05 sea ray 200 top speed

[pacman78]

I am new to the boating thing just purchased a 05 sea ray 200 sundeck 4.3 mercruiser 220 hp. the first day out just 2 people on boat with full tank of gas i topped out at 32 mph and at 4000 rpm full throttle. had it out yesterday same thing 2 people 1/4 tank of gas hit 38 mph at 4300 rpm. i know the weigh of the gas but i know the boat should hit over 40 mph either way i have a 19 prop on it now boat has 250 hours on it the place where i bout the boat from told me to put a 17 prop on it but not sure if there is another issue any help would be great thanks

 

[tpenfield]

Boat test has it at 51 mph with the 5.0.

You will probably be in the mid to high 40's with everything up to snuff.

 

[southkogs]

What were the water conditions? Chop will slow you down.

 

[SeaDooSam]

Is the hull dirty? Does it have growth on it? That will also slow you down. Is the propellor dinged or dented? My 18 ft chaparral with a 4.3 (190) only does about 43 with a 19p. Different brands have different hulls though. You were told to drop to a 17 pitch prop because your WOT Rpms are a little bit on the low side. Dropping pitch will increase the Rpms. Putting too high of a pitch will put strain on the engine and make it wear faster over time. Does it get up on plane with ease? Dropping pitch will not make it faster as far as top speed however.

 

[Slip Away]

Low to mid 40's with light load and wind at your back is all. Heavy boat for that motor.

 

[pacman78]

Water was not real choppy but not like glass either. The bottom of boat is painted no ding or dents in prop.its get onto plan very easy. I just want to cruise at 35 38 and if I want to get into it 42 45 I would be happy I been reading and that Seems To be what these boats do but not mine I just don't know what to check or change thanks for the reply back

 

[jkust]

The Sea Rays in the 2000's in my neck of the woods are NOTORIOUS for being underpowered. It's so prevelant I had to capitalize the word. They should change their slogan if they have one to 'underpowered is our given name but Marketing is our passion'. Even the 260 Sundecks are rocking the 5.0 where a 6.2 or at minimum the 5.7 mpi should have been selected. I don't understand what the differentiating factor is when people are buying a Sea Ray and they check the cheap engine box versus other brands that have the weight appropriate engines. Given they are in the same family as Mercruiser, it makes me scratch my head even more. Maybe it is regional and lake boaters here don't like performance...I don't know. So that's my Sea Ray rant.

The 200 Sundeck with base engine dry is 3500lbs (that's 350 Mag MPI territory and 5.0 MPI at the minimum) the 1996 Chap mentioned above weighs over 1000lbs less, dry with 30 less HP so they couldn't be more different though they have the same basic engine. I'm thinking low to mid 40's is what you will see if you still want to keep a decent hole shot and a few people on board. Regardless however, your prop should bring the engine to max wot rpm's whatever ultimately is selected so it isn't lugging the engine below the wot range as it sounds though it might be doing. The prop needs to be changed it would seem.

 

[pacman78]

Some people are telling me do a compression test

 

[Blind Date]

If you can only get 4K RPM WOT out that 4.3 turning a 19P prop something is else is going on. The fact that you mentioned it gets on plane easily tells me your not over propped. You've got an engine issue.

 

[R055]

^^^^This. Even 4300 is still a bit too low for the engine you want to aim for 4600-4800. Has it had a tune up in the last couple years? What about compression?

 

[SeaDooSam]

Has it had a tune up in the last couple years? What about compression?

Getting a compression test should help you figure out some things. Lower compression means you have a tired engine. Sometimes it is ok when the compression is a little low however. But, the real problem is when cylinders have drastically different compression numbers. This means one part of the engine is working much harder than the other which would make it wear very fast.

Does the engine run good when idling? Does it run rough at all?

 

[jkust]

Wondering out loud...how many hours are on the engine's hour meter on the dash? Not that it matters because it's possible for a bad owner to damage an brand new engine...rare but possible. Also, what does the ratio say on the drive? Just throwing some things out there for example say if the drive was totaled and replaced with the wrong ratio from a carbed 4.3. A compression test is generally a jumping off point to figure out which direction to go.

 

[pacman78]

i just bought the boat a few days ago. it has 250 hours on it. i did not do a compression test yet. not sure when it had a tune up it don't miss at all runs nice. here is the other thing when i am 3/4 throttle to full throttle i only pick up like 300 rpm and like 4 mph

 

[airshot]

Couple things come to mind....are you checking your speed via GPS or off the boat speedometer? Sounds like you need to go back to the basics, starting with a compression check to tell the health of your engine, check to see if throttle is opening all the way, go thru all plugs, wires, caps, rotors etc and check timing. I think if the motor is healthy you just need some normal maintenance to bring her back up to par.

 

[pacman78]

checking mph with gps. i want to do compression check i did check for full throttle. and i want to do cap rotor plugs and wires

 

[jkust]

Did you not notice these issues during the sea trial or did you not test it before you bought it?

 

[pacman78]

I did not test it the dealership I bought it from took it out but they said they did not go full throttle

 

[R055]

I did not test it the dealership I bought it from took it out but they said they did not go full throttle

Almost sounds like the knew there was a problem.

 

[Wolfe118]

I have a 2004 Sea Ray 200 sport 4.3L mpi alpha 1 gen2 have a 19p ss mirage prop. Wot throttle is 4800 which is perfect. I can run full tank of gas and 8 adults 52 mph on less than perfect conditions.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Did you play around with the trim? Sometimes on some hulls, just a quick "blip" of the trim either way can mean a couple MPH. What you REALLY need to do is to go out with just one other person who's capable of driving it while you pop the doghouse and check things while underway at speed.

Check the throttle to ensure it's truly fully opened, take a good listen and look around. Don't start tossing money at it with new tune up parts. If I had a nickel for every time someone replaced the cap/rotor/coil to "fix" a running issue I'd be rich. Pull them and clean the surfaces off. Unless they're pitted deeply...they're fine. Same goes for the plugs. Pull and use a gap gauge to open the gap enough to get a small flat jewelers file between the strap and electrode and shine them up, re-gap and re-install. Good as new.

My "new" boat is a '91, had 100 more hrs than that and still has everything just as it came from the factory and I'm STILL running the original plugs/wires/cap/rotor because I pulled cleaned/gapped and verified that they indeed are in perfectly good running condition. That's not the issue...