Guys I am new to all this brand new 27hp kohler long tail I'm gettin. 3500 rpm out of water 2800 in water.. it runs great, on gps 16mph on a 14/52 with one hunter and gear, I just read people getting 4500 rpms so I'm lost

Turn the governor up.

How do I do that

Download the owners and service manuals from kohler's website. Lots of detailed info in both of those.

I haven't messed with a kohler in a long time, but IIRC, there should be a screw with a spring on it somewhere in the linkage, turn it clockwise until you get your OOW rpm's up to the 44-4500 range. If you can't find the screw by just looking at it, look in the manuals.

Thanks a bunch very helpfull information

10-4 on what cb said. It is a cheap "mod" but will get you anywhere from 2-4 mph gain. I upped mine from stock setting to 4300 out of the water. I have a 27 Kohler MB LT on a 1648 grizzly- not ideal- but I get 20 mph by myself and 17.5 mph two hunters and plenty of gear. Make sure your prop is good, any undue wear and you won't realize any gain from tweaking the throttle. On the two GD props I've had a little wear and I actually picked up speed. But defilnitely get a spare prop ASAP. I went from the 9x7 suggested prop to a 9x6- I turn a few more rpms and speed is better- but a lot on these motors is trial and error and you will find how to distribute your weight best on your hull. Make sure you have the prop at proper planing depth- my MB has a "trim tab" atop the top trailing edge of the cavitation plate- by bending this up and down or the plate itself if there is no tab, 1/8" at a time, you can set it and forget it. If your motor has a lot of hours I would go with synthetic oil- I would also make the switch to synthetic grease in the shaft housing as well, costs a little more but definitely better. If your air filter has the foam pre-filter around it, take it off, the motor will breathe better. Depending on your marsh conditions, I would also recommend at some point, that you steelflex or gatorslide the hull bottom.

Welcome Tonyp,

I have a 27 kohler beavertail lt and these guys helped me a lot, either directly or indirectly by using the search function.

Like these guys said, proper set up, weight distribution, a little tweaking hear and there makes a difference. The closer to the surface (without blowing out), that you run the prop, the more efficient it will be and the higher rpms you'll have.

The only things that I've done to my motor were, adjust the governor, trimmed the motor up, replaced the factory airfilter w/ a k&n and replaced factory exhaust with a BPS Q muffler.

With a lt, we will never see the huge gains in mods that the surface drives do, but each little bit helps. When I first got my boat and ran it in deep water with just two people, I was getting 3450 rpm and with heavy hunting load/ blind and lardasses, I was only getting 3150. With the above changes, with same heavy load, I get 3350-3400. I'm not sure how much improvement each little thing gave, but overall it has helped. Another factor that changed is that it took longer to reach max rpms, now it gets there faster.

All of the advice on set up will help, but the real learning comes from stick time. Wear a life jacket and kill switch and get on the water.


Good luck.

I greatly appreciate the info guys, I do wear my vest and teather.. I haven't yet tried to adjust the governor I like this motor helps me get to some good places on my own land, we mostly have mud flats that are one to two foot deep and small slews with brush and stuff lt out in the water