88 Islander 261v

[pursuit23wa]

Hey this is Nate, the guy in michigan who sold you the boat last fall.I think I can help a little with the rpm and prop issues.When we purchased the boat we ran it with a tach hooked directly to the motor, dash tach is off slightly(about 150-200 rpm). The prop on it was a 15x17 factory OMC prop, which was a little over propped. We ran a michigan wheel 14.5x16 four blade which was much better out of the hole, and gave up none-1 mph top end. Another thing that might help is when we bought the boat it had an almost full tank of 3 yr old gas. between that and the spark arrestor reading minimum 89 octane fuel required what we did was replace the fuel filter/water seperator, dump in a bunch of fuel additive/water remover, and we backed off the base timing I believe 2 maybe 3 degrees. We never put it back and just ran 87 octane in it but it could probably be bumped back up a little. Also if you haven't noticed by now, the trim tab switches were wired backwards(by previous owner) than standard switches. Port switch down literally moves port tab down/same for starboard. I hope I could help you from throwing money at nothing, just saw this thread yesterday and thought I would help, and hope its a great big lake boat for you like it was us.

 

[astor]

Thanks, Nate! good info that will certainly help with the prop and RPM. I think it will be a great big lake boat. Looks like you took good care of it.

 

[astor]

so sad to have to put away the big boat for the year, I hardly used it like previous years. As I spent most weekends working on the little SS.
Although I plan to work on the islander a bit over the winter, a few repairs and upgrades in mind for her. Nothing extreme like a complete restoration I did on the SS180.

 

[astor]

 

[Watermann]

She's big and beautiful alright!