Hey guys, I am new to the forum but have visited for awhile. So I have a 16x56 or 16x54 not to sure, but it is powered by a stock 36hp prodrive with a center console. My top speed with just me(185) is 27 and 23-26 with dog(45lb) a girlfriend (120). With 3 people all over 180-220 and a dog I get 17-23 depending on wind and current. I want to get my engine modified by either boat Doctor or delta. I have heard nothing but good things about both of them and would really like some input on who you have gone with, and which would be the better option. My goal for this is to obviously have a better speed loaded and unloaded. But I want my engine to still be reliable and not worry about it breaking down 10 miles away from a boat launch. My goal is to atleast top 35 unloaded and 30 +- with 4 man load, dog, and hunting gear. Would love to hear everyone opinions on who you think would build the higher performance engine while still maintaining reliability. I do not want a ticking time bomb mud boat. And they are both the exact same distance away so distance wouldn't be a deciding factor.

It's gonna be be pretty hard to get a mud boat to go 35 unloaded and 30+ with 4 people without it being a ticking time bomb, mods always shorten the life of your motor espically if you wanna go that fast, but level 3 (stage 2) from delta you can't go wrong, great guys to deal with also

Not sure how you narrowed it down to these two but Delta hands down. Them boys are doing big things!

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I got mine done at Delta (level 3). I'm running a slo-drive and I can pull 34 bouncing 35 on my fastest prop, but Chris has been working a hammer prop out for me. Not bad at all for a fat ass 1854 cc boat.

You're really asking a lot to hit 35 unloaded and 30+ with the load you are describing.

Mine is an 1854. I prefer the hammer prop because it has much better takeoff. Right now I'm pulling 31mph unloaded, but the prop needs a little more work done to it. I think the hammer can pull maybe 33 or so unloaded.

I know last week we were hauling wood to the camp to rebuild the deck and we hauled some LOADS. We were carrying over 1,000lbs. of boards with 3 men in the boat and still pulling 26mph. That's where the level 3 comes in to play...load carrying.

I have an 18x48 (18x60 at the step) and run a GTR. I rebuilt the Briggs with all DPE parts. I can almost hit 35 unloaded and 30-32 loaded. I have about 40 hours on the build I think.

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delta builds a reliable low compression motor that has great power. i think what your asking for isnt that hard to accomplish and you will be very happy with delta.

First thing to do is take that Briggs off the top of your motor and put a Kawi on it....

Best spend of money.

X2 on probably asking a little much out of mods. A consistent 30+ with a 4 man load, dog and gear is probably not going to happen unless you put duals on it.

That 16 ft nor the center console are helping you much as far as trying to get more speed.

There are a bunch of factors that go into it-weight (of boat, people, and gear), size of boat, weight distribution within the boat to name a few.

As you see with your current set-up, these motors are very sensitive to loads. Mods help with that, but it doesn't eliminate it. Also, if you are mod'ng for speed, then you won't get the most load carrying. If you are mod'ng for load carrying, you won't get the speed. Different mods for different goals.

I would focus on load carrying or tell your buddies to get their own boat!

That said, they are both good people and know what they are doing.

I would probably lean towards Delta for what you are trying to accomplish. It seems that they are probably working up individual recipes a little more.

Good Luck!

Just get a GatorTail

One of the biggest problems with the PD is there isn't a good proven prop for it. The powertech is okay at best, but it's not as good as the BB and the Hammer. There is definitely a difference. I run my 14p powertech and I can pull about 32 at best. With my 13p cleaver I've pulled as high as 35. We have a hammer on there now and Chris is trying to work out the fine tuning because I'm at 14p and banging the rev limiter at 32 with the prop buried.

Why not get with Chris or Nick about mods? I'm running a 1754 Extreme with Chris's heads and a home brew cam and ran 38.6 the other day with a worked PT 3-blade. Granted, if I run the BB by myself, 33.4 is the best I see, but it'll carry a load fine. Ran 29.6 with 4 people and a 11'5" gator during SC gator season.

No way I could run a stock BB on that PD. Even the hammer at 14p slams the limiter at 4900 with the prop buried. With a stock BB I'd have to bury the prop all the way down.

I'm just making the point that every time someone mentions speed it's "go buy a GTR". Realistically we are talking about just a few MPH if anything. I think pretty much all the GTR's I've seen that were either 54 wide or 17-18' long run 3 blades to get over 35mph. My buddies run 35 bouncing 36 with a hammer. He's pulling right under 40 with a 3 blade. He'll be the first to tell you though out the hole the PD will leave him.

Lord, I hear it non stop on the FB groups. Everyone talking about the GTR's and how much faster they are than the PD's. Well just two or three weeks ago we were hauling over 1,000lbs. of deck boards and 3 grown men in the boat and pulling 26mph. I'm more than happy with that.

Not to mention the fact that where I run there are more custom mud boats than anything. They can talk all they want about doing high 30's right before some guy with a built 350 or bigger comes cruising by doing 50+.

Ok, I'll chime in on this. First off, the Kawasaki will be a better motor for the Pro-drive just by pure block design. You won't have to deal with case leaks due to the way the engine bolts to the frame by way of the sump. Second, its way cheaper to mod the Kawasaki than it will be to Mod the briggs. I don't care what anyone says on that, because I've done 4 of them and there cheaper to do. My Kawasaki is a stage 2 or whatever the engine world wants to call it. I have my heads decked (180 compression on both) cam, mikuni and exhaust. Mine will spin right at 5000 rpms by myself and a very light load. usually its around 4900-4950 and below depending on load. What you will also know is that the Kawasaki has stupid torque. I'm actually turning a 14p prop at right at 5000 rpms. When I had a new prop that was just worked, I could hold a consistent 34-35 mph. Actually bumped 35.6 once but only for a brief time. My best run was a trip to the mouth of the Atchafalaya river from my camp, the trip was 16 miles. I had 3 people, 5 dozen deks, ice chest full of food and drinks to spend the whole day, 14 gallons of fuel and all our hunting shit and ran 33.9 at 4900 the entire way downriver and held 32.8 upriver. This run alone was the telling point of the reliability of the motor to me. The run took about 30 min to get there at WFO. No issues were found even though I had the hammer down at damn near 5000 rpms the whole trip.

Now as a side note, I don't frog as much anymore as I use to. The charging system on the Kawi is more like the older briggs. I had an old non-cdi 07 and it had a 20 amp charging system. the new briggs have a 50amp. But I never had an issue. So if your the bling bling guy with 1000 led lights and radio system and all kinds of other shit, you better get another battery if your running one. Best of all, when we were trying all the different cams, I actually at one point changed the cam in my motor 3 times and never drained the oil. The block design splits at the top, not at the bottom like briggs.

I have a gps video of mine running a very worn prop at about 11-3/4" - 11-5/8" running 32.1. I had just finished installed the final cam and decked a little more. When we started decking the heads, we went a little at a time being this was new and we had no numbers to go by. The final decking was an additional .020" to give me a total of .050" that gave me 180 psi in each cylinder. This was basically the test run but baggy hadn't finished my new prop yet. Once the 14p was installed, then I bumped up to 34-35.

So to answer your original question, YES, you can have a 35 mph (well almost) and a loaded boat running 30+ for a fairly good price.

If I was running a 10p though I'd probably be hitting the limiter before I made it to 25mph. Speed doesn't matter that much, but I'm not giving up close to 10mph when I can have the prop worked.

10mph? Not hardly.

BB-33.4
Old 2-blade PT-35-36 consistent
Worked 3-blade PT-38.6

You didn't read my comment or you didn't understand what I was saying one of the two. I was saying I'd be losing 10mph because the pitch would be so off I would be hitting the rev limiter before I could make any speed.

I got what you were saying. You didn't get what I was getting at. I don't see you losing 10mph by putting a 10p prop on. Unless you're running a Gen3 lower and then I might can see it. The BB and 2-blade are stock and that's the speed I run. Granted they're trimmed pretty low.

You are running a GTR too though. The gearing is like a 1.263 or something compared to the 1.5 of the PD. Might not seem like a lot, but it makes a difference. Especially when you start getting up in speed.

Okay we get it your prodrive is so badass, and it will embrass any gtr on the water

This thread would have been so much better back in the DDM days

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You say facts but do you have anything to prove the facts ? Because we go on a good bit of mud runs and do a lot of mud riding and it always seems like a prodrive is the first one stuck. And fuck yea they are way faster, we have a 3 stock prodrives doing 24-25, and 4 gator-tails doing 29-30 on the same hulls, personally I rather get more speed and a motor that's better in the mud if they are almost the same price

I am just so tempted to ninja this thread.....but, I might get accused of brand bashing.

You say same hulls, but I doubt it. cause it seems like prodrive boats are a little heavier than GTR boats. Unless both motors are on the exact same custom hulls.

And what he stated is pretty much facts. A lower gear reduction, in turn "should" give more speed. GTR's are faster than prodrives. we get that. But I'll gladly take that in trade for FPR. I've never banged on the rev limiter while reversing with my PD in the sticky shit

Also, yall prodrives are always the first one stuck, probably cause of operator error...

That video is of a prodrive pretty much doing circles around the GTR's in the mud

But lets be honest here, how many hunts do you make that you have to run over mud flats hundreds of yards long? My boat hasn't even seen the mud this year.

That's kinda what I was wondering when the other guy was talking about running mud. Even lake Boeuf barely has any right now. If he knows where it's at he needs to spill the beans cuz there's only so many veggies I can chew up before I get bored.

I've been down there fishing and found a couple small spots. Nothing major.

Alright.....can't resist.
https://youtu.be/0VAEowFOajs