I have the 8.1 HO engines with 425 hp. She’s not lacking in power at all.
There’s plenty of torque to climb the back of swells in the ocean without touching the throttle. It likes to cruise between 3600 and 3800 rpm doing 22 knots. Tabs are not needed to get on plane.
Yes behind the main cabin circuit panel in my boat also. In case you did not know, the whole panel is hinged on the bottom and drops down for easy access. You may have to remove the door to swing it down.
Actually my monitor does read out (no alarm) that the sump box pump is activated. You have to be watching the monitor to ever see this. I only noticed this last season when my sump pump was going off every 20 seconds because it needed a new check valve.
Your sink drain must be leaking into the forward bilge area. Your forward bilge pump is draining water from an area that should only be wet if you were sinking.