kdeupser

Don't tear that motor down just to flip the piston. It will probably destroy itself if you flip it since it's worn in upside down. If you have any concern about piston to valve clearance just clay one piston and then mic the clay. Those are very low compression pistons anyways so you should be fine. I've seen the 351 windsors go for 2 to 3 thousand hours. I would probably go with a head from "Trickflow" if I were you. Then when you see the need to freshen up the bottom end I would go with at least flat top pistons with a mild cam. That engine is easy to make respectable power out of so good luck.

Ray Crenshaw is in Georgia and is a MasterCraft Promo guy. Here's a link to his 2014 boat. Great guy. http://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?endless=summer&topic=Search&category=Promo_Boat&postid=29279

I used to ski there as well. I used to always love their tournaments. The site ski's amazing, the water always felt slow to me, usually always ran tournament pb's there. Loved the people there as well. Very nice, very accommodating.

I say no. And I wish I never did. I think I was a better skier before I switched. Should have never listened to this move that a coach down in florida insisted I do. Ruined a full year of having to re-learn how to turn 2 and 4 ball. I'm LFF and now hold the handle like a right handed batter. I say don't do it, go back to a left handed batter's grip and work on other things that will matter more like keeping that handle glued to your hip, etc.... Too many great LFF skier's out there that hold the handle wrong to argue with.

@oldmanskier, glad to hear. I've skied your lake some in the past. LOVE the place! Something about the water there at No Wake...I always ski good there, we used to always ski your tournament. Haven't skied there in about 5 or 10 years now. Miss that place. Good to hear you all are still at it, I work in Dalton, but live further south. It's about a 2 hour drive or we would have joined. Good Luck, Ken

@oldmanskier I've been a member of the Atlanta Waterski Club and other's around here for a long time. You need to speak with a certain Carey Z. from the Whitestone club. We had a crazy member go up to Whitestone and ski, then run into the turn island and messed herself up a good bit. Thank God Whitestone had good insurance. She was an absolute BUTT about it and sued them even though it was her fault and she was an AWSA member. It was ugly! Also, one time at our Rome, Ga club(Seven Hills, long since closed) we had a barefooter flair out from the boat to far and ran into the dock. Again, we had good insurance. Stay insured for sure. Stuff happens.....

Hanna and Her sister can definitely RIP! They used to come ski with us here at the Atlanta waterski club. Super nice family! Way to go Hanna!

+1 for @skiep, Keith helped me a ton when I was trying out the Schnitz fin. Even sent me his jig and paid postage. I miss seeing him at tournaments. Always just a great guy and pleasure to be around.

I saw where you stated "in a left turn". Have you tried taking the motor box off and the floorboard behind the engine. While idling at the dock turn the steering wheel full left and full right. Any backfire's? I'd be looking for the steering linkage pinching something or rubbing something. Maybe simulate a pass through the course with someone watching the fuel lines and electrical with motor box off? Good luck, Ken

I'm a long time Brenda rope user. In-Tow ropes are the best! Tried them all over the years. Used to break Overton rope's regularly. I've never seen an issue with Brenda's ropes nor handles. I've let several members in our club that swore they could break any rope use mine and they always lost that battle. Quite fun to watch too. I used to "love" the Straight line handle's, but when Brenda started making her Spectra handles I've totally forgot about Straight line. I can tell when my In-Tow rope needs to be replaced when it start's feeling like a steel cable. I usually change my rope's every year. Beside's if you keep skiing on the old rope your elbow's and shoulders will start to ache. Brenda will make you a rope anyway you like. Her loops are the best, and dealing with her is so easy. I've called her several times, and she always listen's very well and it's always "no problem". She can get backed up alittle bit due to supply and demand, but she has been and is great to do business with.

@patmaster, I'm with you. I can run 28 on my death bed now, but 32 still kick's me in the tail. And my PB is 2@35 as well. From what I can tell, is I'm always coached that I ski 32 to aggressively. What ever that means? I'm slowly getting some clues that I do find myself over turning and going flat through the wakes. And my edge changes end up suffering. For me, I believe it comes down to lack of water time. I've had enough coaching(too much probably). I can run 32 when I'm calm and in practice. Tournaments, well the 4 ball monster seem's to rear his ugly head. So now it's just time behind the boat. Good luck

Guy's, there is a much simpler solution here and officer friendly can help solve. Simply put a radar gun on the boat. Problem solved, this would show ANY speed variance through out the course. Forget about timing zones, I think it's absolutely ridiculous anyways for the boat to race to the next timing buoy just to keep time. I personally don't believe it's ever been a horsepower, torque, transmission, and or prop issue to maintain speed. We all are searching for that feel. Maybe since ZO has helped us zero in on our tolerances we are ready for a radar/lazer speed tracking system? Then the scorer could have a readout with them as well just like a policeman running a speed trap.

@JonB, I agree. @Drago, I agree as well. Good points. My question is and Jody Seal can probably answer this one, but why do boat's use "stock off the shelf" motor's? Remember a few year's ago when skiflying was a deal they had that SN with the blower on it. I heard horsepower number's of 500 floating around. That's very conservative for a blower motor, but it shown that for that event they were willing to do pretty simple hp upgrade. There are several way's to make cheap, reliable horsepower & torque way above the stock engines used in our boats yesterday, today, and future. And without blowers or turbo's, I just for the life of me can't figure out why we don't leverage it if it's truly needed? Hence the Malibu Hammerhead option. Which if I remember correctly was a simply stroked 350 to a 383 with a mild came. Cheap and easy.

I'm sorry guy's but I have to stop lurking and throw the BALONY flag here. Horsepower has been available since the 50's. And I've seen just as wicked throttle response from carburetors as anything. We just like to live in the land of pretend for some strange reason? I was raised with a father that drag raced in the late 50's and early 60's. I've seen 289 ford's that you would not want to get behind. For the life of me I've never understood why we pretend that only this "new" crop of motor's is the only available horsepower around and or the only motors that can manage a torque curve? Our boat's run either 34 or 36 mph which is a consistent RPM piece of cake for a real motor. It's the RPM band that's the tricky part(and still is). I've seen and done either advancing the cam or retarding it to move the RPM band not a big deal. For a real motor to hold 3,000 RPM or more, c'mon piece of cake! You just probably wouldn't like to ski behind it for the same reason's Bruce and Gator mentioned above. I'm just an average skier, due to I just cannot afford water time much anymore. My PB is only 2@35 not earth shattering. I weigh about 180lbs. In 06' or 07' I skied behind a Malibu with a 385hp Hammerhead motor with Perfect Pass. I was thinking that it would rip my arms off, the swim deck was pounding at idle but the pull felt just like the 340hp Monsoon of another friend of mine. Gator nailed it, when it all comes down to it we do not want a "Dead on" pull. We want ZO to give us 12 different mapping options to cheat/feel the pull of the boat. Don't mis-understand me I want them as well, but horsepower and or torque has never been the problem. I wish I could afford the water around here once again, and I with all of you want that old hand driver from years past as well, but at the end of the day we are not looking for a stronger motor, we want to manipulate the pull. oh yeah, and stay in tollerance. :)

There's countless aftermarket parts for the 351 windsor. Probably as much for a chevy 350. However, Eric's point would keep me from using aluminum heads. This website www.summitracing.com has a TON of things you can do to that motor. I like the TrickFlow heads, I also like the AFR heads, you also cannot go wrong with the edelbrock heads either. Summit's website has alot more for your motor as well. Very easy motor to work on and add as much power to it as you'd ever want. Shane makes a good point too, your going to start spending good money after bad pretty quickly. That would go for a ford or a chevy. Good Luck, Ken

+1 for Murdock binding lube.

I had a former waterski partner who just passed away in August who checked into it for me. He was in the "click" in Cartersville. He told me no way no how and if I even try it they'll shoot. Another friend of mine found a very small place last year just outside of Cartersville, but it's shorter than your place. We've tried to buy two house's out on Ballenger's, but we just could get the numbers to jive. I'm surprised your not out there, that site skies very schweetly indeed.

I live in Georgia, and I have pursued this crazy sport all my life. I live in Atlanta, and I am in the Atlanta Waterski club. I didn't compete last year due to lack of places to get quality water. The corp of Engineers is busting our ballers more than ever this past year. Our club has been on our site now for 50 years. We have contributed to the community in spades. First they took away our back course, then last year they had us move our one and only course left. This year they want us to stop skiing by noon, and not on certain day's. What's funny is less than a mile away from our course the City of Acworth can't get enough of us. We have weekly slalom league over there, it's a semi-private/public site. Unfortunately we do not have any more promo folks in our area to pull this event. We've tried to get Acworth to let us use the site more and they have obliged for the most part, but we are dealing with a City so it's kinda funny. Yes OB has a nice site, but he's an hour south of our site. I work from 6am to 6pm, 5 day's a week. It's just to far to squeeze in with a family. We have a ton of great sites around the Atlanta area, but before the housing boom most of them that had clubs on them were bought up. For instance, Lake lane in Rome(Pure Awesomeness!), Cole Lake & Weedy Pond in Dallas, Ga, the site in Woodstock, OB's oldsite(which is still empty) and a few others. However we still have some very nice sites as well if you can afford them. Most are either subdivision sites or private owner sites, like Whitestone in Ellijay, No Wake in Ft. Oglethorpe, Da Lake in Toccoa, Ballengers in Rockmart, Secret lake in Dallas, Konigsea in Woodstock, Rutleges lake in Tallapoosa, there's a place in Millegeville, another one in Jessup, another in Macon, and don't forget about Linda Giddens place down by Fitzgerald. And I'm sure I'm still missing one or two. It just blow's my mind to hear people talk about growing the sport. Hell, I'm just trying to stay in it! I hope 2012 is better than 2011 was but it doesn't look very good.

I have a question. If I hold a board off the back of my swim platform down at the 9 degree's that my wing is set at, and drive the boat forward, then why does the board want to go deeper? I am being serious here, I have heard the lift theory before, but our wings are set to pull the rear of the ski down, are you saying that the turbulance is adding the lift? Or since the ski is on edge, and with the rocker and other variables we are getting lift? I am a fin rookie so that is where I am asking from, Thanks, Ken

13th, http://www.moombamasters.com.au/downloads/2011event/Results/Mens%20Slalom%20Final.pdf it'll be interesting how the vw does go around.....

On the audio of Chet talking with Dave, Chet states that he's got Chris Parrish using it since the late fall of 2010. Say's it helped CP hook up out of the buoy.

I've got to give Schnitz HUGE props for helping me setup my SpeedSlot fin on my Monza a few years ago. Steve was very prompt in returning my emails, I had told Steve of a few folks that I knew in the area, he contacted one of them and had them send me a special "Jig" he had built to help fin amateurs such as myself properly install this fin. The SpeedSlot fin is simply AMAZING! It made my Monza ride sooo smooth it was silly. Still had ton's of speed, but made it more predictable. I had boat drivers telling me that it did not feel like it was me behind the boat it was such a big change. All in all I gave up on the fin to soon. I thought I couldn't scrap when I was in trouble with the fin, so I took it off. Shouldn't have, I've been thinking of putting it in my A-1, but I just don't get the water time like I used to.

I use the Garmin Forerunner 305. I've been a runner all my life, and it's great to be able to come back and download so much information. When I run I try to keep my heart rate in the 150's. I find I can hold a comfortable pace there and get a smooth run. I haven't tried using it when I ski. It would be some cool data to have. Could you imagine looking at the data from saving an OTF. That would be cool. Ken

I agree with tsixam. By the book, but when in doubt the skier get's the benefit of the doubt. I'll never forget having my opening pass pulled on me for displaycing the buoy to the outside. I simply just couldn't stay out there any more, I was so silly early, I was sinking. I could not believe it, my opening pass.....obviously I was ill at the time, but now it's kinda funny. This is a competitive sport, and as long as the rules are the same for everybody I'm all for it.  my .02, Thanks, Ken D.

Bruce, it sounds more like an accelerator pump issue to me. I'm running dual 625cfm carters on my Mustang. I had to switch to carters from holley's due to the intake manifold. I bought 4 junk carters at a swap meet, came home tore them apart and rebuilt two very nice carbs. I've obviously purchased the Carter Trackpack that has many many different jet's and metering rods. You should see my tuning spreadsheet! Whew! However, all the tuning has paid off nicely, she idle's very well at 1,000rpm(due to large cam) and pull's very strong into 6,500rpm. Dis-connecting the secondaries on a holley certainly will not hurt anything. I have a friend's boat that's a 93' Mastercraft Promo boat that has had it's secondaries dis-connected from almost day 1. The boat has over 2400hrs on it and still running strong. Now if you start changing your primary jet size that's a whole new matter, which I'd be glad to help you with offline. Timing will come into play as well. For what it's worth, the powervalve on a holley does not have any thing to do with the secondaries coming in. In fact you can buy different power valves that come in at different manifold vacuum pressures. Same for the secondaries on the vacuum operated carbs. You can buy a spring kit from holley to adjust what vacuum level you would like for them to come in. We tried every spring in the kit on this 93' which has the latest version of StarGazer. The secondaries made the boat evil to ski behind. I'd recommend changing out your accelerator pump. It's cheap, quick, and easy. Here's a link for one. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-1470/ You can also adjust when the accelerator pump comes in on a carter. You should have 3 or 4 holes in the level that connect's to the pump itself, by relocating the pump to each one of these holes brings the pump in at different rpm. Jody, Richard, please don't take my post wrong. You guy's know alot more than I do, I just have messed with carburetors for along time. Carters are good carb's, you just have to be patient. You can tune either the Carter or Holley down to your craziest wish if you have the time. Good Luck, Ken D.