Finally took the boat out on the river to see how I made out, not all good but not all bad news. Other than a few minor wiring issues that I have resolved the engine started up and sounds assume. I have a short video of it running on the trailer but have not figured out how to load it yet. I followed Mike and other’s advice and set total timing at 32* a little extra timing seemed to help it idle smoother at 650/700 rpm. I am using a Delco EST 5.7 ignition system and set it at 14* at idle and total advance was all on by 3200. The new motor performs very well up to 3800 rpm / 45mph on boat gauges but falls flat on its face at about 3900 to 4000 rpm’s. The boat feels like something is holding it back or like a large strong water-skier is on the back making hard turns. I hit the key and the motor starts up and idles at 650 to 700 rpm and runs strong thru 3800 and than performance drops and rpm stay at 4000 as I increase throttle. Is it possible my loss of top end power might be due to an incorrect initial timing setting which is resulting in insufficient advance?
Also thinking I may have an octane problem, I have one year old fuel that is 89 E10 treated fuel purchase at my marina last year before the old mill let go. I also added about 15 gallons of fresh 89 E10 fuel that I treated and also used E-Zorb. I don’t know much about this ignition system but it may be smart enough to sense low octane and decrease timing automatically effectively reducing HP and RPM. Also I understand some areas are already pumping E15 even though the pump says it’s E10 resulting in power loss and increased fuel consumption. The motor was built to run on 89 pump gas and I fully expect this cam will run out of steam at 5000 rpm. Also once I discovered this issue the run was over and the boat went back on the trailer. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Bob