78 Rude 1408430

"Goodafternoon folks
Over th

"Goodafternoon folks
Over the past 12 months this site has helped me immensley in getting my little rig up and running. Ive been told by a few folk that my 1978 1408430 140 hp rude is a bit of a tired old beast and not to expect to much out of her. I run her on an old 15 ft, cruise craft regal, half cab. In smooth to small chop water, light wind, I have no prob getting up on a plane and she runs great. I recently ran her to sth stradbroke Isl over here, Gold Coast AUSTralia, 15-20k run, and noticed hard to plane (felt gutless). wind was 10-15 knots,4 people aboard, but gunned her flat out, nose stuck up in the air, and wouldnt plane. got back into smoother water, 5-10 knot, small to med chop, away she went. Compression 95psi all round, engine runs smooth hi rev and idle, starts like a gem every time, could it be so old and tired that she doesnt like to push against the wind or into a chop ?. Or would it be that I may have been rear heavy, 2 adults to the rear, 2 midship,? Thought that at 140 hp shed still be a goer ??? any ideas I could check? Thanks for any help offered. Dave"

Try trimming 'IN' one

Try trimming 'IN' one pin-hole.

"Yes, as Morten says, you need

"Yes, as Morten says, you need to trim in for better planing performance. Power tilt and trim would be even better so that you can adjust your trim angle on the fly for optimum performance.

I would say if you have 95 PSI on all 4 cylinders and you have good spark then your engine is most likely working fine.

I have an 18' v-hull runabout with a 1979 Evinrude 140. The boat tends to run very stern heavy so I installed a set of trim tabs to get the stern out of the water. These made a huge difference in hull performance. Below is a link to the tabs that I installed.
http://www.boatownersworld.com/smartabs/smart_tabs.htm"

"In agreement with Mort &

"In agreement with Mort & Kevin. Can't add to that, excepting I'm curious about the rpm.

By yourself, calm water, what is the top rpm that you encounter? Thinking prop may be incompatible."

"Thanks guys, Joe I dont have

"Thanks guys, Joe I dont have a tach at the moment, but Ive been told that my control box has a plug that I just plug a tach into, (and im sure its going to happen that easy LOL ). Calm water with just 2 adults, no prob planing, shes feels like shes got plenty of giddyup!. As Kevin intimated, the old girl feels stern heavy ?Shes auto TT, but there is a manual adjustment pin setup to alter the max "IN" trim. There is about 3-4 adujustment holes to max "in" Ill adjust that in the hopes she'll jump up on a plane a bit quicker, Like I mentioned, once up shes fine, but shes a bit temperamental in when she wants to get up there ( windy, Med chop)if that doesnt help, Ill try Trim Tabs,
Thanks Davo"

i put a stingray hydrofoil on

i put a stingray hydrofoil on my motor for $50 and it made a ton of difference.....no more nose in the air even at trolling speed.

a tach would be a good investment because if your straining your motor because the prop doesnt match your set-up you could do more damage than you think.

"I've no idea what you mea

"I've no idea what you mean by "auto TT". The PTT should not move automatically, not move period unless you press the up/down switch.

The "reverse lock" pin should be in the extreme forward hole so that the engine's angle of attack will depend on the PTT setting.

If your control box, or the wiring harness if a console mount, has the rubber plug with three sockets within it, then a tachometer with the matching plug will simply plug in and function as you've been told.

When time permits, visit my store at: http://stores.ebay.com/Evinrude-Johnson-Outboard-Parts-etc?refid=store"

"My apologies Joe you are corr

"My apologies Joe you are correct it is a power TT, It was my way of indicating to Kevin that it was infact a power TT.
Is there any diference in the trim tab or hydrafoil i use ? are there specific types for specific HP ? are they easy to install ? would this install be with or after changing the pin down to tilt in .thanks again"

"I tried a hydrofoil on my boa

"I tried a hydrofoil on my boat and I found it did improve the planing time. However, it created a fair amount of drag at high speed and reduced my max RPM. Later I removed the hyrdofoil and installed the trim tabs. The planing performance was DRAMATICALLY increased and there was no decrease in max RPM.

The trim tabs are sized based on boat length and engine type. My guess is the 12" X 9" plates with 60lb actuators will work fine.

So you have this 140HP on a 4.5 meter boat? Wow, that should be some serious get up and go. Moving the reverse lock pin to the hole closest to the transom then trimming all the way in should allow the boat to plane fairly easily.

Something else to check for overall performance is to make sure the engine is setting at the right height on the transom. To verify this, the cavitation plate should be level to just slightly above the bottom of the hull. Trim the motor all the way in then place a straight edge on the bottom of the hull and see where the plate is in relation to the top of the straight edge. If the plate is below the bottom, you are plowing water with the lower unit and creating drag.

Getting a tach is definitely a must. You need to see what max RPM you can achieve. If you are not able to attain 5,000 to 5,500 RPM with a "normal" load, then you are over propped and will need to reduce you pitch. A lower pitch prop will definitely improve planing performance.

KJ"