To each his own, but OP expressed an interest in retaining some classic ski boat sound and did not want it completely silent. That's why I suggested mufflers.
You're right about that, and updated/improved mufflers might be the ticket. I suppose if I keep the boat long enough (it's been 10 years now, but you never know) I'll have to do floors, stringers, etc. and I could put in some better mufflers at that time. Right now, everything is under the floor, and under the fuel tank. And I'm fairly certain that the fuel tank was put in the boat before the cap was put on (a story for another time). So... it's a good idea that will have to wait.
Meanwhile, I'm considering this as a way to spend a little money on improving the boat: Airguide Speedometer GPS retrofit
At risk of hijacking my own thread, has anyone seen or used one of those? At $200 I'm not sure. At $100/each I'd probably do both speedometers, ha.
No I will highjack your thread. I bought the Airguide speedometer for my 2006 24ssv because the paddle wheel was broken. The GPS speedo works great, super easy to install and set up. My perfect pass works great with it and I am always right in sync withe GPS speedo I have on my phone.
Back to the thread at hand. I purchased a FAE and should have it within a week or so. I purchased it because surfing with 3000# of ballast makes that v8 rumble too much. When I am pulling a surfer I can't hear the person sitting behind me. When I first starting looking into the fae it was for CO purposes only but the sound reduction sealed the deal for me. Plus, I drive a v8 hemi with headers and flow master catbacks as a daily driver. I don't need a v8 rumble on the water too.
Thanks for the input, I'll be interested to hear how you like the FAE. And good to know on the speedo too - for the moment I've got one broken pitot so that's the issue on one side. The other one still reads... more or less ok. I actually ride more with a friend behind his boat than I do with mine. But I was kinda looking at the GPS speedo as a way to spend some birthday money.
Let me know how the FAE goes. My daily driver is pretty quiet, although not as quiet as some. I also have a 1961 Ford F100 with a 292 V8 but the exhaust isn't as loud as the tires on that truck, haha.
Woah, that sucks! Where do you keep your boat?! And... unless their boat is extremely similar, it's absolutely stupid because they won't be able to use it!
I'm lucky that my boat sits in the water all the time, so I'm confident no one is going underwater to steal parts off it. Although a friend found his prop on the bottom of the lake one day under his boat. Either a prank by some clever friends, or he somehow lost the nut and was lucky to back it off when he reversed into the dock while parking. Who knows....
I talked to a guy this weekend who took his off because if effected his surfing wake.
Anyone else notice this?