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Many people lately have been asking what the proper height to mount their particular motor is.
Well, the best way these days is to go by the mounting holes of the motor and which hole you have the bolt in.
http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...cle_id=106
We can tell you which hole it should be mounted in without measuring.

Old school technology told us to mount the motor 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches above the bottom of the keel as a starting point for proper engine mounting height. I found this to be difficult if not impossible with regular tools (see below).

So for a reference and to begin with, I wanted to measure the height of my Evinrude 70hp motor on my 1977 Montauk 17'.
Basically I found that I could not measure the level of the Anti-Cavitation plate for several reasons.
1. The keel was resting on a 12 inch keel roller so there was no way of putting a level or piece of wood etc. under the bottom of the boat.
2. Very difficult to launch the boat in the water and try to measure it that way unless you had a face mask and some measuring tools you didn't care to get wet. And you could hold your breath long enough.

How would you go about measuring?

I was able to use a level on the bottom of the hull by adjusting the trailer jack.
Now the bottom of the hull was level.
Then I put the level on the bottom of the anti-ventilation plate and tilted the motor so the plate was level.
The level on the plate hit the hull almost perfectly inline with the bottom making this motor basically even with the bottom of the hull and making it mounted too low.

At this point my motor is mounted in the top bolt hole which makes it mounted all the way down. Again, Too Low.
For most all motors except Mercury, there are only 4 bolt holes. So, this only gives us 3 other choices.

*All the way down = even with bottom of hull
1. 1 hole up = 3/4" above bottom of hull
2. 2 holes up = 1 1/2" above bottom of hull
3. 3 holes up = 2 1/4" above bottom of hull

Through many members here, we do know that the E-Tec mounted on the Classic 16/17 hull is best mounted all the way up.
So #3 above would be 2 1/4" above bottom of hull. Mounted 3 holes up for this motor.

Other motors and prop combination may be better mounted using 2 holes up at 1 1/2" above bottom of hull.

No need to measure anymore that I can see on these old Classic Whalers. There have been enough motors mounted on these boats that give us all the mounting position we need to know just by using the bolt holes.

Sometime in the near future I plan on raising my motor up using the 2 hole up mounting position but I need to drill new 'Green' holes in this diagram.
http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...icle_id=82

If anyone has any other info on mounting height using the bolt holes, please let us know what you have or find.
Please no guessing or eyeballing the height if you are going to try and measure.
I realize some of you may have laser measuring tools or water bubble measuring tools etc. Not all of us have those tools so let us know what you might be using.

For now the recommended mounting height looks like these below and No Need to measure anymore.
3 holes up = E-Tec
2 holes up = All other motors except Mercury

Maybe some of you with Mercury can tell us what hole your motor is mounted in for future reference.