well it turned out the lower end bearings are cooked .... seems that the oil has disappeared from the lower it, now mind you it does not leak and was drained and refilled when i winterized the motor ... and it has been all over the lake and river trips of 40 miles each direction it was fine .. i...
well 100yds out of dock she started squeeling like a pig .. i believe its toast ... now its unloaded and parked in the back lot until i make up my mind on a brand new motor or to just get rid of it. at this point i dont want to even look at it.
well i did the water pump impeller .. no water from weep hole .. no t-stat in yet so i hit it with a air blast from the compressor .. it pumpin good now .. the old pump was all there and very very pliable, so really it was still good .... crap from a old pump must be in the block so i'm gonna...
i pulled it apart and removed the thermostat because i thought maybe it was that .. started it in can with no t-stat and the hose is clear no water from weep hole, going to drop the lower end tomorrow and replace the water pump.
we took the boat out this evening, it was pumping water out of the weep hole like normal .. shut it off to get some shad and when i restarted it there was no water coming out of the weep hole but there was alot coming from the exhaust on the backside of the legg ........ i would think water pump...
i run a 13.5 on my 25 .... yea its a 2 stroke but they prop out pretty close .. my boat is A 1648 .... i would go atleast with a 12 since your boat is .100 and welded .. what around 400lbs .. with a 12 ya should get around 26mph
i never run a motor up in the rpms in a barrel or with muffs .... cycle the gears and maybe a lil above idle but if ya crank it up with muffs it has no load on the motor and is freewheeling, not good .. and ya will blow the water out of the barrel when revved up in gear ..... so to really test...
there are several ways to deal with your problem .... is your motor centered on the transom? .. adjust the trim pin up or down, find the best spot with he least amount of pull, then use the trim tab on the cav plate to get the rest out .....
i've gotta super clean 99 merc 9.9ml 2 stroke for sale for 1,000 .. long shaft tiller motors are kind of hard to find and even harder to sell.... but your price sounds right on par! ....
I used to run a mariner 20 on a lowe 1648@275lbs for just the hull, it ran fine, right at 23-25 mph with 2 guys and a 110lb dog plus fishing gear ... the tracker is 150lbs heavier .. the 25 is the way to go ..