Hi Guys,
Firstly just to confirm the speeds i posted above, these are clearly incorrect. I'm not sure why the speedo on the boat is so far out, but ill need to look into this. I confirmed this morning with a GPS speedo app on my iphone, that the speeds are infact much lower than this (not an issue to me at all, but just wanted to clarify).
My max theoretical speed using 22" props and at 4900 RPM, and a 2.00 ratio on the outdrive is as follows.
5000 X 20" / (2*3.2808*200*1.852) = 44.35 knots. Allowing 5% slippage i get 42.14 knots. And because im a downunder Aussie ......... 78 km/h. Which is right on the money. The speedo GPS app on my phone showed 77 km/h.
However the main point is im hitting my 5000 RPM, and i seem to be getting out of the hole without too many issues (albeit the real test will be with gear on board, my family, and a guest family - which i usually when i have issues.
I think the main problem was the distributor cap to be honest. Certainly when i changed this, my pinging disappeared straight away, which allowed me to focus on timing. I have set the timing to a fairly conservative 7 degrees. I think i will give it an extra 2 degrees and see how it goes.
I also redid the wiring to my coil. Not sure that this would have helped with top end / bottom end. But i think this fixed the issue i had with surging (as soon as i touched the coil sire with my hand - it fell off completely)
I now need to start another thread as i think im having issues with my charging system!. Its a never ending story! LOL
Dave