Okay, this confuses me so I may not be able to relate it in a non-confusing
manner.

Twin engine 5.7l alphas, starboard tach is new and a different model than
the port tach (which is OEM, 14 years old).

Here's the deal. When I have the engines synched up according to the synch
gauge the starboard tach shows about 200-250 rpm less. The starboard control
is also "behind" the port control, indicating less throttle.

If I balance the tachs, ignoring the synch gauge, I can't "hear" any better
or worse synch in the engines -- as you may recall I'm a new boater. However
the controls are more closely aligned.

But by sound or feel alone I can't tell if the synch gauge is out or the
tachs.

During acceleration or decelleration sometimes I get them way out of synch
and I've never noticed any vibration or anything that you guys have
mentioned about out of synch engines other than hearing an rpm difference. I
don't think I have enough experience to hear it down to a few hundred RPM
though.

This weekend I ran at WOT for a few minutes. I had the port throttle all the
way open but the starboard one still had some room to move - a fair amount
actually. I didn't move it all the way open because I was already reading
well out of synch and didn't want to booger anything up.

I believe I have some separate problems here so I'll lay out what I would
"like" to happen.

1) Quite simply, I would like my tachs to tell me what actual RPM my engines
are spinning. I learned from a previous post that there is a "time
reference" issue involved with tachs and perhaps some other voodoo but let
me say this about that, I just want to know *accurately* what the friggin'
RPM is. Am I asking too much here? Is it not possible to get an accurate RPM
reading?

2) If I can do #1, then I can easily figure out if my synch gauge is
boogered.

3) This is the separate part I think -- is it normal to still have some
travel left on one control while the other is wide open?

Thanks in advance for any insights you may be able to provide.