Thread: 40 Merc
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Old 12-27-2010, 10:52 AM
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Raymond Raymond is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural Light Kid View Post
I know I'm about to open a huge can of worms. I bought one of the good old Mercury 40's that everyone claims runs anywhere form 40-99 MPH. I put it on a Southfork 16x46 flat bottom with a jackplate. Same set up with my old 25 Suzuki would run 30 +/-. With the 40 it's running 35+/-. According to everything I hear, it's hard to get those motors to run under 40 MPH on anything. I have
my jackplate set up so that I'm on the verge of blowing out so I don't think I can come up any higher. It is a stock motor with stock carbs. I had the carbs cleaned a couple of months ago when I bought the motor but could it be possible they are not in sync, adjusted right, etc.? I have a tach and I'm only turning up about 5200 RPM. The prop is stamped 14 pitch and does not appear to be altered.
NLK, I reread your post and I think you are trying to run to high on jack plate. Try lowering jack plate 1/2" and GPS, mark location with a sharpie. Make notes of speed at each new mark, when you are done you should have a pretty good idea of where the motor will preform best on the boat.
40 mph should be an easy number on that setup to achieve without mods.
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