I'm primarily interested in good fuel economy and cruising, usually with 2 people on board, and am wondering what pitch prop would be best to put on a 200hp fuel injected mercury motor on my '78 20' Overnighter? I've read all the guidelines put out by prop manufacturers and understand that at WOT it needs to get up in the 5000-5800 rpm range, but wonder what others with similar boats and 200 hp motors found to be the best prop pitch? The info I've found so far tells me that 18 to 21 would probably work, and maybe a 17 for better acceleration, but the dealer where I bought the used motor is claiming that anything over 15 will hurt the motor. That seems low to me. I want to get as good gas mileage as possible but don't want to be overpropped and hurt the motor. 20' Overnighter owners, what is your real world experience with 200 hp motors and props?
20 Overnighter/200 hp prop pitch
- Thread starter jtsailjt
- Start date
Plan to use stainless, thanks!
Did you really mean a "17" X 17 stainless Mirage because I can't find one that big and am not sure there's enough clearance to mount it?
Did you really mean a "17" X 17 stainless Mirage because I can't find one that big and am not sure there's enough clearance to mount it?
Thanx for updating. I thought you meant something like that but it's nice to know exactly what you meant. It sounds like the Mirage 15.5X17 is the way to go.
Anybody successfully using a 19 pitch stainless prop or is 17 the way to go?
Anybody successfully using a 19 pitch stainless prop or is 17 the way to go?
I`m running a stainless 14.5x19 on an 87 overniter with hardtop w/2001 evinrude 200 DI. I have no problem when full of fuel,bait,etc and 2 people. I took a 17 alum off when I got the boat but never ran it with that. It was on a blown-up carbed johnson 200. I could see the 17 giving more holeshot power. If I pulled skiiers, or normally have a full load of people, I would run a 17.... With the 19, I`m running wot @ 5500rpm and 48mph. I usually run 3200-4000 for 32-38 mph. and about 2.5-3 mpg.
wanderer200 said:
You're running 48mph!? Wow, that seems awfully fast for that boat. I don't have a speed sensor on mine, but the previous owner claimed close to 40mph with a rebuit 1990 200hp Johnson.
I have the same prop as wonderer, I rarely run over 3500-4000 rpm and I am doing 31knots (flat seas) 3 guys and full fuel ect, 5200 rpm seems to be the max rpm I get from my 175 hp but will push to about 40 knts.. My average fuel usage is 2 mpg.
I appreciate the input from you all, sounds like I should try a Mirage 17 pitch and a Mirage 19 pitch and see how each one of them work on my boat/motor. I very rarely use WOT except to get up on plane with a big load, or a couple of times a summer for waterskiing, and the rest of the time I'm either 20-25mph cruising or fishing, so I'd love to make the higher pitch prop work out for me, but I don't want to overload the engine either. Thanks to all for helping me narrow my choices down, and any other opinions/suggestions are welcome.
I bought a couple of props on eBay this week and the first one that came in the mail was the 19Pitch Mirage Plus. It is one of those props that allows you to remove the little plastic plugs to ventilate the blades for a better hole shot. First I tried it with the plugs in. Hole shot wasn't great but I expected that. It ran nice around 3500-4000 rpm but when I pushed it up to WOT, the rpm only went up to about 4400 and my max speed was about 39mph, a couple of mph lower than it was with a 17P aluminum prop. So I removed the plugs from the prop and tried it again. It did better getting spooled up and on plane, but at WOT, the max rpm I could get was only 4600 (supposed to be 5000-5800 for my 200HP EFI Mercury motor) and the speed was still a little slower than with a 17P aluminum prop. I'm looking forward to the arrival of the 17P Mirage, which also has less cupping in the blades than the 19Pitch Mirage Plus. I expected the RPM to decrease with the 19P mirage prop but was surprised by just how much it did. I'm starting to wonder if my motor isn't putting out all it should be for horsepower, but I'll see how the 17P Mirage does and go from there.
OK, tried all 3 props and none of them seem to be right. The 19P Mirage Plus is way too much, the 17P Mirage Plus with plugs removed only gets the boat to 37mph at 4600 rpm max, and the 17P Mirage gets about the same max speed but at about 4800rpm. All these numbers are with less than half a tank of fuel and either 1 or 2 people board. So the rpm's seem to be saying that either I need to go down to a 13 or 15 pitch to get my rpm's up where they belong, or something is wrong with my engine. Is anyone else running a 200 hp engine on their 20' Overnighter with a 13 or 15 pitch prop, and if you are, what's your top speed?
My "prop issue" turned out to be a motor issue, which is what I suspected. My injectors were badly fouled, to the point where the left 3 cylinders were barely providing any power at all. Now, I've got that 19P Mirage Plus on it, and my '01 Mercury 200EFI is turning 5800rpm at 48mph and that speed checks with my GPS too(actually, GPS read 44 knots which is about 50mph)! Thanks to those of you who chipped in here because it gave me something to compare to, and confirmation something was out of whack so I could go and complain with confidence to my dealer, which ultimately led to my engine being FIXED! :wow I sort of expected about 42 mph but am absolutely thrilled to be getting 48+ out of it, and it jumps right out of the hole too.
]thanks everyone Thank gog for a friend that is a etec dealer i have a etec 250 on my overnighter and the prop that works is a oem viper 19x14x1/4 thanks for all the help
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Lt.Mike
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Re:
With that said at the end of the 2014 season the motor had a connecting rod failure at 420 hrs. Read into that as you wish. :roll:
I just purchased a good used replacement motor, same year and model with less hours (370). This one has a 14.5x18 stainless prop.
I'll have the ability to see if the 18 pitch prop is better so sometime next season there will be a followup post. :wink:
Mike.
PS- I went with the same OB as all the cables wires etc will hook up without any major thought involved. Being priced at $2,250 instead of the average price of a new or rebuilt OB helped in the decision making process to roll the dice again. Wish me luck.
87 204c with a 2003 Suzuki 225 2 stroke 14.5x20 stainless prop. 48+ was no problem.wanderer200 said:
With that said at the end of the 2014 season the motor had a connecting rod failure at 420 hrs. Read into that as you wish. :roll:
I just purchased a good used replacement motor, same year and model with less hours (370). This one has a 14.5x18 stainless prop.
I'll have the ability to see if the 18 pitch prop is better so sometime next season there will be a followup post. :wink:
Mike.
PS- I went with the same OB as all the cables wires etc will hook up without any major thought involved. Being priced at $2,250 instead of the average price of a new or rebuilt OB helped in the decision making process to roll the dice again. Wish me luck.
On my 208 I had stainless Yamaha 15-1/2 X19 on F200 yamaha and was awesome for cursing but dragged ass for long time , WOT was 5100 so I replaced it with Solas stainless 14-3/4 X17 at 4000 rpm. doing 42km/h it using 1.6 km per 1 litter and WOT is 5800 rpm and doing 71 km/h sorry about metrics but that is how is gauges are set up .
I'm very happy with Solas performance as I do lot of costal bars crosing and offshore fishing .
I'm very happy with Solas performance as I do lot of costal bars crosing and offshore fishing .
Lt.Mike
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Took the new to me Suzuki 225 2 smoke out and she did fine. Had the 20 pitch prop on and it planned just fine. Its not a drag boat and I never made anyone happy nailing the throttle so I couldn't tell if it made a difference on a hole shot. The rpms were at 5500-5600 which on the old motor ( exactly the same) was good for about 48 mph.
I had taken a video with the boat cruising at just under 4000 rpm and when friends saw it they all asked why we were going so fast. Guess it was around 35 or so but the motor was just lope'in along. Felt like it could do it all day. I'd probably guess a 19 pitch prop would work too on the 225 and would definitely be perfect on a 200 horse motor.
I have an 18 pitch prop which I will save as a spare. I don't think I'll run it full time for fear of over reving the motor at WOT.
Mike.
I had taken a video with the boat cruising at just under 4000 rpm and when friends saw it they all asked why we were going so fast. Guess it was around 35 or so but the motor was just lope'in along. Felt like it could do it all day. I'd probably guess a 19 pitch prop would work too on the 225 and would definitely be perfect on a 200 horse motor.
I have an 18 pitch prop which I will save as a spare. I don't think I'll run it full time for fear of over reving the motor at WOT.
Mike.