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Well , you never opened it up and wonder why you're only getting 12 mph ? Seriously ? You could be right below the speed where the boat gets up on a plane and all you're doing is pushing water . Your tach , should be 1 - 200 RPMs ( with your normal load and gas level ) under the Mfg rated ones , which is usually marked on the valve cover , if you're propped correctly. No , pulling the prop is not going to allow you to count gear teeth. You have to pull the outdrive , mark both the drive shaft and prop shaft , spin the drive shaft 365 and note how many times the prop shaft turns with one turn of the drive shaft . Doesn't have to be precise , but should give you a ballpark figure of the gear ratio. Report back after you take it out , run it at WOT and trim the outdrive up to just below where it starts to cavitate . You'll feel or hear the RPMs going up at that point . Going to need the RPM numbers from that test ride . Yes ,3900 - 4300 rpms is the rating , 4100 + would be the sweet spot , below 3900 means you are lugging the engine , working it to death . Generally they try to have you running a 17 -19 pitch prop , so the drives are all geared for that .

I haven't put it over 3200 rpms. Was told not to run it over that but then I looked in the original owners manual and believe it says 3900- 4300 I believe. I'll measure the prop when I get home. Going to go out later and see how it operates at the higher rpms. I can't remember if the original outdrive had cavitation fins or not. The new outdrive has holes drilled for them. I can take the outdrive off and spin the prop or pop the top off and count teeth. I'm going by the sticker on the outside and specs based on mercruiser chart

What size is the new prop vs the old one ? How many RPMs are you getting at WOT ? Are you 100% sure the outdrives are the same ratio ? As in you've spun the prop / prop drive shaft and counted the rotations to at least get a idea that they are the same ratio ?

A great 6 days at the Bar totaling 47 hours of rods in the water trolling. 4 wires and 2 Riggers for two of us. Sunday was the best day with an insane bite! We landed 70 Kings / 3 LT / 2 Steel / 3 Coho. 1 nice king on the LOC board for awhile before it gets booted in the next few days. All were released to swim another day and the one we registered 20 lbs 12 oz 40" we gave to a couple of fisherman visiting near the Youngstown weigh station on the river. Smart Troll system was amazing tracking my Slide Diver wires in the water. It was 80% wire bites this week! Great time!