im having trouble keeping it in the water at full speed. ive tried bending the tip up but it didnt help a whole lot, but my question is......is there anything wrong with just cutting the plate off completly or would it even be worth my time? if anyone has done this i would love to hear some tips

I had the same problem. I solved it by bending the leading edge of the plate down. I don't know what would happen if you cut the plate off. I think if it is set right it will help hold prop at the correct depth.

short transom..bend cav plate up or straight
tall transom...bend cav plate down
you have to keep tweeking until you find the sweet spot where the motor wants to run. You should be able to run the motor with almost no effort.

yep, luckily mine was set up reeal nice when i bought it. never had a problem. it is bent up tho

alright i bent the tip up a lil more, n im gonna go run it some tom so hopefully it will help. im a lil skeptical about cutting it off completly cause i don't want to warp the shaft from it getting so hot

Prop wear will cause it to pop out like that. Measure your prop and see how bad it is to a new one.