Thomas Teller
Active Member
I have a 2003 Nitro 288 Sport. The hull was re-powered by me with an Evinrude Ficht 25" shaft (long?) and a jack plate to get er' up to the proper running height. A couple bolts have a streak of brown stain running down from them. I believe that the through bolts have been absorbing stagnated water in the hull. It collects randomly due to rainfall, in between outings. I have not found the sweet spot for parking the unit to avoid this issue. I sealed the bolts with silicone upon installation, but have had to adjust them once or twice. Any advice to dry out the transom before the problem gets worse? Should I worry when trailering to avoid transom damage due to the bouncing on the trailer I've heard about? What is the best method for sealing the throughbolts? I'm pretty sure that I'm done adjusting mounting heights, she's maxed out now, I think. I'm simply tweaking the height of the lower unit to maximize the speed. She's up to around 55-60 mph now, last outing the pitot kicked due to flotsam, spoiled the test run! I'm seeking 65 at WOT while maintaining enough water flow, of course.
