So - pros versus cons re: Indigo prop?

[gfatula]

ILR,
Did you ever pick up an Indigo prop?

With a clean prop & timing adjustment (reset from scratch actually ) I was able to get 2,300 RPM WOT this weekend..that is 150 more than I could get last year.

I even did some sailing this weekend, and I agree that the additional drag is negligible compared to a 2-blade fixed. The prop is so tiny when you install it you won't believe it!

Well, I too was taken aback by its small size! It works! I am using it on an Islander 28. The Islander has minimal wetted surface for a 28' boat. I am still having difficulty getting to 2000 rpms with a clean hull and prop. I am thinking I don't have the timing right? It is a fairly "new" Moyer rebuilt (less than 100 hours). I installed it. When I read that boxier 30+ footers are getting 2000+ rpms I am jealous.

Back to the drawing board. Any suggestion of how I should proceed?

I have a new complete exhaust and Moyer ss waterlift. I installed the back pressure gauge when I replaced the exhaust and its reading are fine. Time to add a vacuum gauge.

George

[Dave Neptune]

Probably

George, you're spot on with the RPM diagnosis. You should easily get to 2300, my tired 43 year old original A-4 will get 2700 at WOT.

Are you using an EI or points? If points as they wear the timing really changes which will not happen with the EI. I'd also check under the cap to be sure the centrifugal advance is functioning before doing any "tuning".

Dave Neptune

[gfatula]

Thanks Dave,

The boat is on the hard this year. I just didn't have the time I needed to use it with family obligations this summer. Births, weddings, and birthdays. My twin sisters celebrate their 60th in WI this month. That will include some time on Lake superior. One of my seven kids is stationed in Rome and I am spending the month of October in Italy to visit and get to know the youngest grand daughter who we only held for a week a year and a half ago when they were in D.C.. Another birth is due in November in Arkansas and I am trying to get the construction of a new house (kid magnet) started here on Mt. Desert Island. The Marshall Catboat is our only sail boat this season. We enjoy that boat, too.

While the I-28 is out I will drop the rudder and replace the cutless bearing. I want to inspect the rudder shaft for fatigue, too. The A-4 has been running well. Starts right up. Idles smoothly. I installed a heat exchanger when I installed the engine. It runs cool. Usually around 150. Perhaps hotter plugs? It has an EI. We rarely put 20 hours on the engine in a season.

I can inspect things while it is out of the water. Won't be able to test the results. I have a timing light and a tach and dwell. I will look at the advance weight.

Thanks,

George

[tenders]

Adding to the chorus, I have seen no downsides with the Indigo prop and also like the fact that running the engine at higher RPMs in gear enables me to get noticeably more current out of the high-capacity alternator that I strapped on a few years ago.

I have a V-drive and cruise at about 1800. I can get her up to 2400 no problem in flat seas, though Dave Neptunes 2700 would be a stretch.

[ILikeRust]

Yes, I was fortunate enough to come across a first-gen stainless steel Indigo that was unused, for about $100 less than new. Tom actually asked me to send it to him so he could check it to make sure the pitch was correct, which it was.

I put it on when I put my engine back in and splashed the boat.

I managed to get out for a sail only a couple times in the past year, but I did find that I still can't get the RPM up to where it should be, so I'm now suspecting perhaps a minor timing issue, or quite possibly an exhaust restriction.

The engine also was running hotter than it should, which seems to me to corroborate the theory that it's one (or both) of those things.

I've been so busy trying to get my business going, I haven't been to my boat since about January. I never even drained the antifreeze out of the heat exchanger that I put in there when I winterized the engine last year.