257 tips, hints and questions

[Darkside 248]

As there are a few 257 starting to hit the Water, and a good portion of us don't know how to set these BEASTS up. @Fivebar made the suggestion to start a thread on 257's. So here is what I have found so far. Others please correct and or share.

 

H6 is plenty of power at 1800 ft. I have 16x13 now but will be moving to 16x15 next week. The 16x13 is great, but RPM is a touch high and cruise speed is low. 3800 RPM surfing, 24 Mph cruise is 4000 RPM

 

My ballast config, 300 lead in the nose, 200 under each corner PNP bag, and 150 under rear corner seats, so total 1000 pounds. Center full, rear PNP full, transom full, and RAM fill 100/90

 

CATS - Until today I was not using enough of this. In pictures below CATs is 32/-32

 

Quick Surf- until today I was using too much QS. In pics below 45/55 wrong/right.

 

Stinger - 40-55 depending on mellowness desired, too much here washes out the lip

 

Speed 10.9 to 11.5 seems to be sweet spots,

 

Again this is just my findings so far, please share what works, I am a convert so don't know much.

 

This was today, I was the only person on board, so most pics are from drivers seat

 

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[wheels 151]

That second reg wave looks great. That a lot of cats setting. What are you finding changing the cats is changing on the wave?

[carguy79ta 67]

if you work the CATS back and forth you should be able to shorten or lengthen the wave. (pure speculation since mine won't be here till end of june..) but it worked that way when I tested the RI237. I adjusted it and watched it change in the rearview mirror. pretty cool.

[Darkside 248]

Cats also seams to add steepness

 

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[Bongo Fury 640]

Did I read that right...1000 lbs of lead on top of ballast? Wave looks great!

[Smithjd11 0]

Will it produce a decent wave with just factory ballast with no transom bag and some bow weight to keep the nose down? And how is the tower,sturdy any shakes or rattles in some chop or going over your waves Thanks.

[Darkside 248]

Bingo yes 1000 in lead, but I run very small crew, 6 is a large outing for me.

Smith, there is nothing on this boat that shakes/rattles, it is built like a tank.

 

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[BoardCo 110]

Smith - the boat dishes out a solid surf wave with no transom bag that is better than pretty much anything other than a Ri but adding the transom bag does help, especially if you are running with a small crew. You wouldn't want to add bow weight, especially if you don't run the transom bag unless you like a mellow skim style wave. That said, if you aren't running transom weight you shouldn't need to worry about the bow sitting too high. The only time I've see the bow high is when people are running additional weight above factory all located toward the back end. I recommend getting the transom bag in the boat and just leaving it empty if you don't want to run it.

 

Also, as far as props go, we had amazing luck on the 257 with the acme 16x15. The 16x13 delivers incredible low end but does leave top end lacking, especially at lower elevations. The 16x15 worked excellent even up at 6000 feet and dropped the surfing RPM by 300 compared to the 16x13. At 6000 feet with a couple people in the boat the 16x15 topped out at 37.5 mph and it topped out at 35 MPH with ramfill 100% full with the H6 engine. Low end power was no issue at all but if you want to run 1000 extra lbs. of lead, a full crew and are at high elevation the 16x13 is probably your best bet.

If you haven't been in one I STRONGLY recommend it - just prepare to have your brain melted.

 

Hope that helps.

[Darkside 248]

Smith, this is straight out of the box. No extra weight, only 4 guys on board, and 3 of the guys are sub 160 lbs. No bow weight.

 

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[Smithjd11 0]

WOW that is impressive for sure, beats the hell out of my Supra SA with custom Enzo sacs that i sold a while back,that would work just fine for me and my family I need to get a demo Thank you and BoardCo for your info This a great forum with people willing to help each other out Thanks again.

[carguy79ta 67]

Boardco sounds like the 16x15 is the prop to use for no elevation fully ballasted with some lead? another thread here was talking about a 17x14. is that something we should consider? I have time to change my order since it won't get built till June 1

[Darkside 248]

Carguy, I have been talking with the factory as well. I am going to try a 16x15, later this week. I currently have the 16x13. There are other potential issues with running improper prop. I will report back differences between prop on same boat

 

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[carguy79ta 67]

thanks Darkside for your R&D. hasn't been all work tho, right?

[Darkside 248]

It is definitely fun, not work. One other side note from last Fridays, testing. The Roswell amps are set to just above minimum on thier gains. If you remove the "warranty void if removed" stickers, and adjust your amps, the stereo gets MUCH better. I am very happy with it now. This system rocks for a factory system! Well done Centurion/Roswell!

 

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[cripper 8]

Darkside-did factory communicate specifics on possibly running 17" prop? Unless I was just getting run around from acme they did state they had been in talks with factory and felt that my 17" maybe prop next year? I'm just wondering if possibly I may be causing harm to boat? Boat seems to handle awesome with? I'm going to send me old one off to get fixed and then try a detailed comparison.

On another note-have you adjusted fill and drain times yet on ballast/ram fill? It took me a few outings to realize they were not draining fully with self programmed "home" preset (mine had no home preset from factory)..was having to put in trailer mode when I got on lift . I have not changed settings but have been hitting manual override drain for second time and that seems to work.

How about first oil change....who has done theirs? I did mine the other day and grilled with Royal Purple...15w40......find it a bit odd they are recommending a diesel oil but it makes sense....we run rotella in higher mileage trucks all the time to help with slight knocks and it does wonders but I wouldn't think this early in hours but that is what owners manual called for!

[Darkside 248]

Cripper, we did not talk about all 17" props, I was directed do not use 17x17 as it would take RPM too low. The engine is programmed for a certain level of RPM to get catalytic converters, etc to work properly. So lower RPM is not always better. This was a learning moment for me!

I have adjusted my fill and drain times, except RAM fill, I did not think I could do those.

I just did my 25 hour last week. The dealer used 25w40 synthwtic... PCM says 5w30 or 15w40 based on ambient temperatures.

 

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[BoardCo 110]

We haven't tested the 17x14 prop on the boat yet, but it is probably too large to run at elevation. the 17" prop shouldn't harm any of the boats but definitely won't harm the 257 (it has 6 engine mounts instead of 4). We did test a 16.5" prop and saw no noticeable increase in performance, only a slight increase in prop noise. It would be really hard for a prop to outperform the 16x15 at elevation so we basically stopped searching once we tested it. It was far and away the best performance we have ever seen out of a boat across the board.

 

At low elevation the 16x15 will definitely work if you are running extra lead, etc. I think the 17x14 might be great if you are lower than 3000 feet as well. As Darkside said you don't want RPM to be too low or you will end up with a few issues, surprisingly one of which can be increased fuel consumption (its weird but has to do with the computer programming). The 17x17 could work at sea level but I'm just not familiar enough with the exact impact that elevation has on prop specs - you need to go up in pitch and/or diameter but I'm just not sure exactly how much. If you are running the XR7 the prop specs will not change as drastically either because of the impact the supercharger has on elevation. If I was at sea level I would probably start with the 17x14, or a 16x17 and go from there. If you tell Acme the 16x15 is ideal at 6000 feet and just want to adjust from there that will give you a good baseline.

[Darkside 248]

Boardco, thou guys are great! Thank you for sharing. There are several of us converting from the Darkside to Centurion, as a result we are ignorant on how some things work. Your input is very valuable, and appreciated.

 

 

 

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[CO Surfer 289]

You can also call PCM and they will email you a copy of the engine owner's manual.

[cripper 8]

here are just a few notes and fixes I did last night. First, guys with 257 pay attention to seat bottom that butts up to trash can compartment...screws in glass under the flip up back rubbed a hole in my vinyl! Fixed the no drain in cooler storage for 3.99! Just drilled out the fill job factory did with a 7/8" bit and installed plastic drain. They had stainless but installation hole appeared too big so I went cheap route. I shined a light in the hole I drilled and didn't see anything behind so if your careful I cant see why it would cause a problem to have the drain there. Finally, I sealed the hole in sub enclosure. All really simple things but thought I would share.