I put one on my Bravo, generally they are held on with epoxy. What I read was that they help the flow around the skeg once you get to about 90 mph or so. I did a bunch of changes at once so I couldn't say if the nose cone itself helped.
Craig
What benefits does a nosecone offer?
I was kicking around a couple of idea's and found a drive for a decent price, but it has a nosecone...The seller says it was applied with epoxy and can be removed, will it effect the looks of the drive?
I put one on my Bravo, generally they are held on with epoxy. What I read was that they help the flow around the skeg once you get to about 90 mph or so. I did a bunch of changes at once so I couldn't say if the nose cone itself helped.
Craig
The nosecone makes the drive more hydrodynamic in the water. Thats about it. As Craig stated, it does help flow the water around the skeg. On my boat I originally ran the boat with the standard B-Max lower unit with no nose cone and when I put on the nose cone, I picked up 6 mph. It also seems that it comes out of the hole easier.
If you are thinking of buying a drive with a nose cone, do not pull it off. You could do it because it is just held on with epoxy, but you will need to grind it down and re-paint the drive. If anything, it will be a benefit to have.
The nosecone makes the drive more hydrodynamic in the water. Thats about it.
True, and it also helps get more water over the prop helping to lower the slip factor. The standard nose cone pushing though the water causes a build up (of sort) of water in front of the nose of the drive, thus creating a bigger area for the rest of the water to evade. This pushes the water out further on the edges of the blades of the prop creating more slip.
A nose cone is a great idea for more speed, but be careful, a nose cone is not always benificail! If your "angle of attack" on your drive is aggresive as it is then adding a nose cone could cause your boat to slow down when trimmed out. They dont work on every boat!
I have yet to run a v-bottom over 80 mph, where a epoxy nosecone helped. In most cases(v-bottoms only) it will have a bunch of tail lift and make the boat get loose above 80+. They seem to work well on cats and add a bit of sensitivity to the steering. I would definately try it before I took it off, it takes a buch of work to take it off and make it look new again, so beware. With boats, everything is worth a try.