papps

Picked up a nice 2003 30' Daytona all original with 525efi and Bravo XR's. Engines are out with a standard rebuild for these 500hr motors.
All the other 30's I see for sale or read a test report on have either IMCO extension boxes or ITS. Should I add a box now? If so what would be the biggest benefit? Is a box and a -2" lower the right combo or do I need to have the correct X dimension for this change?
I doubt I would be looking for that last mph at the top end but better cruise, hole shot and handling would be good.
Thanks

ryanmcclaran

You will pick up a few mph. How short you take the drive depends on where you mount the box's. If you go with the imco's at the bottom right corner of the box will be about even with the corner of the tunnel. At this height a standard length drive should put you 1" above the bottom off the hull. If you don't have a big Dana tab I would run any higher than that because you will struggle getting on plane. I hope this helps. And they will help the drives live longer.

papps

Thanks for responding! I had almost given up on this post.
So I did add the IMCO extension boxes and it does look like the bottom of the box is about even with the tunnel. Decided to stay with the standard length drives for now and see how she performs. Curious why you say the drives will live longer with the boxes?

Tinkerer

You will want to go with the -2 shorties. adding the boxes without raising them or adding shorties made your props lower than what they were before the boxes.
Mine is a 26 and I am running a -3 Imco drive. That puts me 2 inches above the lowest point.
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Tinkerer

I did a before and after comparison getting on plane. Same everything. Added the box and went up 1 1/8 inch higher and the boat got on plane exactly the same. actually I would probably go with -3 inch shorties - You can easily add a spacer IF it needs it. I don't think it will. If you can afford it I would go with SCX -3 uppers and standard IMCO -3 lowers. If you plan on adding more HP later you will be glad that you did. You will gain speed ( probably at least 5 MPH) and the boat will handle better at speed and be more efficient.

papps

Thanks Tinkerer. Looks like shorties will be my fall project.