[Jasman1994]

Hello all! My name is Jason and I am a first time boat owner of a 1995 Mariah 180 Talari with the 4.3 lx with Alpha One outdrive. I live in Columbus, Ga and our boat will be used hauling the family around the lake and pulling the kids on tubes and skis.
The boat is in nice shape for a boat of its age. I will be doing some update type things in the near future. For whatever reason it came with a 3 blade 23* Laser 2 prop which I wasn’t particularly thrilled with. And after doing some reading here, it’s a pretty terrible match for this boat. It also had the Mickey Mouse ears which I took off. I currently have a Solaris HD Titan 4 blade 20* prop coming along with a set of the smart tab sx’s. Figured those were good starts. A fresh oil change and plugs and wires will follow likely this weekend too. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. As I have lots of questions.

[mikeyt]

The 4 blade 20" and the Smart tabs will make a huge improvement on your boats planing ability.

[Jasman1994]

If I wanted to do some updated gauges, what would you recommend? And are new senders required? Thanks
Mine has original gauges. And I’m not sure how accurate they are now. Speedo doesn’t work nor does the trim gauge. And I feel like the tach is off.

[mikeyt]

The tach is generally an easy fix. Just give the little dial on the back a spin a few times and then re-set it at "6 cyl". The speedo likely doesn't work because the intake hole on the front of the lower outdrive is blocked. The trim gauge not working is a common problem on most boats with mercruiser outdrives. The problem isn't with the gauge, its with the sender units mounted on the outdrive and replacing them means removing the outdrive to feed the cables thru the transom.