external pick-ups

[F26]

i am looking into putting external water pickups on a DCB 26 twin 300 to raise OBs two notches. The pickups are to be recessed 1/8 to 1/4 inch in the hull, tierdropped, and then re-gelled.
I talked to a rep from Eliminator at the boat show and was told the external pickups by themselves would slow the boat 1-2mph!
Said i may not see an increase at all with the motors lifted.
Does anyone have any unbiased first hand knowledge.
Thanx in advance

[mbrown2]

You might want to post this in the Cats and Tunnel sections and or the outboard section....I don't have external pickups, but I have never heard of anyone saying they slow you down.....In fact a buddy of mine with a DCB Mach 26 had some work done on his motor, and they installed a external water pick since they thought they were not getting enough from the drive...and this was GT Performance and they did not mention the pick up causing slow down...
Not sure about picking up speed with raising the motors...

[F26]

Dave said it would gain by picking them up but it would feel somewhat loose as the drives come up as well
this helps

[mbrown2]

How did he say it would plane after raising them?

[F26]

slight decrease but better mid and top

[dorC]

Get one with a adjustable cutting edge. Set the pickup 1/8" above the bottom and then extend the edge down as required. You'll adjust this pickup to the get the water pressure you need. I think mine is down 3/32" and I have rock solid 10psi. I did not see a speed change.

[Craig]

I put two thru hull pick-ups in mine because it has notched sponsons at the stern. One feeds the engine, one the intercooler. Nothin' like taking a drill to the bottom of your boat :eek:
http://www.justanothertoy.com/photogallery/stuff/P1192568.JPG

[F26]

not real excited about cutting either...but if the boat will perform better and the job is right i do not mind.

[dorC]

Originally posted by Craig
I put two thru hull pick-ups in mine because it has notched sponsons at the stern. One feeds the engine, one the intercooler. Nothin' like taking a drill to the bottom of your boat :eek:
http://www.justanothertoy.com/photogallery/stuff/P1192568.JPG
I'll be frank...for a performance boat, that's about the worst install that you could do. You have way too much drag off that pickup. You also have the screws hanging down and dragging in the water. Look, I'm not bashing you, but that's just not the correct way to do a water pickup!

[Craig]

No big deal, I can listen to criticism. The screws probably should have been counter sunk a litttle more, I might pull them one at a time and try to countersink them a little more. But as for location and length of pick-up that's what Teague told me to do. What's your reasoning?

[dorC]

Ok, good. I was hoping my emphasis wouldn't be misconstrued. :cool:
Do you see how perfectly smooth the bottom of the boat is? Well you have this roughness right at the screw head. You have little bits of sealant hanging down. Even if you set the screws perfectly flush, you'd still have the recess for the driver. It's hard to tell, just how far the pickup is hanging down, but lets say it's around 1/2". That's 5 times more drag than my pickup! Plus your pickup will leave a void behind it that must be filled somehow. This will result in a vacuum to create further drag.
It's winter up here, and after having my boat at the house for a month, I just put it back into storage. Man, I wish I had that out so I could take a pic of it. You'd see the difference.
The one really positive thing is that you did seal the screw heads. That was a critical thing to do.