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Cobra conversion experience
Just completed my conversion to the 116 end of July. Doing great so far. Here is my experience below.
1988 235 Sundowner 350 (260HP) cobra.
Drive shipped quickly and delivered as I expected.
Drive assembled well using the instruction provide on site.
Installing conversion kit was a little tricky, but done to my satisfaction with a mod on my part with the water inlet. I went and bought a 3/4 inch silicone heater core hose about 1 and half foot long and ended up trimming about 4-1/2 inches off it. The 3/4 silicone was able to stretch enough to slide over the inch from off the boat and secured with a clamp, the opposite end of coarse fit fine and was also secured with a clamp, other wise I couldn't get the hose and adapter kit provided to not kink worked with that for a couple hours at least before buying the silicone. That took the longest of all. I did not cut my exhaust boot and don't know what all the fuss is about with it. Using the existing boot (which was brand new) mounted to the exhaust at the transom like normal and slipped over the oval shaped part of the new gimbal with no problem, then secured it with a heavy duty zip ty.
Installing the drive onto the boat was rather interesting. It went together very snug and I couldn't get the drive to go in the final 1/8 of an inch (just on one side) couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. Knowing not to force anything I could tell the washers were still spinning freely but couldn't turn the nut onto the stud. Decided to pull back off and check out what was goin on and 4 of the 6 mounting studs unscrewed with the nut. OH NO that cant be a good sign. In checking it out either the nuts or the studs had not been cut well and they were no good. Took the studs off my other mount and used the nuts also put back in the new unit and went together great. The old studs where slightly shorter than the new ones so I had to leave the washer off to get the nut onto the lock thread. Called tech support and they sent new studs, lock nuts and washers with out question.
Bought a SeaStar SL3 top mount shifter w/trim and tilt as my shifter was an OMC and not reversible. Kit came with everything needed and installed well. Had to trim my mount area about a quarter inch on 2 sides for best fit. Love the shifter. Followed the instructions for setting the shift cable to the T as also provided on this site and could not get the throw for reverse. So I ended up adjusting the shifter in reverse instead of forward and it worked just fine. I left the original OMC shift assist in place and operational. The new shifter and drive shift so smooth the assist doesn't even hardly move to activate the switch. I did decrease my idle considerably to about 550 in gear. In forward or reverse it still cruises at a much faster rate at idle than I'd like but cant do much about that except pop it outta gear once in awhile.
Break in was rough, (only because of the size of my boat and breaking a good planning speed) I hate it when the front end hangs up there. So the mid way break in hours sucked, but I done them. My previous drive I could only get between 32 and 36 hundred RPM. I always thought the motor was just worn out. I now hit the 42 - 46 hundred RPM like it is supposed to do and break plane much quicker. On occasion I get a little dolphin effect after hitting some wake but a sudden burst and then rethrottle takes care of that.
Overall so far it is running and shifting better than ever. Will be changing the drive oil out real soon (close to the 20 hour mark). Also close to the end of season, don't know how many more hours I'll get in unless I take it all the way up river into the big lake. Most of our boating consist of running the river and playing in the tubes at the gravel pit or fishing.
Thanks for supplying an affordable product.
1988 235 Sundowner 350 (260HP) cobra.
Drive shipped quickly and delivered as I expected.
Drive assembled well using the instruction provide on site.
Installing conversion kit was a little tricky, but done to my satisfaction with a mod on my part with the water inlet. I went and bought a 3/4 inch silicone heater core hose about 1 and half foot long and ended up trimming about 4-1/2 inches off it. The 3/4 silicone was able to stretch enough to slide over the inch from off the boat and secured with a clamp, the opposite end of coarse fit fine and was also secured with a clamp, other wise I couldn't get the hose and adapter kit provided to not kink worked with that for a couple hours at least before buying the silicone. That took the longest of all. I did not cut my exhaust boot and don't know what all the fuss is about with it. Using the existing boot (which was brand new) mounted to the exhaust at the transom like normal and slipped over the oval shaped part of the new gimbal with no problem, then secured it with a heavy duty zip ty.
Installing the drive onto the boat was rather interesting. It went together very snug and I couldn't get the drive to go in the final 1/8 of an inch (just on one side) couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. Knowing not to force anything I could tell the washers were still spinning freely but couldn't turn the nut onto the stud. Decided to pull back off and check out what was goin on and 4 of the 6 mounting studs unscrewed with the nut. OH NO that cant be a good sign. In checking it out either the nuts or the studs had not been cut well and they were no good. Took the studs off my other mount and used the nuts also put back in the new unit and went together great. The old studs where slightly shorter than the new ones so I had to leave the washer off to get the nut onto the lock thread. Called tech support and they sent new studs, lock nuts and washers with out question.
Bought a SeaStar SL3 top mount shifter w/trim and tilt as my shifter was an OMC and not reversible. Kit came with everything needed and installed well. Had to trim my mount area about a quarter inch on 2 sides for best fit. Love the shifter. Followed the instructions for setting the shift cable to the T as also provided on this site and could not get the throw for reverse. So I ended up adjusting the shifter in reverse instead of forward and it worked just fine. I left the original OMC shift assist in place and operational. The new shifter and drive shift so smooth the assist doesn't even hardly move to activate the switch. I did decrease my idle considerably to about 550 in gear. In forward or reverse it still cruises at a much faster rate at idle than I'd like but cant do much about that except pop it outta gear once in awhile.
Break in was rough, (only because of the size of my boat and breaking a good planning speed) I hate it when the front end hangs up there. So the mid way break in hours sucked, but I done them. My previous drive I could only get between 32 and 36 hundred RPM. I always thought the motor was just worn out. I now hit the 42 - 46 hundred RPM like it is supposed to do and break plane much quicker. On occasion I get a little dolphin effect after hitting some wake but a sudden burst and then rethrottle takes care of that.
Overall so far it is running and shifting better than ever. Will be changing the drive oil out real soon (close to the 20 hour mark). Also close to the end of season, don't know how many more hours I'll get in unless I take it all the way up river into the big lake. Most of our boating consist of running the river and playing in the tubes at the gravel pit or fishing.
Thanks for supplying an affordable product.
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