Long post but I want to make sure all the details are there so I can get the best possible answers! I purchased a 2009 Triton 21X3 with a 250 Pro XS (SN 2B114981). The day I water tested the rig it was miserable, high winds and the lake was full of trash from heavy storms the two days prior. It started right up and idled great. I found a somewhat clear area to give it a little run and it did great, came right up on plane and accelerated just fine. The tach was obviously off but I got up to mid 50s speed wise with little effort and decided that was fine given the conditions. Owner said the boat was not very fast (60-62 gps) at WOT but he'd never really worried about it since the boat had primarily been used for his daughter in high school fishing. It had obviously been well cared for and came with loads of extras so I bought it. After getting it home I started looking into getting some additional speed out of it as I thought it should be a high 60s/low 70s boat. The prop that was on there was a Fury 26 3 blade and the engine looked really low. I took it out a couple of days later when conditions had improved and got 58 mph @ 5k RPMs. Water pressure was nearly 30 psi. I raised the engine about 1 inch and swapped to a 27P Tempest Plus that he threw in (both props look new BTW). Speed improved to 62 MPH but RPMs stayed right around 5K, water pressure was 25 psi. I unbolted the engine from the JP and put it as high as I could (I was maxed out after the previous adjustment) then lowered the JP to be 1/2" higher PTP than before. No change in speed or RPMs but water pressure dropped to 22 psi. I found a 25P Tempest Plus close by and picked it up this morning. Swapped in on the engine and hit the lake...was pretty surprised to see roughly 5k max RPMs and 54 MPH top speed. For a brief second the RPMs went up to ~5300 but quickly settled back to 5k. RPMs are read on my Vessel View Mobile, so I trust they are correct (factory tach runs up to 3500 and stops, seems to read 1500 RPMs low across the board). Decided to swap the 27P Tempest back on and figured something has to be wrong with the engine (my luck with Mercury engines has been so bad the last 3 years after nearly 20 years of great service). As I was taking the prop off I noticed a piece of metal that looked out of place in the cavity behind the prop. I tried to work it out of there to see what it was but I couldn't maneuver it around enough to get it out. I think it might be part of the exhaust tuner or something as it would have had to have fallen down from above. I'm guessing this could be causing the rev limit effect? I had a Phoenix with a 175 Pro XS that the tuner fell off. It idled fine but couldn't get enough revs to get on plane. If the tuner is broke, is there any risk in using the boat until I can get it repaired? I'm sure my mechanic is swamped right now and it'll be 2-3 weeks before he can take a look at it. I might put it on the hose tomorrow after church and pull one coil at a time to see if all the cylinders seem to be working properly. Like I said before, it idles perfect, accelerates strong and sounds/feels great right up to 5k then everything just levels off. I've made a couple of runs held at WOT and there does seem to be a little "skip" every now and again (totally random not like a regular miss) but I can back off to just below WOT and it'll hum right along with no complaints. If the tuner is broke, any ideas on repair cost? The 175 Pro XS repair was $1600 but that also included new reeds.
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Originally Posted by JOE54
