Prop for 89 SN2001: wakeboard, slalom, surf

Would love some advice from the experts here. 89 ski nautique, PCM 351 with 475 hours, power plus 1.23:1 transmission. We will primarily use the boat for wakeboarding, some slalom, and I'd like to try to get it to surf for my wife. Wakeboarding primarily with little to moderate weight, might add around 1k lbs in ballast at some point for wake and surf but nothing crazy, we get plenty of time on friends wake boats for all that. Hard to get current data on revs/speed because it currently has a federal supercup that's stamped "14RH17", which I'm assuming means 14x17?! The 17 pitch part would make sense, it darn near throws a wake at 600-700rpm idle in gear. Would love to slow that down a little bit, and pick up some holeshot and holding power. Don't care too much about losing top end, and slalom speeds will be pretty tame, but also don't need to be overrevving at all speeds. I've read every prop post I can find on this site and others, and I think I've narrowed it down to the ACME 654 (12.5x15) or the 1868 (12.5x14.25) but willing to be convinced otherwise. It sounds like the 470 might be a good choice too in a 3-blade, but the additional holeshot and smoothness of the 4-blades is appealing. I've been leaning 1868 just because if I ever want to add some ballast I don't want to be wishing I had less pitch, but also don't want to have to worry too much about redlining and overrevving all the time either, and needlessly raising RPM and fuel consumption. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks Johnny! That jives with what I've been thinking. Would you consider 800-1000 lbs to be on the heavier side for ballast, to the point where the 12.5x15 654 would feel like too much pitch?

You may want to message Trbenj or maybe he will chime in.  He had a thread started here a while back about ordering props.  

Jonny Quest wrote:   Your 1989 may have either the PCM 270 HP engine or the 240 HP.

Hmm, when I purchased my 1989 2double01 ski, the owner said it was 270hp and the registration said 270hp, I figured it was a mistake and that it was really 240hp.

240hp was the only spec 351w available until ‘92 when the pro boss debuted. The Chevy option box wasn’t checked very often in the 80’s but the 350 was rated 260-270hp depending on which literature you read.

I don’t care for the 1868 on a lightweight 1.23 boat, but I’ve always got overall performance in mind. I also like the 3’s more than 4’s, as a lightly loaded boat won’t see the advantage the 4 can provide. 654 might be the compromise here, though it’s not one of my favorites. The 470 is a great prop.

Literature, did somebody say literature?

Thanks KENO, that's the same PCM engine section I was reading in my paper copy of the manual 😉 And thanks for the prop advice, you and TRBenj have me thinking 470 now, would definitely prefer the all-around performance if I can get away with it over the lower pitch. Anything will be better than what's on there now anyways.

Always thankful for other folks to have spent the money and done the hard work, so definitely appreciate TRBs perspective. But also thankful for perspectives like "an occasional 1000 lbs is not heavily loaded". That's the kind of thing I've had a hard time figuring out from the dozens of threads I've read through.

Had also considered the 1442 for sure, but based on what I'd read I had thought maybe the 12.5" props (470/654/1868) might work a little better in my case, being a little more wakeboard-focused with a little bit of extra weight.

Doesn't sound like there's really a bad choice between these. We've had the boat out twice since putting the 470 on. WOT on the GPS it hit 46 MPH, but I think maybe my tach is a little off as it was only reading about 4400 RPM at that speed. I expected it to turn a few more revs, but definitely not disappointed in the overall performance so far. It really does jump out of the water. This was with two adults and almost no gear in the boat.