my son gave me a gdlt w/ a bad 23 hp. vanguard.the motor was bad so i replaced it w/ a 18 hp briggs i/c motor. i am running it on a godevil 16x44 duck skiff w/ rounded chines. my first question is, when i am running wide open in deep water where should my skeg be running at. mine seems to be at about maybe three to four inches below the water surface. second questinon is should i over fill my oil level to compensate for the angle of the motor when i am running? any other tips would sure be appreciated , thanks

If your skeg stays submerged and the motor tracks with little to no effort
then you are all set to go.... In very shallow water you may want to learn to operate it in the "surfacing mode" where you press down on the tiller till she pops up and cavitates - this increases speed slightly and your cav plate will be slightly exposed.... If you cut speed in this "surfacing mode" till your V combines exactly at the prop --- this is your shallowest running mode of operation --- it is pretty tiring so I could only run that way for 500 yards or so before returning to normal.... But a good trick to practice...


Oil should be checked with the engine level --- do not overfill --- most of the Briggs have a LO OIL level kill switch built in --- you can test it by draining your oil at oil change time with motor idling.... Go Devil and Briggs will both give you owners manuals or let you download them....

All the GDLT frame needs is a shot or two of grease every other trip out....

The U joints only once every hundred hours - only about half a shot even then...

Spray the upper and lower shaft bushings, prop and muffler down with WD40 after use to add life by avoiding corrosion....


Good Luck and Have Fun....

thanks

Unless the original prop was worn, the prop may be the wrong size/pitch for the boat/load when you add weight it may seem real sluggish .

What was wrong with the old 23 you still got it

yes the prop seems to be pretty worn. i jut put on a tach and will try and run it this weekend. the old engine got water in it and i threw it away.

unless the old motor hydralocked and slung a rod you probably could have salvaged it, there was some good information on a previous post except i dont agree with the method of checking the oil level sensor (or maybe i misunderstood) but i would never let my motor run at any speed while draining the oil, to check the operation of the sensor just unplug the wire on the sensor while the motor is running (with correct amount of oil) and it should kill the motor.

i am not sure it has a low oil sensor. where would i look?

try looking around the oil filter, its a sensor that screws in and usually has one wire attatched

i have an oil filter ,but no wire , i guess this came w/o a sensor