No question. When I repowered, long before gathering the wisdom of the three previous gentlemen, I hung a DF140 and a hydraulic jack plate on the back of my 18. I thought I could tune the height and gain some of the benefit of the offset. I fought to keep it from porpoising and finally listened to my mechanic and ripped the 35 or 40 pounds off. It immediately ran better and that was with a wet transom. After a two year rebuild, I have high expectations for vast improvement. If I were you I would spend the effort on upgrading the splash well for safety and hang something light on the transom. Do the CG calculation mentioned above for sure. Good luck. Look forward to watching your build.
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