I've got kind of an odd question. I done everything and I mean everything anyone has suggested on here to solve my overheating problem and have come to the conclusion that my problem is the water intakes are being blocked by the boat itself when on plane. My boat is an '85 Ranger 340V. I've lowered the motor as far as possible and the top 1 or 2 water intakes are still at or just above the 3rd step of the bottom of the hull.
My idea that I would like comment on is this, short of buying a 6" or 8" setback plate, (mine has a 3"to 4" plate on it now), what would it hurt to epoxy or JB Weld a, ( kind of hard to explain), small block/piece of aluminum just behind the intakes to kind of direct more water flow into the intakes while on plane at higher speeds.
As a note, the overheating I'm having is only at higher to WOT speeds. She runs reasonably warm at speeds below 3500 to 4000 rpm's, although if I run for about 10 miles at those rpm's she starts to get hotter than I like and if I increase speed she gets almost to the hot peg. I've only had the overheat alarm go off once for just a second before I shut it down. If I shut it down to an idle the temp immediately goes back to normal.
My idea that I would like comment on is this, short of buying a 6" or 8" setback plate, (mine has a 3"to 4" plate on it now), what would it hurt to epoxy or JB Weld a, ( kind of hard to explain), small block/piece of aluminum just behind the intakes to kind of direct more water flow into the intakes while on plane at higher speeds.
As a note, the overheating I'm having is only at higher to WOT speeds. She runs reasonably warm at speeds below 3500 to 4000 rpm's, although if I run for about 10 miles at those rpm's she starts to get hotter than I like and if I increase speed she gets almost to the hot peg. I've only had the overheat alarm go off once for just a second before I shut it down. If I shut it down to an idle the temp immediately goes back to normal.