I was thinking about the cone recently, I don't have one but was considering it. As I understand it, by adding more rings it increases the back pressure a bit, increasing the velocity of the expelled water at a given RPM, but taking a bit more torque from the motor to achieve that RPM, and probably a bit less total water flows through. Does that sound right?
So, for the "cavitation" often discussed (I put it in quotes because I'm not certain it is true cavitation as I understand it), by adding the cone I suppose it inherently reduces the negative pressure before the impeller, since the net flow of water is less. Does that sound right? I've seen the posts where RTV is spread inside the inlet tunnel, which I'm imagining helps keep smoother flow and also reduce the negative pressure a touch, but is it possible that air is sneaking in those joints from inside the boat? If so, maybe RTV outside the tunnel (inside the boat) would be helpful?
Just some thoughts...onto a question:
At idle speeds, I'm imagining that having more rings on the cone would possibly give an increased speed at a given rpm or less rpm for a given speed. Often I like to just put it at 2k rpm and cruise around in no-wake mode and chat. A step lower at 1.8k is pretty quiet, I wonder if adding the cone with lots of rings would allow 1.8k to push a bit more speed? The downside being top end speed I would guess.
Any thoughts? Thanks!!!