Alternatives to a nose cone LWP...Transom pickup??

[omcstratos]

My Ron Hill Yamaha Style Cleaver just came in yesterday and seems to run pretty well up high and I want to try raising my motor even higher to see how it responds. My factory water pickups are the plastic insert type on both sides and I want to raise it a little higher than what I think they are capable of. I don't want to try a nosecone yet because I am not anywhere near blowout speeds but I do need something that will hold good water pressure.

Is there anything I can try before tapping a hole, filling in the area below my water pump, and running a transom pickup. I've seen nitrocases that have the top 2 holes plugged and bottom 2 opened up, but I have the plastic grate. Not sure what to do...

Motor is a OMC 50, 6in jack plate, small gear case. 1648 aluminum boat. Sorry if this is a "wordy" post but I'd appreciate any ideas.

[LittleCharger]

My Ron Hill Yamaha Style Cleaver just came in yesterday and seems to run pretty well up high and I want to try raising my motor even higher to see how it responds. My factory water pickups are the plastic insert type on both sides and I want to raise it a little higher than what I think they are capable of. I don't want to try a nosecone yet because I am not anywhere near blowout speeds but I do need something that will hold good water pressure.

Is there anything I can try before tapping a hole, filling in the area below my water pump, and running a transom pickup. I've seen nitrocases that have the top 2 holes plugged and bottom 2 opened up, but I have the plastic grate. Not sure what to do...

Motor is a OMC 50, 6in jack plate, small gear case. 1648 aluminum boat. Sorry if this is a "wordy" post but I'd appreciate any ideas.

How far below the bottom of the boat is the centre of the prop shaft now?

As you have noted you can block off the top two holes. You can either use some marine filler (the screen gives a nice support for filling in the hole) or silicon the holes up if you just want to try it. If you want to get rid of the plastic grate in the remaining holes simply take a torch and get a piece of heavy guage wire red hot and melt the plastic out of the hole I've done this on my 56er nitro case after filing the top holes. On the couple of cases I run on the 45cu motor the bottom two holes with the grate still in place provides more then enough water.

[omcstratos]

Yeah, I've seen plenty of these that have been filled in but mine has the plastic insert like most yamaha's have. I was wondering what people have done to those.
It is the same style like this pic...
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...26ABrxs-dK9BeA

[LittleCharger]

Yeah, I've seen plenty of these that have been filled in but mine has the plastic insert like most yamaha's have. I was wondering what people have done to those.
It is the same style like this pic...
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...26ABrxs-dK9BeA

Never had one of them apart, what does it look like if you pull the plastic off? Is it just a big retangle hole like the yamaha?

[omcstratos]

It's just a rectangular hole and the plastic inserts sandwich into, and a square hole above leading to the water pump. I might try to mix up some epoxy and fill in the top half of the plastic screen. Ive seen some of the Johnson 150's with the same plastic insert but it is much lower down so maybe blocking mine with the epoxy might kind of do the same thing.

[Ron Hill]

In Australia, I've been told, that they make a urethane nose cone that slips on a gearcase like Dolly Parton slips on her bra. The water pick ups are at the bottom on the cone but channel the water to the regular pick ups.. It his held on with like two screws.

Anyone know anything about this? Isn't urethane just plastic?