1988 vintage Cat 3208's

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How hard to run 'em? Ski I welcome your input as well.

I've got twin 3208 NAs 1983 vintage 4000 hrs. Californian 42 LRC. I haven't had the boat very long for many hrs so still learning the engines.

I've heard I need to run 'em hard to make 'em happy. I've heard that about so many engines and it isn't necessarily true so I'm taking that with a grain of salt.

I prefer 1400 RPM. The boat is smooth, quiet and just slips through the water. 1600 is OK but noisier and starting to make too much wake. Still decent fuel efficiency. 1800 and she's getting noisy and starting to dig a hole, fuel efficiency is starting to suffer. 2200 where the PO said he ran them it's quite a racket and she's digging a pretty deep hole.

I know they are over propped. I don't know by how much.

So, last outings I've stayed in the 1600 - 1800 range and for the last 30 minutes of the day run 'em up to 2000 with a 5 - 10 min lower RPM cool down entering the marina and getting tied up. Since I've been doing that they smoke less on startup.

Think these engines will run forever at 1500 and is incredible for fuel flow, sounds like one of your interests. The difference between 1500 and 1700 is significant and 1800 even more so. Especially if you are not seeing a corresponding increase in speed (due to hitting hull speed), stay in your "smooth range" and enjoy the ride.
 
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