The bolt on kits help the ride in rough water, and keep the hull flatter on takeoff, but for a performance effort deal, forget about them. As old as your ride is the epoxy that holds the intake into the hull is sepapating from the hull by now. The epoxy is much harder than the hull and doesn't flex as much, so it separates eventually. The thru bolts are there for safety, so the intake doesn't fall out when the epoxy bond breaks. If it leaks around the intake, it will need to be reset. Does it leak? Put the drain plug in and fill the boat with about 4" of water (lean the boat back and put a brick or two under the rear of the trailer), see if it drips around the intake. If so, just pull the intake and Tom or us can machine it for the proper setup. If you want to go real fast, now would be a good time to set the pump back, and Tom (farther away, but cuter if you care, or us, closer but not as cute- but my wife likes me) and countless others can do the work correctly. Ya might want to do some comparison shopping on price, because that will be all over the map! Shops sell time, the equipment some use will do the same job in half the time or less, than others can. We can do any or all of it, heck most of us shops can. Call around, get prices, and ideas, go with whom you are most comfortable with. Some shops will take in the job and farm out some or all of the machinework and mark it up, others don't have to. TIMINATOR
