Not the biggest drinker here. It's good, I've drank worse, so I know that.

But I feel it can be better, I don't know.

I have yet to make a Bloody Marry, a friend bartender gave me a good recipe by his words, so that's that.

But...it's good.

How are you drinking it right now? Straight, room temp, and with ice? Glad you like it tho

Straight, room temp and with the salad you saw above. No ice.

Bought tomato juice for the BMerry, so that was another combo I had (awesome).

It hits pretty hard if I take a shot, but as mentioned I am not the biggest drinker.

Megan Fox drinks Stoli.

Eating ice cream before bed... with a fork.

Not vodka related, I just have to do the dishes(no clean little spoons).

Eating ice cream before bed... with a fork.

Not vodka related, I just have to do the dishes(no clean little spoons).

Been there, lol

new antibacterial stainless alloy...neat

its not nice to taunt people, Zojirushi...

Double post, but whoops. Boat test left us to being towed 2x. Interested in anyone's thoughts on the problem at hand.

Boat did have leakdown/comp test and both are well within spec.

Wet test:

First go right from the launch after dropping the throttle it bogged a bit after accelerating for a second and then leaped to life. This happened on a certain percentage of getting on plane. When not acting funny it would pull to 5500 (rev at 5300) and sit and bounce off the limiter. This was at about 40-42mph which considering this has the upgraded Acme prop tells me that when its working the engine is fine and has compression.

After running it hard, WOT across a 1mi stretch a few times it started to stutter like it was at the rev limiter but instead of bouncing off it and back up it just went down. Sounded sort of like a 2 stroke that all of sudden is on one cylinder. Really not happy. This progressively got worse the longer we ran it and would start at lower RPM’s. Within ten minutes it would not go into gear without dying and idled like utter shit, again sounding like it was firing only a few cylinders perhaps with some backfiring. At that point we figured perhaps that it was out of gas. The gauge read 1/8 tank, but who knows if the gauges work super well on an 04. We had another boat tow us in for gas and while it started hard and sounded like a boat that was run out of gas (died again, idled rough for 30 seconds) it then was back to normal and we proceeded to repeat the whole procedure and it acted pretty much the same. Actually it ran normal for me the whole time except stuttering a few times when getting on to plane (which I repeated 30x), but the instant I jumped off the boat to back down the trailer it died on the salesman and a jet ski towed him the 50’ onto the trailer.

Engine is 8 port EFI, GM 5.7L, has knock sensors and other electrical “helpers”. It pulled no codes when we got back to the dealership, we put the boat in the wet tank and ran it for 15 minutes and it ran fine. We could not however run it near WOT as the prop moved so much water in the tank it would blow out.

That being said IMO it has to be either heat related since we needed to run it hard or fuel related. My real guess being the latter. It really did act like a boat running out of gas pressure and missing a bit. That being said perhaps under heavy WOT the fuel pump is pumping so much that it pulls in water from the tank if its contaminated. Not sure why it wouldn’t do this when it is cold though as water should always sink. There was no water separator on the boat just a filter. I am ruling out the filter because it was intermiddent.

Now what I am not ruling out is the fuel pump. This acted a lot like when my truck supposedly had a bad fuel pump. Real intermiddent and worse with heat. Of course in my truck it ended up being a bad wire connection to the water temperature gauge. My memory from the test drive says that the water temp gauge never got up to temp, but was so busy checking everything else out that I forgot to double check and didn’t think about it at the dealership either. Be rather funny if it had the same problem my truck did.

And Luke as for how I feel about the two, I much prefer driving the Malibu. Not fair though as it is a flat hull so it handles better. The other thing it has is a much easier to clean up wake for wakesurfing and generally it throws it in a more robust way. Needed extra ballast in the x-25 and this boat had none and didn't even put down the wedge (adds about 1200lbs of virtual ballast) and it still had a nicer surf wake. Wakeboard wake equivalent. Low speed handling WAY better. No pull to the left at high speed either.

Downside is fit and finish and potentially big wave handling. Didn't take the X-25 out on a lake where there was enough traffic to really feel that benefit, but I've driven enough boats to know it won't "slap" as easily as the BU. Throttle response was better on the BU too, but it is a bit unfair as this one has the bigger motor and an upgraded prop.

Interior space goes to the BU for my tastes as it is bigger in the back albeit smaller in the front. I like that trade-off others might not.

Both great boats and I could live with either, but used in my price range there are not MasterCrafts and there are Malibu's so even if this one doesn't work out it will be what I am buying.

5.7L, I'm assuming that's the Gen I small block and not an LS1? Every truck with a Gen I (including a couple of 4.3 V6's) we've had, our relatives have had, or friends have had, all needed fuel pumps within 125,000 miles. Again this automotive, not marine, so dunno.

The 4.3 being essentially the same engine, minus two cylinders

600 hours, average 3000rpm (or so, let's just call that 80mph for shits and giggles) = 48,000 miles

And yes 350, not LS

5.7L, I'm assuming that's the Gen I small block and not an LS1? Every truck with a Gen I (including a couple of 4.3 V6's) we've had, our relatives have had, or friends have had, all needed fuel pumps within 125,000 miles. Again this automotive, not marine, so dunno.

MY old '88 GMC went through two engines, a trans, and 228,000 miles before I had to put a fuel pump in it. I think it was the only original thing on the truck, and that sumummabitch waa a paint in the ass. Sending unit was pretty much corroded into the tank.

I've not seen any manufacturers using the LS engines in Marine yet.

Older version of this motor:

http://www.indmar.com/ProductLine/Indmar/5.7L-HO/index.html

ie, still wired throttle which in a boat is my preference. Cruise control on it is funny. The throttle cable goes through a servo for fine adustments, but that worked really well.

5.7L, I'm assuming that's the Gen I small block and not an LS1? Every truck with a Gen I (including a couple of 4.3 V6's) we've had, our relatives have had, or friends have had, all needed fuel pumps within 125,000 miles. Again this automotive, not marine, so dunno.

MY old '88 GMC went through two engines, a trans, and 228,000 miles before I had to put a fuel pump in it. I think it was the only original thing on the truck, and that sumummabitch waa a paint in the ass. Sending unit was pretty much corroded into the tank.

I've not seen any manufacturers using the LS engines in Marine yet.

A few have in particular inboards

http://www.indmar.com/ProductLine/Indmar/6.0L/index.html

And Luke as for how I feel about the two, I much prefer driving the Malibu. Not fair though as it is a flat hull so it handles better. The other thing it has is a much easier to clean up wake for wakesurfing and generally it throws it in a more robust way. Needed extra ballast in the x-25 and this boat had none and didn't even put down the wedge (adds about 1200lbs of virtual ballast) and it still had a nicer surf wake. Wakeboard wake equivalent. Low speed handling WAY better. No pull to the left at high speed either.

Downside is fit and finish and potentially big wave handling. Didn't take the X-25 out on a lake where there was enough traffic to really feel that benefit, but I've driven enough boats to know it won't "slap" as easily as the BU. Throttle response was better on the BU too, but it is a bit unfair as this one has the bigger motor and an upgraded prop.

Interior space goes to the BU for my tastes as it is bigger in the back albeit smaller in the front. I like that trade-off others might not.

Both great boats and I could live with either, but used in my price range there are not MasterCrafts and there are Malibu's so even if this one doesn't work out it will be what I am buying.

Sorry to hear about the rough test on the BU, but that's why you flew out there to test it so good thing you did. I've seen similar problems to what you're describing on a trade in and it turned out to be a fuel pump. I'm probably missing something here, but did you end up buying that boat or are you waiting to make a decision?

As for the differences I'm glad you like the BU seeing how you will be able to find one used for a better price. I know how the market is on MC's it's a little pucking ridiculous. I am surprised about the outcome though. I've never been in that model Malibu so I like hearing the difference. It's been awhile since I've been on a 25, but I'm surprised by the difference in wake. Impressive on the Malibu's part. We rarely fill up the fat sacks when we go out because it's a bit of a hassle for one day of riding and I'm generally happy with the wake so if that Malibu is throwing up an even nice wake without it that's damn impressive. I normally wakeboard over wakesurf though so my opinion the wake is going to be slightly different from that of someone wakesurfing. I've seen what you mean about the flat hull. If that's what suits the body of water you're going to be out on then it'll be a big advantage. You mentioned having a slip, the flat hull will be nice for that. It sounds like the BU is going to fit your needs pretty well so I hope it all works out and you manage to get set up and out there enjoying your boat before summer ends

Just watched The Boondock Saints. Anyone seen the second one? I've heard it's mediocre

fuel sloshing away from the pick up?

also, what lake did you go to?

Just watched The Boondock Saints. Anyone seen the second one? I've heard it's mediocre

Not as good as the first, but worthy of a rental

Just watched The Boondock Saints. Anyone seen the second one? I've heard it's mediocre

Not as good as the first, but worthy of a rental

X2 I liked it but not quite as much as the first, I think the Willem Dafoe/Julie Benz swap kinda killed it. She was ok but I missed Smecker.

Got the new truck today.

Pics to come tomorrow.

J

Got the new truck today.

Pics to come tomorrow.

J

I hope this one works out better for you J.

Ok I put the shoulder on last night at 10pm and the grate temp was 200F. Woke up and just checked it and now 209F and the pork temp is 148F. So I just may be doing this right.

I went out to check things and opened the lid and WOW does the shoulder looks and smells freaken good!

I smoked a 10 pound bag of wings with hot wing rub and they went quick. I was suprised how good they were!

hmm that's a unique Idea. I introduced the gf to hot wings and now she loves them. Best one she ever said she had were just some wings over a open camp fire doused in Louisiana hot sauce.

I can tell you this, smoked wings get eaten quickly around here. I took some to work and heated them up and people were looking around to see what that smell was. (When you cook over lump coal and wood your food gets this smell that makes your mouth water.) Some of the my coworkers tried them and loved them. Yesterday I found out they are going to buy a couple of bags of wings and pay me to smoke them for thier lunchens they have.