I/O upgrades?!?!?!

Sorry for the double post but realized i posted in the wrong forum so here it goes. I have a 1983 cobalt 20.5 foot i/o. I was wondering what uprades I could do to make it into a "wakeboat." Right now I have two 600 lb sacs where should I put them. I should have a monster tower on the way. What else should i do. The wake is pretty good though. A lot better than some Inboards out there but what can i do to make it better. I got this boat for $6000 and it has 550 hours. Is that a good deal? Thanks a lot.

anyone?

That seems like a lot of an I/O that old. But I know nothing about I/O. Thats decent weight, and the tower will be good. Get some racks and tower speakers and perfect pass.

Sounds like an ok price, depends on the condition of it.

Just sold my I/O. (For an inboard). What I was doing was putting my fat sac in the ski locker and another up towards the open bow area. From my research, I/O's like more weight in the front. I had a killer wake, but was limited to my length on the rope (55 feet).

Be careful not to add to much weight, my I/O was only a year or two old and after running that weight a few times (1000lbs or more), you could hear a change in the motor/stern drive thing.....

Another problem with too much weight was the amount of time it took to finally get going. 15 to 30 seconds sometimes, thats when I started to take some of the weight out.

Get a four blade prop too. If you get one with a different pitch (boat would be slower), but it'll handle more weight and get you out of the water quicker.....

Dave

(Heres a pic of the wake on my old I/O)

The boat was in immaculate condition. What horsepower engine did yours have? What boat was it?
Would it be worth it to get a tower or wait for an inboard (pretty long)?

270 HP, Chapparal 204 SSI

As for waiting for a tower, it's a big difference with a tower. You might be able to get some of your money back on the tower... Depends on if the buyer cares or not ( that was the problem I had getting rid of mine), certain people buy boats and have to have it, others could care less and don't count it in as apart of your asking price..

If you plan on keeping it for a few years, then I would get the tower and get your basics down on this boat, and then move to something else if you want to step it up. Like I said before, and it might be true on your boat too, but I was limited to 55 feet on the rope and I wanted to go out to 75' - 80' and still have a good wake, thus I had to step it up and get an inboard. But I learned alot on my I/O and had a blast...

Don't forget, you can get a tall pylon instead of a tower... and save some cash!!!

Dave