New BBC member and a new (to me) Xpress H51

[xpress spanky]

Ok,before you do anything else pull your steering cable at the back end of it,then go up by the console and straighten it at every kink you can find,and then into the bilge and do the same thing before you give up hope. If it still is not long enough,it WILL come out of the helm and IS replaceable separately.If all else fails,i'll go take some pics and show you how to remove it.There should be a BIG hairclip rite where the cable goes into the helm,pull it out then look where the cable goes into the helm parallel with it and you'll see a small hole.Push that hairclip into the hole,and pull the cable loose. On mounting the jackplate,i always mount it flush with the boat transom,and then set the motor to the highest hole or the next one down.

[wheelism]

I just got the steering cable out of the helm thanks to your instructions, Mike. There was no slack to be found anywhere. It's just too cotton pickin short.

[xpress spanky]

Mine didn't have much,by I got all it had and it barely reached.If I hadn't cut the 2 out of my old X18 when I removed them,i'd send you one,but being I am going with hyd. steering on it,i wasn't going to fight them on the way out.That's where it's fun is getting them in and out.

[wheelism]

Got the steering cable out of the boat without too much fuss. It was 11 feet long. Ordered a 12 ft one.

Anybody got any tips for bleeding the air out of the water pressure gauge and tubing?

[Kevin R.]

Remove line at gauge, start engine in water, wait till water comes out then shove it back on?

[xpress spanky]

You don't have to bleed them.

[Ranger391v]

^ +1.

[wheelism]

If I don't have to work over , I plan to test run my boat tomorrow. Everything is installed and prop shaft is set 4.5" below pad. What should be minimum water pressure?

[xpress spanky]

about 12-13 psi is as low as I like at wide open throttle.

[wheelism]

about 12-13 psi is as low as I like at wide open throttle.

Thanks Mike.

[Ranger391v]

Hoping good results came from today.

[wheelism]

Had to work late.

Hopefully I can make it to Caney Lake for testing tomorrow.

[wheelism]

Here are the results of the preliminary testing:

4 1/4" prop to pad
10" Slidemaster jack plate
Turbo 1 17p prop
slight chop on the water
45 mph gps
approx. 5250 rpm
14 lbs water pressure

From the driver's seat it looked like maybe a foot of the hull was in the water. Hardly any spray to the sides of the boat. Trimmed it up till it started chine walking then back down till it quit. Extremely smooth ride. I'll try raising the motor a bit more. Even if there's no further improvement, I'm tickled.

[xpress spanky]

Good deal!For sure go up another 1/4" on the motor,but watch your water pressure.Some like my rig would drop off at that height,and others still have plenty of pressure.If yours drops off,i have another trick to gain a 1/4" in height and maintain pressure. My boat would never chine with the 90 at full trim,but with the 115 it was a handful till I got it dialed in.

[wheelism]

Would this be the other trick mentioned?

[xpress spanky]

Close,but that's on my 115.You can apply urethane to the top 1/4th segment of the stock water intakes to get an additional 1/4" of height without sucking air.You can't seal up anymore than that,or it will restrict water to much.Those scoops allow me to run my 4 blades up to 1 1/2" under pad,and i've added some grates under them now so i don't have to fish out leaves in the coolant passages in the block.

[wheelism]

The scoops are cool. Did you machine them? They look like they're machined from plastic. . . . .PVC maybe?

Speaking of 4 blades. . . . . so far I've been unable to find a used Trophy Plus prop at a reasonable price. With the performance I'm getting with the Turbo 1, should I continue to pursue the Trophy Plus? I would appreciate Stephen chiming in on this as well.

[xpress spanky]

The scoops are actually steel I welded up,and then used a die grinder to smooth out the corners and fitment.(they were a pain!) On the smaller 4 blade Trophy Stephen could probably give you a better comparison than I could.Now on a 21" I can tell you the Trophy will lift the boat sooner than the Turbo will, but will run almost the same speeds.Also in the 21" props the Trophy will lift the hull at higher engine heights than the Turbo will. I have never ran a Trophy when I had my 90 on my boat,but Stephen ran my 17 Turbo and his 17 Trophy,so I think he could give you the best info on that. Stephen will be along to give you an answer shortly i'm sure.

[wheelism]

[QUOTE=xpress spanky;5348482]The scoops are actually steel I welded up,and then used a die grinder to smooth out the corners and fitment.(they were a pain!)QUOTE]

That paint job threw me off. Looks just like some PVC material we make parts out of at work. Your die grinding looks as good as if they were machined in a Bridgeport milling machine.

[Ranger391v]

It's pretty much the same thing with the 17" 's as well. The Trophy Plus in 17" and 19" doesn't look anything like the stereotypical Trophy Plus in the +21" like you typically see on V-6 outboards. However, the performace charactoristics of the 17" and 19" are the same as all of the Trophy's (meaning lift, smooth running, good speeds, etc).

Closing intake rows is the answer for the 75/90's ...... if water pressure falls, yet RPM's don't shoot up-speed doesn't slow-and prop slip calculations don't get out of wack. Keep in mind that you only want to fill the top 3 rows (I used MarineTex on mine) ........ and if you plug more rows than that, you MUST cut the remaining holes bigger to allow for enough water to enter (both at idle, WOT and everything inbetween). I HIGHLY doubt that you will need to plug more than 3 rows ...... the only reason I did was b/c my little 16' er was so super light we were running those motors like 2.25" - 2.5" below the pad.

I've tried 3 times now, and my computer and internet connection is not allowing me to upload pictures tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.