The next victim will be ready after a while, depends on other peoples schedules and $$$$.
Two week ends before I killed the Cat I had removed the lip from the pad. Whoever had repaired it in the past had their own idea of what it should be. I did this after seeing this post and talking with another nameless person.
http://forum.allisonowners.com/showthread.php?t=5557
It was my decision alone to do this. The more I sanded the more I was convinced the lip was tampered with.
Driving at speeds over 85 to the top speed of 95 was like sitting on a beach ball placed on a teeter totter. Didn't hold it at 95 because the bow would suddenly drop and I had hooked the boat a couple of times at this point. This was probably due to me backing out of the throttle to fast when it dropped and causing the hook.
After the lip was removed the speed dropped 5 mph, but the boat was very drivable. The next couple of times to the lake I raised the engine up, a little at a time, and regained all the speed back +1 mph. The boat remained very stable thru all lake conditions and speeds. The bow did drop at 95 but it wasn't sudden or as much, it just settled. I could drive at full speed for as long as lake conditions allowed.
Now the rest of the story. I had checked the timing pointer the evening before and found it to be correct. I got to the lake at day break warmed it up and checked the timing, found it at 16 degrees and reset it to 17. No other changes were made. Put it on plane and ran at part throttle a minute or two making sure it was warmed up completely.
The first run seemed like I had a partly fouled plug, hind sight it was starting to burn up. The second run was ended in the sound of silence. Engine locked solid. Got towed in and was on the trailer as the sunlight started hitting the launch ramp.
I should have turned the knob richer after I bumped the timing up that one degree.
With all that said and done, now I will start repairing the lips. First the lip on the side of the pad that runs front to back, it's missing about 4" on one side and 3" on the other. At the same time putting a layer over the area where the lip was originally, bringing it back flat front to rear across the back of the pad.
#1 is a tic trimmed under
#2 is neutral trim
#3 is a tic trimmed over
You can see a roll of water where the hull contacts the water.
