plug per cylinder motor, those things eat coils.

[ChampioNman]

Pretty sure the DT is a 2 plug per cylinder motor. They came with whatever the dealer sold for motors. There was a dealer down in Rhode Island that sold them with Merc/Mariners. There was another dealer in NY State that sold them with John/Rudes. Those were the only two dealers I knew of in the Northeast area. I've seen them with Yamaha's on the back.

[pmgoffjr]

I seriously hope he didn't spend much money on that zuke, they can be deep and dark money pits. Decent inventory of 4 stroke parts on hand, but two strokes are at best difficult. They were seriously over hyped back in the day as the next big deal, but never delivered on the promises. They offered me two a year to run them back in the early 90's, and I actually had a moment of restraint and turned it down.

[Beantown]

thanks guys for your help, this motor has only one plug per cylinder, and it is a 1.857 gear ratio, (26/14), I believe it came from N.Y. , Brooks Cove Marina. then somehow ended up in Conn. where I purchased it, and brought it to MA.
I am hoping to save this motor for now, anyhow, Its pretty hot here, ran it today again with the twenty pitch, and the air temp is in the 90's, and the water temps are in the 80's, so I am told the boat will run slower in this hot muggy weather, I bought this boat as a project, and have had a hard time finding parts, or anyone to work on it, so I'm trying to do the best I can, so far, the 20P gets me to 5300 rpms at wot, 53-56 mph on the graph. I have an album on here of my restoration, not sure how to share it but, its on my profile page, the motor is very clean, freshwater only, I had a problem with low rpm acceleration lagging and bogging the engine down, I replaced the throttle body switch and it has fixed the problem so now I am trying to get the prop tuned. Its running the best since I got it in 2017, been working on this boat forever it seems like, now it seems so close.

[pmgoffjr]

Something is still off. You should at least turn a 23 prop 5,700 and be getting low 60’s.
My experience with zukes is exactly two and one was a four stroke on a flats rig.

I’m betting you’re running on five.