Parker or Bust!

[647and918]

Did you get the tank out or not?

Nope... Not yet...

[steve sr.]

Bakersfield is just two months away!! Any chance I won't have to bug hell out of you to get the boat ready?

Never saw anything in power boat about Parker and I can't find Hot Boat on any mag racks around town. You here anything about either?

Any word on the rules meeting for Parker yet? Haven't seen anything about it from Ross. Thought it might be before Bakersfield. Saw the new dates for Parker, and I'll make our reservations soon as you let me know what you want as far as rooms.

DAD

[647and918]

Bakersfield is just two months away!! Any chance I won't have to bug hell out of you to get the boat ready?

Never saw anything in power boat about Parker and I can't find Hot Boat on any mag racks around town. You here anything about either?

Any word on the rules meeting for Parker yet? Haven't seen anything about it from Ross. Thought it might be before Bakersfield. Saw the new dates for Parker, and I'll make our reservations soon as you let me know what you want as far as rooms.

DAD

I'm fairly sure you'll bug the crap out of me whether I want you to or not, so you may as well keep it up and be happy...

I haven't really been looking for PB or HB to see if they had anything on the race, so I'm not sure if there was anything submitted or printed... Anyone?

I haven't seen a firm date for the rules meeting, so I can't help you much there... If it's in the next few weeks I'll probably need to see if you can go... I don't think I can get over there right now... This is a slow time of year at the Gym, so I've pretty much shut down financially right now (other than the people that need to get paid so we can run the Gym and live in our house), and gas is prohibitively expensive if I don't have to make the trip... Things will start picking up again in mid-January and I'll feel better about spending money again... As far as rooms for next year, I'd probably book three (or maybe even four depending on who you find to come up) at least for Friday and Saturday night, we can probably get away with one or two on Thursday night if you want to go early again (I do, it worked out pretty well this year)...

[647and918]

Where are you? Why haven't you been calling? How come you aren't bugging the crap out of me? What's going on???

If you have read this from the beginning, you're probably laughing a little right now...

I got the front tank out tonight and the speedo tube removed... I also went ahead and rerouted the fuel lines to pull from one tank at a time, pulled the passengers seat out, put fresh batteries in the GPS and filled the two side tanks up... I left the fuel line for the front tank in there (which was nice when I emptied the line all over myself) in case I decide to put it back... I'm going to try to go test tomorrow morning if the weather holds, and I'll let you know how it runs...

[647and918]

I ran the brick over to Al this week to take care of the motor mounts and generally harass him to see what we can do with this thing to make it run a little better... So far:

(1) The upper motor mounts have been fixed. MUCH more stable...
(2) Banged on the tunnel plates to make them slightly more level (one side was tweaked slightly)...
(3) We confirmed that there is a bump under the ski pole... I need to take this out (see below for the reason this is now next on the list)...
(4) Adjusted the timing properly...
(5) For the record, it dyno's out at about 300HP or so...
(6) The jackplate is at max height... Al suggested bolting the motor to a fixed plate before the race next year, but not before if we still want to go skiing... This will pick the motor up to the height it should be and move the weight closer to the back of the boat (Physics says that's a good thing)... We'll wait to do this until the rules for next year have been set... We're about 2.5 inches below where we should be, which is 10-12MPH that we're giving up...

The judge:
My GPS...

The initial result:
79.3 MPH at Lake Pleasant this morning...

It started porpoising like crazy around 75 and wouldn't go any faster than that going straight (every time the nose came back down it slowed considerably)... I was able to get past that point by giving it a slight turn (presumably changing the way the water flowed across the bottom of the boat), but I'm sure there is more there if I can get past the porpoise... I'm thinking I can pick up another few MPH by flattening the bottom... If I can get to 82-85 and rid myself of the porpoise when that's done I'll be pretty happy...

Well, here's where we stand as of this morning:

(1) Removed the front fuel tank...
(2) Removed the passengers side seats...
(3) Removed the speedo tube...
(4) Rerouted the side tank fuel lines to their own position on the tank selector switch (they were previously tied together on one side with the front tank on the other side)...

The judge:
My GPS...

The latest result:
81.8 MPH at Lake Pleasant this morning...

It's still porpoising like crazy, and now we're thinking it's probably the tunnel plate on the passengers side because we weren't seeing this before it was adjusted... I have to make a wide left hand turn in order to prevent it from porpoising and get to that speed... If I go straight it wants to porpoise pretty hard, and if I turn to the right it jumps all over the place... Scared the crap out of myself a couple of times by bringing it out of the left turn at speed and launching it sideways...

I'll wait until after the first and take tools out there with me to try to adjust it real time... Hopefully I'll be able to pick up another 1-2 MPH if I can get it to drive in a straight line, and another couple once I get the bump completely out of the bottom... Definite progress!

[steve sr.]

It's good to see your off your lazy a--. I think once you re-adjust the passenger side cav plate your problem will go away. I don't know about 1-2 mph but at least you'll be able to go straight.

The ski pole bump won't do much, but filling and sanding the pits might help a little. Changing to the new tanks and shifting the weight around will also help plus lifting the engine up to the right hight and moving it in. Then the right prop.

You might just have an honest 60mph ski boat (92-93) which should put us where we want to be for Parker. We'll never beat Dr. Al and Mr. Bowden, we don't have enough money to throw at the boat. But when you go much faster things break. If we can average 90 we should be in the top 7 or so' with a goog position in our class. Division 1 and 2 just have to much of a time advantage over us.

Talk to you soon

DAD

[vishus]

when you take it out again, give me a buzz. I would love to see it run and could act as a chase boat in my old fishing boat... I do have a bunch of HILL props you can try as well...

sid
602.570.3716

[steve sr.]

SID
Thanks for the offer, I'm sure my son will take you uo on it. I would feel a lot better if he hqa someone out there with him now that he's broken the 80mph barrior. The brick can get nothing but quicker from here on out with each change we make.

Do you have props for a V-8? We really need to talk to Dr. Hill. I'm thinking a 4 blade 28 is what we're looking for. He's going to need something that will lift the back end and bring him out of the hole better. We're still pretty low on the RPM scale ( I think about 6000 tops ) and we want to be at about 6800. The boat still needs to have a life as a family skier.

The things left to do are;
1. get rid of the jack plate and lift the motor moving it forward to the transom.

2. rip the carpet out (about 50lbs worth)

3. move the side tanks forward

4. re-work the bottom and cav plates.

[647and918]

when you take it out again, give me a buzz. I would love to see it run and could act as a chase boat in my old fishing boat... I do have a bunch of HILL props you can try as well...

sid
602.570.3716

Sid - I appreciate the offer, and I'll definitely take you up on it... I got the brick way too out of control the other day for being out there by myself, even with the vest and helmet... What day(s) of the week work best for you and which of our fine lakes is closest to you? I don't get harassed too much at Pleasant right now, but I know that's quite a trip if you're on the East Side of the Valley... I don't mind meeting a little more in the middle if it helps... I also started a thread asking Ron for a hub kit, but even if I can't get that in the next few weeks I'm going back out to see how the plate adjustments work...

Do you have props for a V-8? We really need to talk to Dr. Hill. I'm thinking a 4 blade 28 is what we're looking for. He's going to need something that will lift the back end and bring him out of the hole better. We're still pretty low on the RPM scale ( I think about 6000 tops ) and we want to be at about 6800. The boat still needs to have a life as a family skier.

The things left to do are;
1. get rid of the jack plate and lift the motor moving it forward to the transom.

2. rip the carpet out (about 50lbs worth)

3. move the side tanks forward

4. re-work the bottom and cav plates.

I'm fairly broke, remember? I'm not going to be spending much money... Unless you're buying the prop, we're probably going to be using the one I have...

I'm probably not doing #1 anytime soon... I need to find out what the rules are for next year first so I don't have to do it twice...

I started #2... I pulled the carpet up from the back up as far as the back of the seats... It's a pain in the rear, but at least it should be pulled far enough now to see where the water is coming from...

#3 - I don't know what I'm going to do about that yet... I'm contemplating leaving the side tanks now and just making a center tank to put in for Parker... The side tanks I have now would be fine for the Nostalgia stuff...

#4 - This is really two different things... (4a) I adjusted the plate on the passengers side today... It was way lower on one side, and I had to give it a bunch of turns to bring it back up... It's fairly level now, so I'll try to go back out next week and see if it's better... (4b) I haven't played with the bump under the ski pole yet... I haven't really had that much time all at once and/or wanted to suck that stuff into the lungs...

I'm already wanting to run out there... I wonder what my wife has planned for me tomorrow... Think I can get away with it on X-mas eve???

Are you going to be coming over at all while your wife is gone???

[vishus]

On the day, I just need to schedule it in advance and can meet you out there. I am on the East side, but I head out to Pleasant now and then. Saguaro is about 40 mins from my door, Pleasant is about 90 mins.

IF you get a hub kit that fits the v-8 shaft, I have a 4 blade 28 ET you can run, I also have 27 and 30 cleavers (3 blades (ran Great on my old ModVP)), and a 30ET 3 blade. I am trying to get Ron to sell me some of his NEW 4 blade (hoss style) props, I am wanting a 24 and a 28. As soon as he can get some time, I should have those to test as well...

I have some 24s that you can try, but they may be too small unless your willing to run 8-9K

have a great holiday and let me know when you plan your next test and tune!

sid