Our new 1994 Sea Ray Sundancer 290

I put in an Isotherm fridge. Much better than Norcold in my opinion. bought it a defender.com ,but it was pricey. Start a new thread titled "Norcold fridge help" for better responses.
 
MrCool - That's a very nice steering wheel you have....where'd you get it or did it come with the boat? Do you see a manufacturer's name on it any where?
 
Thanks’ I did some research on the steering wheel. It's about a 300 dollar steering wheel. Made by ISOLLA. Mine is the ZULAG. It was already on the boat when we bought it.

So since my last post...
1. Replaced the compressor unit on the Norcold fridge. Works great now.
2. Replace the entire AC system. Went from a 12K BTU Marine Air to a 16K Curise air. Same company now. I can keep it 64 degrees when the outside temp at 100+ and the water temp at 90. So it works awesome.
3. Replaced the toilet. The manufacture of my old one went out of business like 7 years ago. I think the Jabco motor would have fit but it costs as much as replacing the whole thing.
4. The charging controller failed... So I replace it as well with the protech 40i. Got west marine to match an on-line price I found for 175.00.
5. Need to replace the Trim Pump reservoir. It's cracked "apparently a very common thing".
6. Replaced the 23 pitch props with 20 pitch props. I now jump out of the hole and can stay on a plane much easier with a full load. I lost some top end, but it's not a race boat. I still get 32 at WOT at 4400rpm Cruising is good at 3700rpm puts me about 20mph.
 
looks really nice and clean! Congrats enjoy!
 
MrCool...
Nice boat and best of luck with her. Sounds like you made her almost as good a new.

There's something troubling about your speed vs. rpm numbers. Maybe I'm wrong, and others with a single screw 290 may chime in, but 20 mph at 3700rpm seems a bit slow for a big block and B3 drive. Even your WOT speed seems slow. Also, running these engines for prolonged periods of time at 3700 rpm is a bit taxing to the system. You'd like to cruise at around 75% of WOT to prevent premature/excessive wear. Are you sure of those numbers? Sounds like you are hitting the proper WOT rpm so I guess you're propped correctly.
 
Last edited:
I run 38mph/gps at 4600rpms with a 454 4bbl/Bravo1 (4 blade 14.5", 17P cupped stainless Merc prop) with my 1990 270/290. I don't have a generator but do have AC and 100 gallons of fuel/water/waste/etc. My factory speedo is 5mph faster (43mph) than actual gps. I was just out cruising at 4000rpms yesterday at about 32 mph with plenty of throttle left but the 4bbl was open. 26mph at 3600rpms is my standard cruise or 29mph at 3800rpms. Twin 4.3's are to run 42mph acording to the factory specs. I was considering on going Bravo III someday because I thought it would be more efficient but 38mph is good enough for me, Mike.
 
Last edited:
We've spent most of the summer on it now, and it's been alot of fun. Our lake is really starting to get low so it cuts into the time we can spend out there. My speeds are pretty much what I said. I can hit WOT at 4400-4600 RPM. I assume that's pretty close to redline so I back off about 20 percent and bring it just under 4000rpm. That will bring my speed down from 32mph to around 23mph. This is not GPS tracked. I have the 120 gallon fuel tank and the larger water tank which I keep both full pretty much all the time.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
113,163
Messages
1,427,620
Members
61,073
Latest member
kolak3
Back
Top