1995 Mercury 225 efi 3.0 black max out of the hole problem

mdixon63

Recruit
Joined
May 23, 2015
Messages
1
This is my first time to ever post on any boat site and looking for some help with my motor. As stated in the topic i have a 95 mercury 225 efi with a quicksilver torrent 14 5/8x25 prop on a 20 ft nitro and when you crank the motor it idles and never shuts off but when you try and take off it wont break over and come out the hole. Its only turning 2500 to 2800 rpm out the hole and when I told someone to walk and sit on the bow it finally broke over and started to gain rpm and speed. The highest rpm i got was 5100 rpm and 64.6 mph. I changed the spark plugs and the fuel filter. I was told maybe it was the reeds. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

Texasmark

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
14,559
Your last numbers, 5100 at 64 says you are running a little high (for me) pitch as does your hole shot, but not much. Engine is rated 5000-5500 per my data so you are really not that bad. Personally I liked to run at the top or a little over which the engine liked and the hole shot was improved......6000 was my sweet spot at max trim and WOT....max trim defined as pushed out as far as you can go before the speed starts to fall off and rpms increase. Where you have your trim positioned during the hole shot is very important too. Not always best to have it tucked it all the way in. See below.

I think you would benefit from porting your prop and a prop shop could do that for you for a reasonable amount. Question is how large a hole. 3/8" comes to mind as a good place to start on that rig. HP is (torque x rpm)/5252. Gotta get the HP to the prop shaft to get the prop to deliver the thrust necessary to do the job. Torque is an element of the engine design but you can control rpm. Idea is to get the rpm up as fast as you can to get the most out of your engine.

Porting your prop is drilling small holes under the leading edges of the blades (one per blade) which allows exhaust gasses to flow out and over the next blade reducing the density of the water (load on the blade) allowing the engine to rev faster in the hole shot, developing your HP faster and getting you out of the hole faster, especially on heavy stern, padded, Bass Boat hulls.

Once out of the hole and coming up to speed, the holes seal off via water pressure and you don't know you have them other than the possibility of a little skipping when running at high trim settings at high speed in rough water....but tucking in the trim a little usually corrects that. Some high performance SS props come ported, Laser II for one. Some have plugs of different sizes so that you can select the proper hole diameter for the performance you desire from your particular setup. I like that. Takes the guess work out. My hole size preference is about 1 to 1.5k of ventilation rpm above what would occur without porting in the hole which gives you a good fast hole shot with rpm under control and best (for me) acceleration. Holes seal off about 30 seconds out of the hole at WOT and a fair amount of trim.

Last, sometimes I'd have my engine trimmed vertical to the boat and even out slightly in the hole. This helped the ports ventilate the prop and the result was slight porpoising coming out of the hole where the prop would ventilate, engine would grab another k of rpms, prop would bite, boat would shoot forward, ventilate, gain another k of rpm etc. until I was up and gone. That was my fastest hole shot.

Good luck.
 
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