my “new” 1994 Caracal — help — any advice ?

This topic has 9 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 14 years ago by sabreski.

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June 1, 2012 at 1:03 am #329417

stealthycat
Participant

I bought this 2 days ago. Its a 1994 Caracal that originally had a 115 motor on it. It was replaced with a 1995 150 Mercury (from a place in Bull Shoals) and says Brunswick 150th anniversary … its an EFI 2.5 Mercury motor and all cyclinders tested 122-125 compression.Ive owned a Phelix, a Margay, a Margay II, a Pantera, a Pantera II ….. Ive never driven a boat like this before though. It has a Tempest 25 Pitch 3 blade prop. When it comes out of the hole, its a bit bow high ….. and when you come up and hit plane, you just dont have a lot of trim available to you or the front comes up and gets to chining.Its a beautiful condition boat, I probably hit mid 50s with it … maybe upper 50s as we ran it on Dardanelle but again, I had to keep the trim low to feel comfortable with it. I wasnt throwing any roostertail really. The TAC didnt work nor did the trim gauges so I couldnt tell just how high RPMs I was running. The motor purred along, a bit rough at idle but the plugs were pretty dirty when we were compression checking.So …. can yall tell by looking at it if its set too high ?Comments, reccomendations? Ive read these boats are rockets but can chine if youre not careful. How to minimize that?

June 1, 2012 at 4:11 am #329435

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

It all depends on steering torque for height. The rest will come to you and search the top of the main forum page for help topics. Not much info on the Caracal setups today, though there are a few still out there.

June 1, 2012 at 12:46 pm #329445

Joey
Participant

Nice boat. What a hot rod! My dad had one and that sucker would run! The one thing I do remember is working the wheel a lot more on this one than any other boat he had. That bracket needs to be looked at before you go anywhere! If thats not a hole, got me fooled.Last edited by Joey on June 1st, 2012, 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

June 1, 2012 at 12:59 pm #329461

sabreski
Participant

Stealthy, Great looking rig! always liked the Caracal. I think that boat was rear end heavy (fuel, batteries, oil, & seating pretty far back), but also the reason for great top end-because of the weight back. Couple things, hard to tell but last pic, whats going on with motor mounting bracket? appears to have a hole? Hard to tell but looking at pics it looks high on the plate-you should try 3 1/2″ below pad, get a new tach. I heard those are a “drivers boat” have to figure how to correct chine because its going too. You might want to invest in hydraulic steering as it helps with the steering corrections your going to need. I would suspect 71mph when your done. Good Luck! John

June 1, 2012 at 1:54 pm #329480

pops77s
Participant

Nice boat!!! That would be a lot of fun to own.BrianBrianHAWG Hunter2013 BassCat Eyra2013 Mercury 250 Pro XS Gen2 L/U

June 1, 2012 at 2:43 pm #329498

ischnell
Participant

Had one for 15 years it was most definitly a chine walking mother until you learned to drive it! Low 70s pretty common. engine doesnt look too far off but hard to see in the pic. I would stick with a properly adjusted dual cable steering as the feedback is better than with hydrualic. Than boat loved trim and was very speed sensitive to the trim. It had an amazingly good rough water ride as long as you keeped the nose down.There does look like something strange in the engine bracket, please be carefull. Prop pictch about right mine ran a 26 predator 4 blade to 6100. You will have to learn more chine walk skills for this hulls maximum potential. The boat is a sports car and feels very light when up and running free. Mine was about 2 1/2″ below the pad with a Rude 150 GT.I still miss that boat for fun.Irv

June 1, 2012 at 3:09 pm #329512

kent7351
Participant

Cool boat. Have fun tuning.

June 1, 2012 at 3:13 pm #329532

stealthycat
Participant

There does look like something strange in the engine bracket expand on that please …. Im not an expert at setting up motors, whats strange about the way this motor/bracket is ?

June 1, 2012 at 3:24 pm #329549

stealthycat
Participant

here is a picture from anotehr board members Caracal …. before he” I finally quit raising the motor and lowered it 1″below where it was when i got it so it like 5″ below pad now. That dude will SCREAM “

June 1, 2012 at 9:32 pm #329571

sabreski
Participant

Just above the mounting holes it looks your bracket has a hole or rusted out reddish around it in your last picture
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