Kyp2, I have the Volvo 8.1DP with 375HP on my 2004 268 Vista and it performs exceptionally well. IT get's up out of the hole and up on plane in seconds and stays on plane at 2,500RPM w/o the trim tabs. I do not have a fuel flow meter, but on the average I am using 10/gall per hour and my moving average speed per my GPS over the last 200 hours was 25 MPH, which I usually achieve at slightly over 2,500 RPM's. The 268Vista weighs approx 7,000lbs. I am not one to push the engine, but have achieved 42MPH (GPS speed) by myself on a calm day. I would imagine that the 255Sundowner with less weight and a lower profile will "Fly" with that engine.
There are only 2 things I will caution you about:
1) The exhaust on the 8.1 I/O is not entirely routed thru the prop hub like the smaller engines and also exhausts under the lower unit thru the exhaust bellow. If you look at the lower unit out of the water, raise the lower unit while you are looking at the bellows.(Note: there are 2 sets of bellows. One is the bellows that protects the gimbal bearing and shaft. That one obviously is sealed. The other one is the exhaust bellow) As you raise the lower unit you will notice that the exhaust bellows opens up to allow exhaust thru. The 1st time I saw this, I thought that a clamp came loose allowing the bellows to disconnect from the sleeve it sits in while in the down position. I called the dealer while I was looking at the thing and he explained to me that this is how it is designed to allow exhaust pressure to flow thru. Apparantly there is too much exhaust pressure in the 8.1 to completely flow thru the prop hub. This is not a big deal, but under certain conditions like plowing thru the water at not quite planing speed, it can be pretty noisy, and you start to smell the exhaust fumes. At that point I either slow it down to an idle or goose it to get on plane.
2) As you have probably heard, there has been a recall on certain GM block 8.1 marine engines for a fire hazard related to the fuel rail clip. The fix is relatively simple and should take the dealer approx 1/2 hour to fix. The serial #'s affected starts with 401213XXXX! My engine was not affected since the serial # of mine was earlier than these.
Best of Luck!
_________________ '04 FW 268Vista "Andiamo"
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