250 4.6L 4 stroke ProXS Repower in process.

[TritonTRXV8]

Was your hole shot better ? I plugged all my holes seems to lift better

I thought The pvs plugs had no effect on the on plane performance tho shouldnt see any difference in hull lift from that change.

[mikesxpress]

Mike, I see in your photo the back of your Mercury has a V8 emblem on it. I haven't seen it on the other V8s. Is their a reason it's on your motor?

I think Mercury neglected to capitalize on the new V8 engine configuration in there cowling graphics so I installed the emblem. That's the 1st thing someone sees when they approach the boat from behind.

[mikesxpress]

I thought The pvs plugs had no effect on the on plane performance tho shouldnt see any difference in hull lift from that change.

Roy is correct. The PVS only affect hole shot. Once on plane the exhaust only flows thru the prop hub.

[southern_gt]

Mike....Where did you get the emblem?

[Bill2e]

Nice looking Rig, following this post.................

Trying to decide to exend the warranty on my 2017 250ProXS or put the $$$ towards repowering to the new 4 Stroke in a year.....

[mikesxpress]

Mike....Where did you get the emblem?

Ebay. I had it before the engine arrived.
You like it???

[southern_gt]

Ebay. I had it before the engine arrived.
You like it???

Yep....looks at home

[grout-scout]

Def adds some pizz-zazz to the motor, I like it too! You guys have me wanting to upgrade. If its running as good as the 2 stroke, just think what it’ll do in the winter.

[mikesxpress]

[mikesxpress]

Propping update:
25P is way to much for this engine on a 20'+ Ranger. (my Z21 Intracoastal) The V8 runs up to 6200 rpms. My target is 6150 and I'm getting close to completing the 10 hours of break in. The 24 3 blade Fury runs 5950 at 71 mph. The 23 3 blade Fury on now I'm still playing with. All PVS holes open give an adequate hole shot (without the use of my trim tabs) and it's hitting 6000 at 70 mph but I do need more time at WOT and seat time as my jackplate and trim settings are totally different from the previous Opti 250. I'll get that after break-in. Not to mention the operational characteristics of the Fury vs my Tempest+ 25P props I was running before are also much different as is the lower unit design. This is NOT a plug and play repower guys!!! It's going to take some time to tweek everything all over again. The folks that get these V8's on a new rig are not going to have an established operating format so it will be much easier on them.

[jphillips2546]

I foresee some prop redesign in the future. Not a lot, but some. I think the 23p will get the RPM but I read where the 24 or 25 gets more speed at lower rpm in some boats. I am thinking this is perhaps due to getting the correct lift for the boat and the extra rpm with the 23 isn't enough to do it with the lower pitch. Also perhaps someone will have figured out the power band by them. Does it really make power at 6200?

All of this is speculation of course.

[mikesxpress]

With this new engine everything is speculation and that's why I'm posting up actual data on the repower as I know exactly what the Opti did on the same boat in the same locality under the same conditions. Lake X isn't going to have that info.

[Rick McFaul]

Mike, do you have access to any of the Fury 4 blade props?

[mikesxpress]

Mare has a few I could borrow but that is not a concern of mine and I would never run one. With huge trim tabs on my rig I have absolutely no issue with hole shot as it comes up flat. The tabs also give me larger wheel options. The 4 blades do nothing for my rig but slow it down and reduce RPM's. They do have applications for a normal bass boat (without tabs) for stern lift and better hole shot but the downside is the same reduced speed/RPM's.

[EuropeanAM]

With this new engine everything is speculation and that's why I'm posting up actual data on the repower as I know exactly what the Opti did on the same boat in the same locality under the same conditions. Lake X isn't going to have that info.

Appreciate you doing that, Mike. On the frontside, it's hard to convince guys that some setup items will need to change, perhaps even considerably.

Real world examples/experience is helpful.

[idratherbeefishin]

Mike I'm running the 200 on my 20.4 Nitro and I'm hitting 67-68 with a 24 fury at 5700 RPMs . That of course is not fully tournament loaded quarter tank of fuel no water in live wells tournament loaded runs 65- 66

[mikesxpress]

Different boat. Smaller engine. I'm profiling mine fully loaded so it's an actual comparison to my previous Opti data also taken fully loaded. Only way to compare them accurately. No fudging or misleading information.

[mikesxpress]

Appreciate you doing that, Mike. On the frontside, it's hard to convince guys that some setup items will need to change, perhaps even considerably.

Real world examples/experience is helpful.

It's all different with this engine.

[mikesxpress]

Battery hookup mod for the clean power harness and starting cables. I did this prior to the engine arrival. This new engine is power sensitive and with the amount of power being generated by the alternator I wanted to take full advantage of the charging to my AGM. These are epoxy coated lugs to studs. Following thru with ABYC guidelines of no more than 4 terminal connection per lug (I only do 2) I have power pulled off the battery studs to remote terminal studs & breakers off to the side with only those large feed cables and my charger hooked to the battery itself. The clean power harness and start cables are now attached to the large main battery lugs. As with everyone else, I run a bunch of power sucking stuff off that cranking battery. Previous Opti after a day fishing didn't ever top off the battery even after long runs to the ramp at the end. With the V8 wired like this, my 4 bank Delta Volt charger shows 3-4 out of 5 leds on the start battery when I plug up and is topped off in an hour. Opti was always down to 2 leds and took overnight to top off. This V8 is charging at 14.6 volts even at idle and has the ability to idle up to charge at even higher rates as required. *No worries. The DTS will idle it back down when you shift into gear.

[mikesxpress]

Use your Otpi Motormate and save a few $.
Based on my experience Motormate is going to have an impossible task of securing these V8 engines like they did with the Opti's. There is just no good way to utilize the existing format to hold the engine up and stabilize the side to side movement with one device. But being as many of us already have the Motormate I elected to utilize it with my mods and Gatorlocks.

http://gatorbak.com/gator-lock

Remove the plastic inserts on the Motormate. It takes a vise/pipe wrench/etc to almost destroy them to get them out. The pipe end is 1" OD & 7/8" ID. Shown is my temporarily installed plastic caps that fit that were replaced with black HD solid silicone metal furniture leg plugs. The Motormate now goes into the 2nd hole vs the 3rd hole in on the engine bracket to get the same ground distance as with the Opti. The capped end fits snuggly on the rear engine support trapped inside on the flat as shown in the picture. I have now trailered with this setup for 3 years of road time and it works fine. This also eliminates previous concerns about trim cylinder seal damages associated with the use of sticks/pipes as well as SeaStar seal damage associated with the use of the hard plastic clips that break when it's cold or whenever they feel like it.

I pitched this to Motormate a couple years back at the ICAST show and they could have just used the flat ends they currently use for the Evinrude support.









*It appears that after 3+ years that Motormate has finally adopted my solution using the flat ends and Gatorlocks. They did a release for the 4 stroke Motormate at the classic and added a pic on there Assbook page showing it with the Gatorlocks. Now it's on the website for sale.

https://motormateusa.com/product/mot...300hp-engines/