I tried to search on the forums for my question but did not find the answer. <br /><br />My question is this. I have a 1996 Sunbird Neptune 160. It has a same year Evinrude 48 SPL on it with a 12 1/4 x 15 prop. The Rpm's wot are 4100 with a top speed of 27 MPH with 2 adults and 1 12 year old. I was under the assumption for everything I read that the wot range for this is 4500-5500 and that I was not in the range. I thought that dropping to a 13 pitch would straighten this out. Well, it didn't. The boat went to 5100 rpms and the speed went to 12mph. At that point I noticed what seemed to be the rev limiter kicking in. I am assuming that the tach in the boat is not accurate because I was told that the rev limiter doesn't kick in until 5800 Rpms. I will test the true rpms this weekend. My question is can I hurt the engine if the Rpms are correct and I am not in the WOT range? I was told that if you run it this way the engine is under a constant load and wil detonate. The way I look at it is like this its a ten year old boat if it did not detonate yet I dont think it will. I am very happy with the proformance of the boat, I just dont want to hurt it.<br /><br />Sorry for so much to read <br />Thanks
