DaytonaJohn
Member
- May 17, 2019
- 33
- Boat Info
- Boatless
- Engines
- 3.0L Mercruiser Alpha One
New guy with many questions here ! It took awhile, but I found a fresh water Sea Ray that was a Pennsylvania boat here in Florida. I wanted a 176 or 175 because of the size of the boat for ease of towing, launching and retrieving on the trailer, and storage. It has the 3.0L inline 4 cylinder and Alpha ONE outdrive. It will take some time, but eventually I will have parts and service manuals for the engine and lower unit and the Sea Ray owner's manual and related publications. I'm not sure where I will find all that yet. The boat came with no paperwork. It was a trade-in so the dealer had no history.
IT is obvious the previous owner hit something because of some scrapes on the lower unit. More about that later...… My first question is this....does anybody know for sure what the stock propeller was when the boats left the factory ?
I found something online that says 48-944868 Black Max propeller which is 14.25 diameter x 21 inch pitch propeller. Can anyone verify this ? Also the top speed is 44 at 4900 RPM. TRUE ???
The dealer said they put a used propeller on it (to replace the damaged one ?) and it matches "what came off of it ". I believe it is the wrong propeller...a 15 inch pitch which pushed my test drive to a max of 32MPH at 4200 rpm. I understand the correlation between the pitch and engine rpm. I may have a carburetor adjustment issue to address, that's OK, but lowering the pitch to 15 inch should RAISE the engine RPM.
I'm happy with the overall condition of my purchase ! It starts easily and everything works. The trailer was maintained and was perfect. I believe the boat was kept inside it's whole life - clean carpet, shiny gelcoat, extra nice upholstery.
thanks in advance for any answers.... I will follow up with opinions about Sea Ray from a former Mercury employee who retired after 42 years and was asked to come back and take over Mercruiser quality control, and from a 50 hull designer, manufacturing consultant, and past Mercury salt water test facility manager. The short version is I did my homework and they said it was OK to buy a 16 year old Sea Ray...
IT is obvious the previous owner hit something because of some scrapes on the lower unit. More about that later...… My first question is this....does anybody know for sure what the stock propeller was when the boats left the factory ?
I found something online that says 48-944868 Black Max propeller which is 14.25 diameter x 21 inch pitch propeller. Can anyone verify this ? Also the top speed is 44 at 4900 RPM. TRUE ???
The dealer said they put a used propeller on it (to replace the damaged one ?) and it matches "what came off of it ". I believe it is the wrong propeller...a 15 inch pitch which pushed my test drive to a max of 32MPH at 4200 rpm. I understand the correlation between the pitch and engine rpm. I may have a carburetor adjustment issue to address, that's OK, but lowering the pitch to 15 inch should RAISE the engine RPM.
I'm happy with the overall condition of my purchase ! It starts easily and everything works. The trailer was maintained and was perfect. I believe the boat was kept inside it's whole life - clean carpet, shiny gelcoat, extra nice upholstery.
thanks in advance for any answers.... I will follow up with opinions about Sea Ray from a former Mercury employee who retired after 42 years and was asked to come back and take over Mercruiser quality control, and from a 50 hull designer, manufacturing consultant, and past Mercury salt water test facility manager. The short version is I did my homework and they said it was OK to buy a 16 year old Sea Ray...