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Compsite Prop Testimonial

nebraskaairboater

nebraskaairboater

Well-known member
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am a "real" believer in composite props now. I thought they just pushed better but they are durrable as well. I finally got around to taking my boat out on the water with my new Whirlwind prop I got from Faron. I was setting the pitch on the trailor before dropping it into the water. Checked all bolts and nuts (including the air cleaner nut) and all were tight. Reved it up once to warm up... no problem reved it up second time to wot and bang! turned around and my chrome air cleaner was missing... stud and all. I have a pancake cage on my boat. When I had the small block chevy on it I had to leave a hole in the cage for the distributer. Well the distributer is on the front of a Cadillac engine so there was a hole in the cage (just big enough) for the air cleaner to go thru it. After a mangled lid and bottom and disinigrated element only dammage to the prop was a couple of scratches. I am convinced that if I had still had the wood prop on it when this happened I would be re-building some major parts of my boat. I plan to take some pictures of the air cleaner lid and the prop scratches to show. By the way this prop pushes a ton more than my wood prop. I can run on sand at 2400-2500 rpm direct drive. (if my tach is accurate)

Thanks,

Dan
 
forgot to say that it stripped the threads on the carburator. I'm pretty sure it was "operator error" I probably (or evedently) overtightened the air cleaner nut.
 
I safety wire everything on my engine since my air cleaner went through my old warp drive prop. Charles
 
Glad to hear there was no significant damage there Dan. I'll bet you'll be watching and inspecting them closely for hidden damage though. It sucks to scratch up something new like that... right out of the box!

Here is a site you may want to bookmark - for anyone wanting the twisting pliers for safety wire.... only $15

http://www.rcoon.com/SafetyWirePliers.html

Does anyone have any tips on drilling tiny holes in your own bolt heads? Or should I just be looking for pre-drilled bolts? I know an nd:yag laser will drill them pretty painlessly... anyone here got one of them lasers?

EDITED TO ADD... when looking for some info about drilling heads, I found this little safety wiring tutorial. Just tho't I'd pass it along...
http://www.whizwheels.com/Tips/safetywiring.html

matt.
 
Mood if you check on the go kart racing supplier sites I know they sell a vise rig to help drill the bolt heads.
 
When I was roadracing bikes a couple of years back you had to have all sorts of stuff saftey wired. I learned to keep lots of 1/16" drill bits handy, you could almost wire a complete bike with one bit and break 4 on one bolt!! The drill pess style bolt jigs are nice but some things need to be done by hand.

Larry
 
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